New Book: A Plan to End U.S. Hunger

One of PPI’s dear friends and well known anti-hunger warrior, Joel Berg, has released a timely new book in which he offers a blueprint to end domestic hunger. In All You Can Eat: How Hungry is America, Joel suggests how President-elect Obama and the new Congress can immediately offer relief to the millions of Americans who have been forced to join the lines at soup kitchens and food pantries in urban, rural and even suburban communities across the country.

Joel has an extensive background in hunger issues, working for the Clinton Administration in the Department of Agriculture and as executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger. And for those who know him, his passion for the issue is unparalleled. Therefore, it was no surprise to read this review:

With the biting wit of Supersize Me and the passion of a lifelong activist, Joel Berg has his eye on the growing number of people who are forced to wait in the nation’s modern breadlines. All You Can Eat reveals that hunger is a problem as American as apple pie and shows what it is like when your income is not enough to cover rising housing and living costs and put food on the table at the same time. Berg takes to task politicians who remain inactive; the media, which ignores hunger except during holidays and hurricanes; and the food industry, which makes fattening, artery-clogging fast food more accessible to the nation’s poor than healthy fare. He even chides organic food gurus such as Michael Pollan and Alice Waters for claiming that the recent increases in food costs are a positive development at the same time as low-income American are unable to afford enough healthy food.

If you are in the DC area, you should stop by Joel’s two book events on Monday:

DC Central Kitchen
10:00 am   425 2nd Street NW

Busboys and Poets
6:30 pm   1025 5th Street NW

Also, stay tuned for a “Memo to the Next President” that he co-authored with Tom Freedman on how the new Obama Administration can take steps to end domestic child hunger.