Hunger

When 88-year-old Miriam Boss fell face-first in her home late last year, she was rushed, frightened and alone, to the Aria Health hospital in Torresdale, near her condo. She told the doctors tending to her bruised forehead she had been feeling faint lately, and had fallen several times before, though the reason was a mystery to her. Not to the doctors. Like a growing number of senior citizens in America, Boss wasn't getting the proper amount of food, and weakness from hunger was causing the falls.

What has your experience been with hunger - as a recipient of aid, a volunteer for a nonprofit or a social services employee of the government? Based on that experience, what needs to be done about it, whether by communities, nonprofit or faith-based organizations, or government at the local, state or national level? Send essays of 200 to 300 words to Voices/Hunger, The Inquirer, Box 41705, Philadelphia, Pa. 19101. Send e-mail to inquirer.letters@phillynews.com or faxes to 215-854-4483.

Thieves join the crowd yelling, "Stop! Thief!" Arsonists return seeming to wish to help fight the fires they started. Presidents whose programs caused much worse hunger join the line fighting hunger in the United States saying, "Look, me too, I'm against hunger. " Charles Cohn Philadelphia.

THE PHOTOGRAPHS most of us will take this Thanksgiving will be of our happy - and full - families. Today we're publishing a different set of photos: images taken by mothers struggling to feed their families. The photo you see on this page and the images on Page 19 are of hungry children, and scenes from the lives of their families. They're part of a project called Witness to Hunger, the brainchild of Dr. Mariana Chilton, assistant professor of public health at the Drexel University.

Every day the media feature stories about our thriving economy, declining unemployment rates and the general consensus that life in our region and the nation is good. In sharp contrast to that picture is the one revealed by a study just released by Second Harvest, the national network of food banks. This study used statistics compiled by the Greater Philadelphia Food Bank to form a picture of the state of hunger in southeastern Pennsylvania. This study found that 30 percent of adults and 19 percent of their children who use food provided by the Food Bank miss meals each month.

The irony has troubled Americans for years: U.S. bins overflow with surplus grain while millions of people go hungry in other parts of the world. The seeming contradiction is particularly perplexing during a period that has seen a brutal African famine at the same time the American farm economy has crumbled because there is not enough demand for U.S. wheat and corn. Images of starving children in Africa contrast with those of American farmers dumping surplus grain on the ground.

Alan Meyers associate professor of pediatrics Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center Food choice is not a problem of not knowing. There have been a number of studies of purchasing patterns of people in different socioeconomic groups, and food-stamp users tend to make the same kinds of purchases as people from middle- or upper-income groups. But there is a connection between hunger and learning. Research suggests that kids who are in food-insecure or hungry families have, as you'd expect, lots more physical problems, behavioral problems, problems with learning.

It is easy, in our affluent society, for some to be unaware that hunger is a major dilemma for millions of citizens. And the myths about hunger are almost as widespread as the problem itself. On Saturday, April 13, at 8 a.m. people will gather in front of the Art Museum to raise funds through the Walk Against Hunger program. The money will help feed many who suffer from hunger - or from what is often referred to as "food insecurity. " Money earned will be distributed among several organizations throughout Southeastern Pennsylvania that provide food for many desperately poor individuals and families.

The message of Live 8, voicing a noble goal of ending hunger, needs to resonate on the pavements and pantries in South Jersey. Starvation in the Third World, a human misery deserving our attention and concern, should not abrogate the signs of hunger and malnutrition in our region's homes. The U.S. Conference of Mayors, at the end of 2004, reported a 14 percent increase in the demand for emergency food over the previous year. About 20 percent of emergency food requests were not met, according to the same report.

CAIRO - More than 100 Egyptians held since a mass arrest more than two weeks ago began an open-ended hunger strike Sunday to protest their continued detention and the possibility they will face military prosecution, activists said. Hundreds of activists outside prison including a presidential candidate meanwhile held a symbolic 24-hour strike in support of the group and against the military trials of civilians. The protest comes on the eve of presidential elections that are supposed to lead to Egypt's ruling military council stepping down in favor of a civilian government - but also amid rising fears that the generals will continue to transfer civilians to military tribunals after the transition.

JERUSALEM - Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners agreed Monday to halt a weeks-long hunger strike in exchange for promises of better conditions, ending a standoff that left several participants clinging to life and drew thousands of Palestinians to the streets in shows of solidarity. The Palestinians won key concessions in a deal mediated by Egyptian officials, including more family visits and limits to a controversial Israeli policy that can imprison people for years without charge. In return, Israel extracted pledges by militant groups to halt violent activities, and prevented the potentially explosive scenario of prisoners dying of hunger.

