Tackling a Texas-Sized Problem: Visiting Our Partners in Dallas
Posted by Debbie Shore on Monday, March 7, 2011
As the saying goes, everything is bigger in Texas. Sadly, that includes the scale of childhood hunger. According to the USDA, Texas has the second highest food insecurity rate out of all the states. Last Wednesday, seven members of the Share Our Strength staff and twenty-eight leaders spent the day bearing witness to the realities of hunger in Texas and exploring together what it would take to end childhood in this state- an ambitious goal that Share Our Strength is tackling head on in partnership with the Texas Hunger Initiative. Our delegation included Dine Out for No Kid Hungry partners, the Taste of the Nation Dallas leaders, Chef Stephan Pyles, local Share Our Strength supporters, and a team from the Texas Hunger Initiative.
To put the hunger experience in Texas in perspective, consider the following:
- 1 in 4 children in the state of Texas face hunger.
- 1,661,402 children in Texas are living in poverty (that is 24.4% of Texas’ children)
Our group spent the morning learning from Jeremy Everett, Executive Director of the Texas Hunger Initiative and Celia Cole, Senior Analyst from the Center of Public Policy Priorities based in Austin, TX.
Around noon, our bus drove to Southeast Dallas to Pleasant Grove, a neighborhood that doesn’t at all reflect its name. This community is a place where lives are so fragile, it is almost impossible to imagine the door swinging in the direction of hope without leaders like The Wilkinson Center, our 3rd stop on the Hinges of Hope tour. The Wilkinson Center is a local Dallas organization who has received over $87,000.00 in funding from Share Our Strength in the last five years. We visited their food pantry first, which serves as a portal for thousands of families to a wider offering of social services. The Wilkinson Center wisely uses their food pantry to bring families in, meet with a case worker, and then connect the family to programs that help them get back on their feet, including their summer program for the children. The Wilkinson center team is hoping to fill not only their stomachs, but also their lives with opportunity!
If you looked at a Wilkinson Center brochure you would see the words: we transform the lives of Dallas families by providing pathways to self-sufficiency with dignity and respect. But you don’t need to read their brochure to discover that. Upon meeting their executive director, Brian Burton, you can’t help but notice the golden name tag on his lapel, much like the one you would see on a hotel concierge indicating to his clients that they are important, they are his guests and he is ready to serve. It was clear from spending the afternoon with the Wilkinson Center team that they are eager to serve their community.
At lunch with the Wilkinson Center team, we heard from Destiny Geter, a young mother who struggled to talk to the group about her daughter who benefits greatly from Wilkinson Center’s summer program, Mr. Mathis who was homeless but with the help of the Center, found a job, rents an apt. and is enrolled in their adult education classes, and Margaret Brown, who used to send her struggling neighbors to the Wilkinson Center for help, but after she lost her job she found the courage to go there herself for food and assistance. The determination, strength, and courage of these three heroes tangibly filled our lunch room. This was the highlight of the day for me, and I was again reminded of the profound impact that Share Our Strength and our partners have on the lives of those we serve.
It is courageous to go and ask for help when you are in need; it is courageous to lead and serve local organizations fighting hunger in your city- like CitySqaure, like Cooking Matters, like the Wilkinson Center; it is courageous for a company or an individual to invest in a cause; and it is courageous to stand up and declare that we must end childhood hunger in Texas and in our nation.
However, with 17.4 million children facing hunger in our country, this is a required courage we must possess until our goal is accomplished.
Share Our Strength will be launching the No Kid Hungry Campaign in Texas this fall with the Texas Hunger Initiative.
March 7, 2011 | 1 comment(s) | Tags: Hinges of Hope, hunger, state partnerships, statistics
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1 reader comment so far.
Thanks for this excellent work.
Posted by David Rubenstein on March 8, 2011
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