Art Molay

 

The day in the life of a common businessperson consists of attending meetings, number crunching and ever-looming deadlines. For Sarah Owen, her day centers around hungry children, homeless families, disabled elderly and working relentlessly to solve the escalating problem of hunger in Southwestern Florida. Sarah’s day doesn’t end at 5 p.m., she continually seeks to help others, even after she has left the office. That is why Tyson Foods has named Sarah the next Tyson Hunger All-Star.

Sarah found her calling to serve while in Richmond, Virginia where she worked for a not-for-profit that lobbied and advocated for the rights of persons with mental disabilities. She realized her passion was in the world of community service. Sarah found great joy in helping others and working towards solutions that would benefit the needy. She is a self-proclaimed “hungerfighter” via her Twitter handle and the founder and co-author of “What’s Next? A Support Group for Single Mothers and their Children.”

Sarah is now the CEO of Community Cooperative Ministries, Inc. where every day she is addressing the needs of the hungry citizens in Florida and is unrelenting in her efforts to fight hunger. CCMI is the umbrella agency for The Soup Kitchen, Faith in Action Senior Transportation, two United Way Resource Houses, Meals on Wheels and Hands & Hearts Montessori Preschool. CCMI provides food to the homeless as well as emergency groceries and affordable childcare to the working poor. After expanding in 1996, CCMI now delivers meals to the homebound hungry and transportation services to the elderly.

Throughout the course of a week Sarah is helping feed the nearly 90,000 hungry citizens of Southwest Florida.

Sarah and CCMI’s Soup Kitchen provide a noon-time meal six days a week, meals five days a week to the homebound hungry regardless of their ability to pay through Meals on Wheels, two nutritious meals a day for the children in the CCMI childcare center, a food pantry and mobile food pantries that provide emergency groceries to families in need and a backpack program for local schoolchildren who would otherwise receive little to no food on weekends.

With the honor of being named a Tyson Hunger All-Star, Tyson Foods donated more than 15 tons of protein to the Harry Chapin Food Bank of Southwest Florida in honor of Sarah.

Because of Sarah and her work, schoolchildren can indulge in a healthy meal which gives them more energy for learning and growth, elderly aren’t dependent on their family members to bring them food every day and the homeless don’t go hungry.

 Do you know a Hunger All-Star in your community?  You can recognize them by nominating them here.  We'll put their story up on this site.  Each month we pick a Hunger All-Star of the Month to spotlight as we have Sarah, and donate a truckload of food to their Feeding America Food Bank.

 

                                                                                             Photo: wsilver, Creative Commons

By Ed Nicholson

I work with a phenomenal group here at Tyson.  Over the years, they've become incredibly passionate about hunger, and have taken "ownership" of promoting the company's engagement in the issue.  Sometimes we're so proud of our management of it, that we hold on to it a little too tightly.
Kind of like a kid squeezing a new puppy too tightly.  Sometimes you risk loving it to death.
We ocassionally have other groups in Tyson come to us with ideas of how we can do this hunger thing.  Sometimes our initial tendency is to say, "Who do they think they are?! We're the subject matter experts here! We've already thought of that. They should go back to doing what they do best and leave the hunger program to us!" 
But the fact is, if we're ever going to achieve our goal of having the the whole company engaged and involved, we have to give up some of our control.  We have to let others' ideas in, even if they initially don't seem like great ideas. 
Because if we don't give up some ownership, it will be all ours.  And the challenge of hunger is big enough that everyone can and should own a piece of it.

 

                                                                                                  photo Brian Hillegas--Creative Commons

By Ed Nicholson

As I’ve mentioned before, one of the objectives of this space is to increase awareness of the issue of hunger and the people who are making a difference in the battle against hunger.  I hope we’ve done some of that.   I’ve used the space to talk about some thought leaders, like Billy Shore and Jeffrey Sachs. 

We could do so much more, but I need your help. 

I’d like to know who’s really looking at the big picture when it comes to hunger; thinking about if and how the world can tackle this huge challenge.  Who do you think is looking closely at the issue, considering practical, achievable and inclusive solutions?  Someone in your organization?  Someone whose book you've read? 

Who’s inspired you?  Comment here.  Or if you’re one of those people who doesn’t like to leave comments, email me at    ed.nicholson at tyson.com   
 

If they can inspire you, perhaps they can inspire someone else.  Sooner or later, lots more people need to get inspired.

 

This weekend's harvest from my garden

By Ed Nicholson

I grew up on a farm and around vegetable gardens.  I’ve had a garden myself most of my adult life. This year, with the exception of a little Miracle Grow fertilizer on the tomatoes, I’ve gone mostly organic.  While the squash bugs and late blight are taking a toll on production, it’s still a good year.
And although I freeze and can quite a bit, even in a good year,  I couldn’t come close to feeding my family out of my garden. 
Which brings me to my point:  I think the trend toward locally-grown, organic, CSAs and community gardens is fantastic. I sincerely do. Like Guy Clark said, “What’d life be without homegrown tomatoes?”  If I ruled the world, much of the water and fertilizer that goes into making lush green carpets around our homes and in our communities would go into making food in the same space.
However (and granting I have a dog in the hunt), I think the trend toward extolling the virtues of locally-produced food using the tactic of demonizing modern agricultural practices is counterproductive and potentially dangerous. 
I was particularly impressed by Missouri farmer, Blake Hurst’s thoughtful and articulate response to the trend toward trashing modern farming in his piece,  The Omnivore’s Delusion.  You might consider reading it before you form an opinion after seeing Food Inc.
We have a billion hungry people in this world,  many of whom live in climates or locales for which local, organic and heirloom are literally impossible. How are we going to feed them without drought-resistant maize and soybeans, or frost-resistant wheat?  And if we can grow a chicken with six pounds of corn, rather than twelve, well…   As Dr. Jeffrey Sachs states in this video, if we don’t get the hungry fed, our world faces continued political instability.   And in a world with shakily-secured nuclear and chemical arsenals, those risks are as daunting as global warming and ocean eutrophication.
Local and organic,  and modern and efficient need not be mutually exclusive. We can live in a world that has locally-produced food for those of us with the ways and means, while feeding the rest of a hungry planet with modern agricultural techniques.  There’s a place for both.
And if you’re ever in northwest Arkansas in late July, come by and see me.  I always seem to have extra squash.

By the way, if you're a Twitter user, think about tuning in to  #agchat on Tuesday evenings, moderated by Michele Payn-Knoper.  It's a lively discussion of issues related to food and fiber production.