Originally published on the Citizen Wausau website, October 15, 2008 for Blog Action Day

Can it be that there are hungry people in the richest nation on Earth?  You don’t even have to think of the answer for that, you know there are.

In modern times the poor are more often children.  In 2006 according to government statistics, about one out of every five children in this country lived in poverty, as compared to one in ten senior citizens.  If things have changed since then, it probably has not been for the better.  Unless we are looking for them, or work in some sort of social service agency, we don’t often see these children, but they live in our community.

Here in Marathon County there are many people who know hunger.  Tom Rau, Executive Director of the Neighbors’ Place, the lead food pantry for Wausau, says the pantry serves about 1,000 unique families per month.  And it is not just the same 1,000 families every month.  If the statistics bear out, then some 3,000 to 5,000 families in Marathon County live in poverty and may seek food assistance.

And what do our brothers and sisters find when they seek our help for themselves and their children?  Lately, the answer has sometimes been, “Not much.”  The food pantry shelves all across Wausau and Marathon County have gone bare several times over the past year.  Generous people try to refill them, but the need remains great.

And so we will come together, in a small but significant way, to literally fill the empty bowls of the hungry.  Our individual donations might be small, but together we can help meet the growing need in our community.  Please contribute what your pocketbook will allow and what you conscience demands to this worthy cause.

There will be other times for talk about hunger and poverty, the causes and the cures, but Empty Bowls is a time for action.  With the goal of raising money and awareness, a group of concerned community members, along with our presenting sponsor, River Valley Bank, are hosting the 1st Annual Wausau Area Empty Bowls at University of Wisconsin – Marathon County on Sat., October 25th from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m.

Admission to the event is $10 for adults, $5 for children 6-12, with children 5 and under are free.  Participants paying the $10 admission price will receive a handmade bowl to take home along with a lunch of soup and a side of bread.  Throughout the event there will be live music with Jim Carlson, Aaron Scharmer, Barry Liss, Parker Siems, Gregory Venne, Jon Shea and Mike Dopkins.  A Silent Auction will feature art, jewelry, books as well as bowls signed by Michelle Obama, Senator Hillary Clinton, Ricky Skaggs, LeAnn Rimes, Jon Bon Jovi and more.

All proceeds will do to benefit The Neighbors’ Place Food Pantry: emptybowls.wordpress.com.

Wausau Area Empty Bowls has received two more celebrity-signed bowls from Ricky Skaggs and Bruce Hornsby. Both bowls with be on display during Empty Bowls on October 25th and available for silent auction. These bowls join bowls signed by Michelle Obama, Jon Bon Jovi and Hillary Clinton. Hillary signed two bowls! We are working on getting a bowl from John McCain as well. Check back for more updates.

State officials recently awarded Tom Rau, the executive director of The Neighbors’ Place in Wausau, with the Helping Hand Award during the Poverty Matters conference in Appleton.

By Megan Loiselle • Wausau Daily Herald • September 26, 2008

Member of the community and committee met at the CVA on Saturday, September 13th for a bowl making party.

Tom Rau, Executive Director the The Neighbors’ Place.

Our fearless instructor for the day, Ron Hay.

River Valley Bank President, Todd Nicklaus, working on one of his bowls.

Just some of the bowls created.

Saturday, September 13th

The Center for the Visual Arts

427 N 4th Street

Wausau, WI  54403

11 a.m. – 3 p.m

Make ceramic bowls for the Emty Bowls of Marathon County event. Children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult. Call the CVA at 715-842-4545 for more information or to register.  

What do basketball and hunger have in common? Not much, really. Though professional athletes often establish philanthropic organizations to address community needs, including hunger, “basketball” and “hunger” don’t intuitively go together. Until now, that is.

At this year’s Gus Macker 3-0n-3 Basketball Tournament registration, a Neighbors’ Place table will collect food donations and provide information about area hunger. The table also will hold materials promoting this fall’s “Wausau Area Empty Bowls” event. The “Empty Bowls” that attendees will decorate and glaze at the October event, along with a simple meal of soup (from chefs from local restaurants) and a silent auction, will draw attention to local hunger and raise food pantry funds.

While we live in a prosperous area with much bounty, many among us go hungry.

The statistics showing the extent of hunger in the United States are grim but, worse yet, the faces behind those statistics are often not visible to us. It’s not the face of a child in sub-Saharan Africa who looks obviously malnourished. But it is the senior citizen or parent who skips a meal or the child that is given nutritionally and economically “cheap” food because that is all the family can afford. In Wisconsin, households with children are nearly twice as likely to experience food insecurity — a term the government uses to describe households experiencing hunger or risk of hunger, households unable to provide adequate amounts or quality of food — as households without children. And it’s not just the poor: 65 percent of food-insecure households have incomes above the federal poverty line and more than half of all food-insecure households have at least one full-time worker in the home. Indeed, at least 42 percent of Americans will experience food insecurity at some point in their lives.

It’s also not just something that happens among the urban poor of Milwaukee, Chicago and Minneapolis: after central cities, the next highest rate of food insecurity is in non-metropolitan areas, ironically areas often abundant with commercial agricultural plenty.

The problem is real and it is here. And in many respects, it is getting worse. With rising food prices — by one estimate, food prices are up 7 percent just this year — the need for well-stocked food pantries is heightened. Use of The Neighbors’ Place food pantry shows the impact of rising prices, with 13,977 individuals served in 2007, up 36 percent from the year before; 32 percent of those served were children and 27 percent were senior citizens.

Though the need is rising, food pantry contributions have not kept up. Tom Rau of The Neighbors’ Place notes that, while need for food is highest in summer because kids are not being fed in school through the School Lunch Program, contributions to the food pantry are lowest during the summer months.

The reasons for food insecurity in the United States are complex. And so are the answers. But some of the answers are simple. The Gus Macker, and the presence of The Neighbors’ Place and the Empty Bowls organizing group there, reminds us that we can do something. While we can’t control food prices and many of us feel powerless to affect government and its programs to help the hungry, we can make a difference locally through food pantry contributions.

If you are participating in the Gus Macker games, bring a food pantry item to Friday’s registration (noon-7 p.m.), with the hope that we can fill the coffers, at least for a day. If you aren’t attending Gus Macker, check out “The Top 10 Food Items We Need” (www.neighborsplace.org) and bring a food donation to The Neighbors’ Place, 745 Scott St., Wausau. And plan on attending the Wausau Area Empty Bowls event at University of Wisconsin Marathon County on Oct. 25.

Ann Herda-Rapp is a board member of The Neighbors’ Place.

Column originally posted on the Wausau Daily Herald website.

Wausau Area Empty Bowls has received a donation in the amount of $458.50 from the North Central Wisconsin Master Gardener Association. Thank you!

Senator Hillary Clinton was in Wausau Monday. She signed two bowls and the 10th Anniversay edition of her book It Takes a Village.

Photo courtesy of Bill Coady Photography.