Remarks of Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman Yad Ezra Food Pantry Annual Dinner Farmington Hills, Mi -- November 4, 1998 Release No. 0456.98 Remarks of Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman Yad Ezra Food Pantry Annual Dinner Farmington Hills, Mi -- November 4, 1998 "Thank you, Gina, for that kind introduction. I also want to thank Adat Shalom for being our host tonight. To Jeff Appel and all the folks from Yad Ezra, thank you for inviting me. More importantly, thank you for the work you do every day on behalf of hungry families here in Michigan. "I also want to recognize tonight's honoree, Susie Citrin, for all the work she has done. And, I want to thank my sister-in-law and her husband, Diane and Emory Klein, for bringing Yad Ezra to my attention, and persuading me that there was something special here that I had to come see. "I'm a transplanted Kansan who now lives in Washington. But my wife Rhoda and I have deep roots here in Michigan. We actually met as undergraduates at the University of Michigan, so Michigan has a special place in our hearts, although I can't say that I miss the winters here. "But as someone who spent 18 years in Congress, and more than four years as Secretary of Agriculture, focusing a great deal of my time -- both on the job and in my personal life -- fighting hunger, I can't tell you how good it feels to come to a community, and see people joining together to perform the oldest community service known to man. "The Old Testament teaches us, 'When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap the corners of your field, and do not glean the fallen ears of your crop. Nor may you strip your vineyard bare, nor gather the overlooked grapes; you must leave them for the poor and the stranger.' "Whether it's getting excess food to families who need it more than a dumpster does or fighting to restore food-stamp benefits for our most vulnerable legal immigrants or working with world hunger organizations to ensure that people around the globe get enough food to eat, each of us has a role to play in fighting hunger . . . Each of us has a duty to the poor and to the stranger. "No one here needs a lecture about how in the most prosperous and agriculturally abundant nation on earth, there is simply no excuse for hunger. I just want to thank you for taking the war on hunger personally. I also want to share with you my firm belief that working together -- with a strong federal safety net and a committed grass roots -- we will end this war. I am under no illusions as to the magnitude of that task, but I refuse to let that be an excuse for giving up. "You know, feeding the hungry -- whether through gleaning crops, cooking for a neighbor or making a charitable donation -- is an essential part of who we are. That is why in communities across the country, we have seen organizations like Yad Ezra flourish. Also in the Jewish tradition, these organizations tend to be very persistent. "It reminds me of an old story about a strongman and a lemon. At a circus, a strongman stunned the crowed with his ability to lift hundreds of pounds high over his head. For an encore, he squeezed a lemon until there was not one drop of juice left. The ringmaster then offered a reward to anyone who could get one more drop out of that lemon. Several big, burly men gave it a try, but the lemon remained dry. Then a short, slightly built man picked up the lemon and squeezed it. Out poured not one drop, but a stream of juice. When he gave him the reward the startled ringmaster asked the man who was he and what did he do . . . Turned out his name was Goldstein and he was a fundraiser for the United Jewish Appeal. "I'm just about as bad when it comes to gleaning. I don't know if it's a good thing or not, but I've sort of come to be known in Washington as 'Mr. Glean.' I can't help but see all the untapped potential that's out there. I urge people to volunteer. I also nag the folks at the local grocery stores and the restaurants I go to. At a reception, I talk to the caterer. Visiting a business, I ask about their cafeteria. I finally got the hint that things might have gotten a bit out of hand when I opened up the Washington Post to a picture of me at a Congressional hearing on USDA's budget. The caption read: 'He'd rather be gleaning.' "But if there's an issue I'm comfortable being over the top on, this is it. Hunger threatens millions of American families. Unfortunately, the sheer scope of the challenge makes it all too easy for people to throw up their hands. The beauty of gleaning is that it gives everyone a direct way to be a part of the solution. If you can drive a car, if you can sort packages, if you can cook, if you can pick corn from a field, then you can lend a hand against hunger. "It doesn't matter if you're Republican or Democrat, Liberal or Conservative. Any way you cut the American people, I believe that we all yearn for a hands-on way to help fight hunger. "I remember talking to the President about food recovery. I mentioned how USDA donates excess food from our cafeteria. His eyes lit up. He wanted every federal agency involved, and not just in Washington. Today from D.C. headquarters to military bases across the country gleaning in government is more the rule than the exception. And, now that we have a Good Samaritan Act to protect good-faith donors, no one has an excuse to throw away wholesome, edible food. "Of course, it's right about now in this kind of a speech when folks start to wonder, 'why in the world am I listening to the Secretary of Agriculture -- Mr. Corn and Cows himself -- talk about hunger?' Well, USDA is the department of production agriculture. But we also are America's anti- hunger department. We run the food stamp program, the last remaining entitlement after welfare reform. We manage school meals which are healthier today thanks to this Administration's efforts. And, we run the Women, Infants and Children program which makes sure new mothers and their infants get proper nutrition and medical care. "Well-funded federal programs must always be the bedrock of America's anti-hunger effort. But I think everyone here in this room knows that government alone cannot end hunger. We need to encourage community-based efforts, and that's why all of you are so important, and that is why gleaning and food recovery, in particular, is so important. "Here in America, we let close to one third of our food supply go to waste. Americans throw out about 95 billion pounds of food every year. If we could recover just 5%, it would be enough to serve four million meals. Just to give you a comparison, Second Harvest, the largest nonprofit anti-hunger