Keeping an eye on the prize will fill a lot of stomachs

Hunger isn’t anything new to the Mahoning Valley.

An entry in today’s Years Ago column notes that the Rev. Kenneth Dean, a member of the Harvard School of Public Health’s Task Force on Hunger in America, was in town and said that hunger and malnutrition in Youngstown were widespread, and federal relief was needed as much as it would be if a hurricane devastated the area. That was 10 years after the beginning of the collapse of the steel industry here, and the cumulative effects of unemployment and a devastated tax base were taking a heavy toll.

That story was on the front page May 2, 1987. A story on today’s front page tells how people in the Mahoning Valley joined together over the last three weeks of April to do something about the hunger that continues to take its toll. Residents and friends of the Mahoning Valley took the time to cast nearly 100,000 votes in the Walmart Foundation’s Fighting Hunger Together Facebook campaign. The competition was among 200 communities with the highest rates of employment, based on a list compiled by the U.S. Department of Labor.

The drive here was spearheaded by the Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley, the largest distributor of food in the area, and Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Youngstown, but other groups and organizations lent their support. Heavy press coverage in the final week helped push Youngstown-Warren to the top and keep it there.

The votes counted

Walmart announced Monday that the Youngstown-Warren area secured the $1 million prize with more than 98,000 votes, but which organizations will get shares of that won’t be announced until May 15.

Second Harvest is an affiliate of Feeding America, which is a Walmart partner in combatting hunger, putting Second Harvest in a strong position for substantial funding. Second Harvest also has an existing relationship with a multitude of organizations throughout the Valley that are fighting hunger and malnutrition.

But this victory belongs to the thousands of people who took the time to become involved in the effort — people of all ages.

Michael Iberis, executive director of Second Harvest, notes that on Tuesday he turned to a high school student who had been involved in drumming up votes and thanked him for his work. “Thanks for asking,” the boy replied. And Iberis told of a an 82-year-old grandmother who opened a Facebook page to make it easier to cast a daily vote for the Mahoning Valley.

The effort grew and crossed whatever lines there may have been between old and young, rich and poor. They all took pride in being able to help.

What’s at stake

And the need for help is undeniable. Iberis notes that there are almost 30,000 kids living below the poverty line in the tri-county area. About 50 percent of the area’s school children are on free or reduced school lunches. And still, Iberis says, there are children in our communities going to bed hungry.

Even a million dollars won’t solve all those problems. But organizations such as Second Harvest have stretching a food dollar down to a science, and the community effort that resulted in this victory will provide better nutrition for tens of thousands of people over an extended period of time.

Sometimes just competing well is its own reward, but in this case the prize was most important: It is going to change lives.