Martha O'Bryan Center

We like to think hunger is across the ocean, not just across the river. 

Hunger is in residence in almost every corner of our city but particularly concentrated in our “belt communities” like lower east Nashville, surrounding our downtown. My office looks out over the parking lot of the Martha O’Bryan Center Food Bank and every day I see people come with hope and wait patiently for peanut butter and macaroni and if they are lucky, milk. Many I recognize as clients or children of the Center. Many you would recognize – the woman who takes your parking ticket, the handyman who replaced your broken window pane, the young woman who cleans your mother’s hospital room. Add to those numbers, the architect who hasn’t had a project for months, the unemployed marketing manager who has been freelancing at a 60% pay cut, and those parents who have always strung together three jobs so their family could make it to the end of the month. Today, jobs two and three have disappeared. There is not enough to eat and hard choices are made between rent/mortgage, medicine, transportation and food.

Our federal government calls all these families food insecure. The new data from the national study, Hunger in America, which is the collective voice of 62,000 customers of Feeding America (formerly Second Harvest), only confirms what we know  -- when there is not enough work, there is not enough food. At Martha O’Bryan Center, we are the largest food distribution site in the Middle Tennessee Second Harvest system. In 2006, we distributed food boxes to 3,966 households, but last year, we served 5,365 households and are unfortunately on track to serve as many or more this year. A rising tide.

At Martha O’Bryan, we have always believed that work and education are our most powerful tools against poverty. We have over 100 people waiting to join our GED class so they can land a better job. Our longest line is not the food bank but for our Career and Employment Assistance program. No one wants to be in line at the Food Bank.  

Many would say that hunger will continue to rise until unemployment numbers come down. But what actions should we take while we are working on that priority? How can we cope with the rising numbers and silent suffering of our children and families?

I would suggest a shotgun approach. First, let’s better coordinate anti-poverty nonprofit organizations like Martha O’Bryan, the efforts of Second Harvest and government resources so that all are well informed and are actively reaching out to families who are eligible for food assistance. Second, as a community we need to identify barriers and improve access to food resources.  Third, let’s challenge churches, synagogues, and civic organizations to step up food and other support of their under or unemployed neighbors. For most of us, to share with those in need requires no sacrifice from our table or lifestyle. Fourth, we need to engage our representatives in conversation to increase government support for a stated period of time to better meet the rising need.  Organizations such as Martha O’Bryan Center and Second Harvest simply do not have resources to put more peanut butter on the shelves. 

Lastly, love thy neighbor. We are a generous people.  Now is the time.