Senator John Edwards met with local food pantry clients and toured the Yorkville Common Pantry in East Harlem today as a part of the “Half in Ten” Campaign, which aims to reduce poverty in the United States by 50% in ten years. The New York City Coalition Against Hunger and World Hunger Year joined Senator Edwards in bringing attention to widespread hunger and poverty in New York City.

Senator Edwards is Chair of Half in Ten, a campaign which is working to increase the focus on issues that affect the poor and middle class, strengthen a constituency to demand action on poverty legislation, and advance policies that assist struggling American families. Half in Ten partner organizations include the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), the Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAPAF), the Coalition on Human Needs (CHN), and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR).

In a private meeting before his tour, Senator Edwards spoke with current and former recipients of food from emergency food providers (EFPs), like Yorkville Common Pantry, about their experiences using these services.

Senator Edwards emphasized that ending hunger was a high priority for Half in Ten. “When you have people - mothers, children, entire families – going to bed hungry right here in the richest nation in the world, that's not just wrong – it's immoral. I have seen it all over the country, and I have also seen the hard work and dedication of the good people like the folks who are here today, who have dedicated their lives to putting an end to this injustice. It is time we all joined in the fight, and made a nationwide commitment to ending poverty in America."

The New York City Coalition Against Hunger and other anti-hunger advocates in the press event and praised Edwards for bringing attention to the persistent problem of domestic hunger. The New York City Coalition Against Hunger is an advocacy, technical assistance, and leadership development organization that represents the 1,200 food pantries and soup kitchens in New York City and the 1.3 million New Yorkers who are forced to utilize these agencies. Said Joel Berg, the Coalition’s Executive Director: "Poverty in the U.S. and New York are unacceptable, and Senator Edwards is absolutely correct in calling for it to be cut it in half in a decade. In a society with as much wealth as modern America, hunger should be doubly unacceptable. The Senator's visit not only highlights the growing domestic hunger problem, but enables us to begin a national discussion of the basic steps necessary to make sure that all Americans have access to the food they need to lead productive and healthy lives."

World Hunger Year (WHY) is a leading organization that advocates for innovative, community-based solutions to hunger and poverty that create self-reliance, economic justice, and equal access to nutritious and affordable food. Bill Ayres, the Executive Director of WHY, stated that: “John Edwards has spoken more eloquently and persistently about poverty in America than anyone since Bobby Kennedy. He’s obviously made this his life’s work. No one has brought it to the attention of the American public more than John Edwards and he has said that’s what his job is. He has said that he wants to be one of the people responsible for ending poverty and hunger in America.”

According to the Census Bureau American Community Survey, there are now at least 1.54 million New Yorkers – 151,000 more people than in the year 2000 – living under the meager federal poverty line. According to U.S. Department of Agriculture data analyzed by the New York City Coalition Against Hunger (NYCCAH), between 2005-2006, about 15.4% of city residents (one in six city residents) lived in food insecure households, representing an approximately 112,000-person increase over food insecurity rates in 2000-2002, when 14.0% of New Yorkers lived in such households. Fully 417,000 children – one in five of the city’s children – live in food insecure households. New York City pays $2.65 billion per year in health care costs, reduced worker productivity and other expenses as a result of this high level of food insecurity, according to NYCCAH calculations based on a national study by Dr. Larry Brown of Harvard University.

According to NYCCAH’s 2007 annual hunger survey, entitled “Rising Food Lines, Sinking Economy: Increase in NYC Hunger is Early Proof of Economic Slow-Down,” the number of people served by the City’s pantries and kitchens rose by an estimated 20% in 2007, on top of an estimated 11% increase from 2006. Because the agencies were unable to obtain enough food, money, staff, and volunteers to meet this growing need, a majority of these agencies (59%) were forced to ration food by turning people away, reducing portion sizes, and/or limiting hours of operation.