Poverty Awareness Month – “It [ending hunger] will require all of us working together.”

From David Davenport
President and CEO

As Poverty in America Awareness Month comes to an end, I focus on the strategies and behaviors that the public sector (government), private sector (business) and social sector (non-profit organizations and the faith communities) can use to significantly reduce the rate of poverty in our nation, state and community. Today, I focus on policies and strategies I believe our government can (and should) undertake to reduce the intolerable and unacceptable level of poverty, and its impact on 36 million Americans.

Step 1 – Let’s be honest: Adjust the current federal poverty standard to reflect the true nature of poverty. The old standard has been criticized for years and isn’t relevant when compared to the current cost of living in most communities. Yes, this will increase the number of people living below or at the poverty level, but at least we’ll have a real picture of where we are, and can develop strategies to address the issue. Agreement on an appropriate measure will enable policy makers to decide whether (and when) progress is being made. 

Step 2 – No living wage – no government partnership: Since most people living in poverty have some income, it’s only logical that many can be lifted out of poverty if their wage equaled or exceeded the living wage for their community. Government shouldn’t mandate a living wage, but it should give incentives for vendors and partners to provide its employees adequate health coverage and wages.. Government must require that its contractual relationships with for-profit vendors and non-profit partners only be with entities that provide health coverage and a living wage to their employees. No exceptions.

Step 3 – Lift people up by feeding them: This strategy focuses on food insecurity and nutrition-related health problems. It focuses on improving the Food Stamp program (one of the largest and most basic anti-poverty efforts in the United States). It builds on the fact that food stamps are widely used and that nutrition, obesity and diabetes are serious problems among low-income groups. (The Food and Nutrition Service is in a position to provide a catalyst for communities addressing these issues.)

Now, before you scream “big government” or “tax and spend redistribution,” let me note that financial analysts at Goldman Sachs suggest that increasing food stamp benefits has a broad, positive economic effect. They predict that for every dollar spent increasing food stamp benefits, $1.73 of economic activity is generated. For every dollar that is spent on tax rebate checks, only $1.26 of economic activity is generated. In Travis County, only 26 percent of those eligible to receive food stamp benefits are enrolled in the program. That has to change. 

Lastly, food stamps must be counted as income when poverty and progress against poverty is assessed.

Step 4 – Lock’em up, but let’s think long and hard before we throw away the key:  Government must be pressed to deal with the issues surrounding incarceration and its long-term impact . A vicious cycle of criminal activity exists in many communities: disrupted families, limited economic prospects, high poverty, criminal activity, incarceration, etc. Government must seek alternatives to break the vicious cycle of incarceration and poverty.

I believe government is not currently equipped to solve the issue of poverty in our country. These steps listed above are only a starting point. It will require all of us – communities, corporate partners and the social sector – working together to meet this difficult challenge. Poverty, hunger and homelessness are unacceptable, and success requires us to work together. Stay tuned this week, as I will share my ideas and strategies for the private and social sectors.

“Be the change you want to see in the world.” M. Ghandi

From David Davenport
President and CEO –

(From Washington, D.C.)

Yesterday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day and I am back sharing my thoughts on Poverty in America. I took some time to walk the National Mall before heading over to see my friends and volunteer at DC Central Kitchen. (“Inspiring” doesn’t give enough credit to this amazing place – Happy 20th Birthday, DCCK. May the next 20 be as revolutionary.)

Now, back to my walk. I slowly wandered down the mall weaving my way through the crowd of thousands, and eventually came to an amazing place.

Courtesy of the Architect of the Capitol

I found myself at the spot where 41 years ago Resurrection City was built in an attempt to raise awareness of the issue of economic justice for all Americans. As I stood there, I realized how close I was to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial where Dr. King gave his historic speech during the civil rights march five years earlier. To my right, past the Washington Memorial, stands the Capitol building. Today, Barack Obama takes office, and this nation welcomes its first president to be on food stamps (for a short time during his youth, he and his mother needed food stamp assistance). Like many places in this great city, I am surrounded by history,  surrounded by our American story,  by symbols of our great achievements, and the whispers of the challenges we still face.

I have to admit, I was hoping to stand in this spot and get a better understanding of how far we as a people have come.  I am overwhelmed and I still struggle to capture the many thoughts that pass through my mind. I think about Lincoln. The American Civil War was fought to save the Union, but it was also the first war of liberation in human history. I imagine Dr. King at my left, and the first African-American president at my right, and I am inspired. I recall the words of Bishop Gregory V. Palmer who spoke last night. He said “Our eyes burn. Our American eyes burn from the bright light of possibilities. We must stand as a nation, stand close; this president must not stand alone.”