effort in the country, feeds 26 million people every year by collecting and distributing about one billion pounds of food. If America could recover just 5% of what we let go to waste, that would be four times what we currently are able to get to hungry families. "I believe that we will get closer and closer to that mark thanks to organizations like Yad Ezra. You started out just eight years ago -- passing food out the window of an office basement. Today, Yad Ezra helps 1,000 families every month put food on the table. And, the stories I have heard tell me so much about the ability of citizens to make a difference. It also tells me a lot about the character of this country. "I've been told about an elderly Russian immigrant couple who are so appreciative every time they must come here. Despite their difficulties, they are so happy to be in this country, and so appreciative of all the privileges that those of us who were born here too often take for granted. "I heard of another couple. The husband works hard for his family, yet he does not earn enough to feed his family. That tells me that no matter what the stock market says, no matter what the gross domestic product is, there is something wrong in this country when parents who work hard for a living cannot feed their children. But looking around this room tonight, I also know there is something very right about this country that so many people have taken up this fight. "The next time someone tells me it can't be done, that we will never defeat hunger, that we are chasing a fantasy, I will tell them: come visit Yad Ezra. "Community by community, we will achieve our goal, and this Administration is committed to helping local efforts along, by tapping into the ingenuity and commitment of the grass-roots. "At USDA we have Community Food Project grants that help local folks tackle hunger in their area. I recently announced $2.4 million for these community efforts in 1998. One of our grant recipients last year was the Detroit Agriculture Network. I just want to state for the record that they didn't get any favoritism due to the fact that their acronym is DAN. But using $180,000 in USDA funds as their springboard, they are helping people all over Detroit turn abandoned lots into thriving farms. School kids are learning to grow and market produce, doing everything from cultivating the land to accounting for cash receipts. DAN -- the other Dan, that is -- also sponsors the Gardening Angels -- senior citizens who farm for themselves and their neighbors in need in once forsaken urban lots. DAN also set up a cannery at the local 4H center, and sponsors farmers markets, so inner-city residents have access to fresh fruits and vegetables. "Our county USDA employees also are working with communities to help fight hunger. In Montcalm County here in Michigan, our folks are working with Michigan State's experimental farm to ensure that the food grown there gets to folks who need it. Right now, they are a gleaning potatoes. It may seem small on its own, but every little piece matters. "That said, I want all of you to know that this Administration is keeping an eye on the big picture and working hard to keep government out front. I can't tell you how proud I was to stand with President Clinton when he signed legislation to reinstate food stamp benefits for our most vulnerable legal immigrants -- children, senior citizens, people with disabilities. These benefits were stripped away with welfare reform, and this Administration fought hard to restore them. "We fought hard because this was an issue that cut to the core meaning of America. We are not a country that turns its back on people who honor our laws and contribute to our society. And, not a person in this country should lose sight of the fact that if each of us gazes back up our own family tree, at some point -- in my case with my grandparents who came over from Eastern Europe -- all of our ancestors came to this country seeking a better life. What happened? America opened its arms and made a promise: if you work hard and play by the rules, you can have a good life here. With the food stamp victory, we helped restore that promise. It was a victory not just for America's hungry, but for the moral fabric of our nation. "We also must recognize America's responsibility as a world leader. These are troubling times for the global economy. In recent months we have seen countries that were showing great promise building up a strong middle class, now plummeting back into poverty. From the food riots in Jakarta to our fears of what the winter will bring in Russia, our nation has a duty to help. Just today, the President announced that the United States will donate at least 3.1 million tons of food to help the Russian people get through the winter. The President also has committed the United States to donating 2.5 million tons of wheat to hungry people around the world, over and above our traditional aid commitments. "But giving food alone is not enough. We also must recognize that the #one cause of hunger -- here in America and around the world -- is poverty. So our work shoring up the global economy is important not just to the banks and our 401K plans, but the world's hungry and our hopes for lifting people around the globe out of poverty and achieving America's vision of a more peaceful, prosperous community of nations. "Sitting here in a synagogue in Michigan, you may be tempted to think of that goal as a bit out of your league. If so, I encourage you to think again. Whether we are talking about our world or our neighborhood, ending hunger comes down to each of us making a commitment to making a difference. In the words of Elie Wiesel, 'The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. 'The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life, is not death, it's indifference.' "I want to thank each and every one of you for being different, and standing up for one of the most enduring values of humankind. The simple truth is, our nation has plenty to offer all of its people. The real question is: What are we the people willing to offer in order to banish hunger? "Here we stand at the dawn of a new century in the world's most powerful nation. Our military, our economics, our leadership are unrivaled. What should we do with all this strength and abundance? I saw we show the world what true leadership means. I saw we destroy an enemy that has never known defeat. United, we can beat hunger and turn to the world and say, 'Yes, it can be done.' Thank you." ### NOTE: USDA news releases and media advisories are available on the Internet. Access the USDA Home Page on the World Wide Web at http://www.usda.gov.