When 88-year-old Miriam Boss fell face-first in her home late last year, she was rushed, frightened and alone, to the Aria Health hospital in Torresdale, near her condo. She told the doctors tending to her bruised forehead she had been feeling faint lately, and had fallen several times before, though the reason was a mystery to her. Not to the doctors. Like a growing number of senior citizens in America, Boss wasn't getting the proper amount of food, and weakness from hunger was causing the falls.

JERUSALEM - Egyptian and Palestinian officials said Sunday that they were close to reaching a deal with Israel that would end a mass hunger strike by Palestinians in Israeli jails. About 1,600 Palestinian prisoners are on strike, most for a month, but three have refused food for more than 70 days. They launched the strike to press their demands for better conditions and an end to detention without trial. An Egyptian-drafted proposal calls for Israel to move prisoners currently held in solitary confinement to regular cells, and allow families from Hamas-ruled Gaza to leave the seaside strip to visit imprisoned relatives, an Egyptian official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions.

KHARKIV, Ukraine - Yulia Tymoshenko ended a nearly three-week-long hunger strike Wednesday as the imprisoned former Ukrainian prime minister was moved from jail to a hospital for treatment of a severe back condition under the supervision of a German doctor. The news was likely to allay at least some Western concerns over Tymoshenko's health and handling in prison. EU officials and some governments from the 27-nation bloc have vowed to boycott the European Championship soccer tournament, which begins in June and is cohosted by Ukraine and Poland.

Hunger lives in unexpected places. In fact, there isn't a county in America that's free of it, according to Elaine Waxman, vice president of Feeding America, a national umbrella organization for more than 200 regional food banks. That can make it tough for advocates who want to help people low on food, even in "nice" places such as Montgomery County, Waxman said Thursday at the "Beyond Hunger" conference in Center City. "It's a difficult conversation to have with people who don't want to see hunger where they live," she added.

Lecturing on hunger to 50 people packed into a small Center City hotel conference room Wednesday, Laticia Ansley didn't need an academic's PowerPoint presentation of pie charts and graphs. Instead, the home-care aide from Germantown stood in front of the group and delivered a graduate-level talk, eloquent in its succinct candor: "Hunger is the choice between feeding your 6-year-old grandchild or paying the electric bill," she said. This month, the power company is going to have to do without her check, and maybe the lights in her apartment will go out, Ansley, 53, told the group: "I am struggling and juggling, and I'm personally going through hunger right now. " "But," Ansley added, "my grandchild will eat. " A participant in the first national conference on hunger to be held in Philadelphia, Ansley is a member of Witnesses to Hunger, the internationally known group of women that is part of the Center for Hunger-Free Communities at Drexel University's School of Public Health.

RALEIGH, N.C. — Fans of The Hunger Games are turning up in North Carolina, seeking out places where the movie was shot, from old-growth forests to an abandoned mill town. And the tourism industry is prepared to cash in on them, with everything from hotel packages and zipline tours to reenactments of scenes from the film and lessons in survival skills. The movie, which led the box office for its first four weeks and had already earned more than a half-billion dollars worldwide, is based on a best-selling book about a post-apocalyptic world where teenagers compete to the death in fighting games.

IT WOULD HAVE been an expense-account report to make my editors and the new millionaire owners (how you doing, guys?) very happy. I wanted to take U.S. Rep. Bob Brady out to dinner Wednesday night after his return from Washington, and it wouldn't cost a cent for him. Brady would not eat because he's on the weeklong Greater Philadelphia Food Stamp Challenge, organized by the Coalition Against Hunger and the Jewish Federation. The gimmick: Enlist celebrities to help illustrate how hard it is for the poor (including children, elders, the disabled)

Ada Arroyo was cleaning her house and rummaging through storage, when there, deep in a box from her teen days, she stumbled upon her bow and arrow. The discovery sparked memories of settling into a steady stance, bow drawn — the flight path lethally targeted. "Shooting is very meditative and psychological," said Arroyo, 36, who recently returned to the sport. "Because you need to focus so much in setting up a shot, you feel a sense of calm. " At B&A Archery in the Tacony section, Arroyo was among 15 archers firing arrows across the 50-foot range, while another dozen or so enthusiasts were milling about.