Study: Hunger remains problem in area

A U.S. congressional district encompassing parts of Delaware County dropped from the second hungriest district in the nation to the fourth hungriest, a national hunger study published Friday concluded.

However, for those living in the 1st U.S. Congressional District, represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Robert Brady, the situation may seem the same as usual: Dire.

“It’s not because anybody got any better. It’s because a lot of other places got worse,” Philabundance Executive Director William Clark said. “We haven’t seen anything substantial that would help alleviate the problem of hunger.”

“Food Hardship in America — 2010,” published by the Food Research and Action Center, asked 352,840 respondents nationwide during 2010 the question “Have there been times in the past 12 months when you did not have enough money to buy food that you or your family needed?”

Clark said he doubted any real change took place in the last year that would have helped to alleviate the systemic problems of poverty and hunger.

In an e-mailed statement, Brady said while he was acutely aware of the severe hunger situation in his district, he has been acting with area agencies to help mitigate the effects of longstanding socioeconomic issues.

“The number of families who go to bed hungry in my district and across the nation is very distressing,” he said. “I remain committed to continuing to work with state, city and anti-hunger advocates to ensure that we aggressively combat the growing problem of systemic poverty and hunger.”

Though he said he has voted to protect programs that help families provide nutritious food, “I can fight for increased funding to alleviate hunger but ultimately the funding is allocated by city and state governments,” he said.

“We must all do better,” he added.

Yet Brady’s chief of staff, Stanley White, said the report’s finding may have skewed some aspects of the hunger problem related to congressional districts.

While Brady’s district was ranked fourth hungriest in the nation, U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah, D-2, of Philadelphia, whose district in some instances is just across Broad Street from Brady’s, was ranked 126th.

“Broad Street does not stop the problem of hunger,” White said. “We don’t agree that those hard hit communities are any hungrier than the similarly hard hit communities in the neighboring district.”

Clark agreed, stating Brady seemed to be getting “the raw end of the stick” through the political gerrymandering of congressional districts.

“Large parts of Delaware County are in trouble and the gerrymandering makes his district look much different than Chaka Fattah’s,” said Clark. “There is nothing particular of Bob Brady that says he’s being a poor (representative) of his district. That’s just the way it’s been carved up.”

Still, a large reason the first congressional district to ranked so poorly was related to an individual’s access to supermarkets and places where wholesome food is sold, Clark said.

Though Philabundance will be establishing a community food center in the city’s West End, Chester has been without a supermarket for a decade.

Clark said even when residents have some degree of income, if they can’t pick their food up at a grocery store near them, they either buy much more expensive food from tiny corner markets, or they call a taxi service to take them into other neighborhoods with supermarkets.

“White collar people don’t realize this. If you don’t have a car, if you don’t have a store within walking distance … just going back and forth to the store is going to cost them 20 bucks,” he said.

Salvation Army Chester Corps Capt. Jose Santiago said it is a sight he and his staff see first hand every day as they provide a food cupboard as well as several hot meals.

“We see the train of people that go through. Whether they work or they are homeless, it doesn’t matter. They cannot make it,” he said. “Many of the people that read the newspaper and that we see in our daily lives and are normal people are people we see getting assistance.”

According to the Food Research and Action Center, the hungriest congressional districts were that of U.S. Reps. Jose Serrano, D-16, of New York, G.K. Butterfield, D-1, of North Carolina, and Frederica Wilson, D-17, of Florida.

Published: Saturday, March 05, 2011, By Paul Luce, pluce@delcotimes.com