TO HELP THE HUNGRY

HOW THE DISTRICT IS DEALING WITH A HOMETOWN PROBLEM

Correction: In some copies of yesterday's Food section, a listing of organizations from which the hungry can obtain food included several in Ward 3. Those organizations should have been listed in Ward 2. (Published 10/16/86)

"The Hunger Puzzle," the title of Friday's conference being held by the Mayor's Commission on Food, Nutrition and Health, is an apt one. As a local follow-up to tomorrow's World Food Day -- an annual focus on world hunger -- the conference will deal with the complex problems that Washington faces in its own back yard.

Just what are the issues that emergency food providers in the District must cope with in feeding the hungry? What is being done to address some of these and how can individuals and other groups help?

The pieces of the puzzle include:

Networking: The emergency food provision system in the District is "a big maze," says Paul Vali, director of Bread for the City.

For instance, some social service and emergency food groups, particularly the smaller ones, don't know what kinds of services are provided by other agencies, making it difficult for them to refer clients with particular needs, said Vali.

Neighboring food providers don't always know enough about each other to share resources, either.

The annual conference, now in its third year, is an effort to bring together all these individuals. Already, suburban agencies are starting to adopt projects with inner city groups and some neighboring agencies have helped each other out with goods and services, said Linda Thompson, staff assistant for the Mayor's Commission on Food, Nutrition and Health.

To further address this networking problem, this year's conference initiates a central clearinghouse sponsored by D.C. Hunger Action, a project that coordinates the Hunger Action Network of D.C. (HAND), an organization formed after last year's conference. The clearinghouse will become the central resource for the needs of emergency food providers in the District, said Pat Kutzner, executive director of the World Hunger Education Service.

Outreach: It's not that there aren't resources available in the city, said Vali; it's just that hungry people don't always know how to find them.

Bread for the City has had hungry people "as close as six blocks away who don't know that we're here," said Vali. Although Bread for the City is perhaps one of the better known agencies in the city, Vali said his organization is trying to improve outreach by sending letters to public housing managers, church leaders and by posting information in high-traffic areas.

Nicky Lagoudakis, director of D.C. Hunger Action, said that one future project for HAND is to develop a symbol that could be affixed to buildings that provide emergency food as well as an easily understandable guide that the hungry could use to identify food providers and shelters.

Outreach information about food stamp eligibility and procedures could be disseminated by emergency food providers, too, said Michele Tingling-Clemmons, senior field organizer for the Food Research and Action Center, an end-hunger advocacy group.

Federal funds for food stamp outreach programs were cut in 1981, Tingling-Clemmons said.

Access and transportation: Inner city access to supermarkets is insufficient, said Kutzner, who added that the problem is exacerbated in Washington because there are only two major supermarket chains.

Thompson said that in Ward 8, which encompasses Anacostia and the far Northeast, there is only one supermarket -- a Safeway that services 75,000 people. By contrast, Ward 3, which includes Georgetown and the upper Connecticut Avenue area, has seven supermarkets for approximately the same number of residents.

Although Safeway is presently negotiating for another site in Ward 8, said Thompson, in the meantime, residents such as the elderly, disabled or those with small children who may find it difficult to take public transportation, are often limited to more expensive convenience stores which are closer to their homes.

There are additional barriers in getting food to the hungry. Not only do some feeding agencies have difficulty getting the food from the Capital Area Community Food Bank (the city's largest provider of emergency food) to their facility, but then they have to deal with transporting the food to the people who need it.

Identifying the problem: While each metropolitan-area agency or food provider knows about a piece of the hunger problem, much is unknown about the big picture, said Kutzner.

How many of the hungry have never applied for food stamps and why? How many children in the city's schools are undernourished? What are the demographics of the people seeking emergency food assistance? These are some of the questions that need to be answered, Kutzner said, adding that "we know more about the nutritional status of developing countries than of many cities in this country."

While there are people within the District government who are interested and working on the problem, "hunger as a separate issue is not a high priority," said Lagoudakis. Lagoudakis commended the Mayor's Commission for sponsoring the hunger conferences and developing a briefing for interested parties, and said that the Department of Human Services "has been very supportive." But, he said, that "doesn't mean that there aren't other things that could be done."

Public Education: With a grant from Hands Across America, the Mayor's Commission has developed a briefing that includes a slide show and lecture about the problems of hunger in the District and what individuals can do about it.

The briefing, presented for the first time at Friday's conference, will be shown at churches, schools and to other interested groups.

The Conference will be held Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the University of the District of Columbia, Van Ness Campus, Building 41. The briefing will take place in building 46 at 2 p.m.

Other issues of discussion at the conference include special diets, how to put together nutritious food bags, volunteer burnout and innovative feeding programs in other cities. The conference is $5 and includes lunch. For more information, call the Mayor's Commission at 727-5930.

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.