Instantly, the defeating, overwhelming challenge of ending poverty in our nation seemed achievable. It’s achievable because the difficult first step seems within our grasp. We’ve not yet been committed to stand as one nation and share a national belief that poverty, hunger and homelessness are economically, socially and morally unacceptable.

Just 25 years ago, at 18, I could have bought a six pack of beer, thrown it in the front seat of my car, popped open the lid and enjoyed a cold one as I drove down the street – not violating any laws. A group of committed citizens formed Mother’s Against Drunk Driving and today, not only has the law changed, but so has our culture. It’s wrong and unacceptable to drink and drive.

Soon it will be unacceptable to allow people to live a tragic, inhumane existence in a land of plenty. Step one is to embrace, and give voice to, the belief that poverty in America is unacceptable. Be the change you want to see in the world. Live the change you feel our nation needs to accept. If we can do that – we’re almost there. The rest is just heavy lifting.

January is Poverty Awareness Month

From David Davenport
President and CEO –

The American Conversation that Never Happened

Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) has designated January as “Poverty in America Awareness Month.” For the next four weeks I will add my thoughts and experiences to the national conversation. This post is the first of four regarding why 37 million fellow Americans live in poverty, and what we must do about it.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

“We’ve got some difficult days ahead, but it really doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life; longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And he’s allowed me to go up to the mountain, and I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.
April 3, 1968

The next day, Martin Luther King Jr. stepped out on a balcony at the Lorraine Motel, and was killed by an assassin. He was in Memphis to support striking sanitation workers demanding better working conditions and a living wage. Although the work to be done in Memphis was critical, Dr. King had his sights set on the Poor People’s Campaign for Economic Justice (PPC). This project was a complex effort to bring the economic and cultural challenges of poverty in America to the forefront.

As King moved toward making the PPC a reality, he encountered criticism from supporters, elected officials and others who were by his side during the civil rights movement. There was even public criticism from within his own organization – yet he boldly, and without fear, moved forward.

Shortly after King’s death, staffers at Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) decided to press on with the PPC. In just five weeks, Resurrection City was built on the Mall in Washington, housing a diverse selection of poor people from across the country. Resurrection City, awash in a sea of mud, never successfully articulated the needs of the poor and fell painfully short of King’s ambitious vision. Two months after King’s death, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, a movement ally and presidential candidate, was also assassinated.

The American conversation never happened.

Americans care deeply about charity. We give more time, talent and treasure to the social sector than any nation on earth. That said, we continue to shy away from a meaningful conversation about poverty. We will debate solutions to the by-products of poverty – homelessness and hunger – but we are uncomfortable discussing why poverty exists and what to do about it. We hide our discomfort with conclusions drawn from economics classes that recall poverty as a necessary part of the free enterprise system. If we are really bold, we go right to the core of our American ethos and say poverty in the land of plenty is more about Darwin. The strong survive, and the weak are selected by nature (or economics) to fail. Nothing can be done to stop this law of nature, so why even try?

In his famous 1984 speech, former New York Governor, Mario Cuomo addressed this issue by saying there are those who believe “…the wagon train will not make it to the frontier unless some of the old, some of the young, some of the weak are left behind by the side of the trail. The strong — The strong, they tell us, will inherit the land.”

Cuomo goes on to challenge this belief “…we must be the family of America, recognizing that at the heart of the matter, we are bound one to another, that the problems of a retired school teacher in Duluth are our problems; that the future of the child in Buffalo is our future; that the struggle of a disabled man in Boston to survive and live decently is our struggle; that the hunger of a woman in Little Rock is our hunger; that the failure anywhere to provide what reasonably we might, to avoid pain, is our failure.”

Once again as a nation, the conversation never happens.

Fast forward again, this time to 2005. The images of Americans suffering in the streets of New Orleans, post-Katrina shocked the world – but not necessarily  America. According to a Stanford University study “Did Katrina Recalibrate Attitudes Toward Poverty and Inequality?” the Katrina disaster did not become a watershed in the debate over poverty, but quite the opposite. The “dirty little secret” wasn’t that poverty existed in America – it was that social-Darwinism was alive and well. The people left behind in the flood, filth and insanity of New Orleans had somehow been selected. The strong were safely out of the path of the vicious storm. The weak, well, you know how it goes. You just can’t beat nature.

So, here we are, more than forty years after the failure of Resurrection City, still struggling to come to some understanding as to why, in a nation capable of feeding the world, so many of our neighbors live in fear of not having food? Why, in a nation where millions live a vile and inhuman existence, can we not bring ourselves to discuss the matter and seek solutions?

I am determined that this year, this time, “Poverty in America Awareness Month” will not pass quietly without a conversation. Let’s not wait another 40 years to be bold enough – American enough – to honestly and openly discuss the challenge of poverty in our country.

See images of Resurrection City.