No one in the Salt Lake Valley should go to bed hungry. Most homes in this valley include pantries with an ample food supply. The problem is, this food won't feed anyone while it sits in your pantry. Send it on a road trip to the Utah Food Bank.
The Utah Food Bank is low on donations. Officials are concerned they may not be able to have enough food on hand to meet emergency food requests between now and October.
If you want to contribute, the food bank makes it simple. It can deliver collection barrels, collection bags and posters. If your group needs a pep talk regarding food donations, the food bank can send out speakers to educate others about hunger in Utah.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Utah ranks seventh in the nation for food insecurity. That means more than 345,700 Utahns are at risk of missing or skipping a meal due to a lack of resources.
Hunger is closely tied to low educational attainment. People who lack high school diplomas have low incomes, thus higher degrees of food insecurity. While it is important to ensure Utahns have adequate nutrition each day, a larger policy issue rests in improving high-school graduation rates and encouraging post-secondary education and job training so as many Utahns as possible achieve economic security.
The more immediate concern — feeding the hungry — is not the stuff of blue-ribbon panels and policymaking. All it takes is looking through one's pantry and sharing the bounty. Or throw a few extra items in the grocery cart while you do your shopping this week. The food bank especially needs peanut butter, canned stew, canned vegetables and fruit, and macaroni and cheese. If you don't want to fuss with collecting canned and packaged goods, consider making a monetary donation at the food bank's Web site, www.utahfoodbank.org. It's also a good source of information about hunger in Utah, which is more prevalent than most Utahns may know or want to acknowledge. Call 978-2452 for more information.
The good news is, feeding the hungry does not require an act of Congress. It takes ordinary people willing to help.