Hunger

Recently I had a great opportunity to attend a meeting of Maryland’s Partnership to End Childhood Hunger. Led by Governor Martin O’Malley’s Office for Children, the Partnership "table" brings together state agencies, USDA, local non-profit organizations such as food banks, advocacy groups, and the...

Some of the most passionate advocates for USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service are our partners across the country. I realized that when I sat down yesterday with our hunger fighting partners in rural Greeley, Colorado. The town sits in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains in Weld County, among some of...

Like millions of Americans, I will join family and friends this holiday season to share meals, conversation and to count our blessings. We’ll take a moment to thank the men and women in uniform serving our country overseas – and also those who produced the food on our tables. During this time of...

In mid October, 40 Borlaug Fellows from 21 countries as far away as Azerbaijan and Zambia were in Des Moines, Iowa, to attend the Borlaug International Symposium and World Food Prize ceremony. These Fellows are part of the Norman E. Borlaug Agricultural Science and Technology Fellows Program...

I didn’t know there was a museum devoted to southern food until our regional administrator, Bill Ludwig, was notified that he had been selected to receive their inaugural Humanitarian Award for Public Service. The Southern Food & Beverage Museum is appropriately located in New Orleans, where food is...

Last week, community leaders from all over the country visited Washington DC to join the White House for the first Hispanic Policy conference in our nation’s history. The goal was to get a dialogue going between administration officials and community leaders on an array of topics of particular...

In 2009, nearly 1 million children simply didn’t get enough to eat in the United States. It’s a startling statistic but one that we can change, and you can help. Today, USDA launched a series of new online tools and volunteer initiatives to increase the number of individuals, organizations, and...

A group of schoolchildren wait patiently in line to get their lunch. This ritual takes place in schools all over the world. But for the children in Mali, a country ranked 160 out of 169 of the poorest countries in the world, this may be their one nutritious meal for the day. With the number of...

The winds of winter may still be blowing in many parts of the country, but it is already time to start thinking about the summer. 20 million children receive free or reduced-price lunch during the school year through USDA’s National School Lunch Program. For many children, school meals are the only...

On Friday, August 27, 2010, I was in New Orleans to commemorate the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation to the Gulf Coast. The event was held at the Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana. It was a hot and humid morning as we began the assembly of emergency...