In Los Angeles, our NMH Forum was held at the headquarters of Homoboy Industries, a unique organization in the heart of East LA. Homeboy was founded in 1988 by Father Greg Boyle, SJ, the pastor of Dolores Mission. It is now recognized as the largest gang intervention and re-entry program in the country, offering social services and job training. One program is Homegirl Cafe, which trains at-risk young men and women in the restaurant business, and provided lunch to participantsat the Forum.

The keynote speaker was Robert Egger, the founder of DC Central Kitchen, the country’s first community kitchen. Egger recently founded LA Kitchen, which will professionally recover fresh food and use it to fuel a culinary arts program. “This is the power of food, “ he said, “not just to feed people, but to liberate people.” Panelists included Don Herring, Senior Services Director at the YWCA of San Gabriel Valley; Hiram Lopez, Program Analyst for the Hunger Impact Area of the AARP Foundation; Marianne Haver Hill, President and CEO of MEND (Meet Each Need with Dignity) the largest poverty relief agency in the San Fenando Valley; and Alison Camacho, Director of Marketing and Communications for Homeboy. Representing AARP California was State Director Kathleen Hirning, a former member of the Clinton Administration.

North Carolina has the sixth-fastest growing Latino population in the country, and Charlotte has over 13 percent Latinos. This was the site of the next NMH Forum, held at the Shamrock Senior Center. The keynote speaker was Doug Dickerson, State Director of AARP North Carolina and a 21-year Air Force veteran. “Hunger is colorblind,” he noted. “It doesn’t matter what your color is, you can still go hungry. “ Also present from the state office was Suzanne La Follette Black, Associate State Director, and Trish Shannon, Senior Vice President with the AARP Foundation.

The leaders of several community organizations participated in this event, including Trena Palmer and Myra Green from the Shamrock Senior Center; Astrid Chirinos, Latin American Chamber of Commerce; Violetta Moser, Latin American Women’s Association; and Alvaro Gurdian, La Noticia. Representing Wells Fargo was Robert Gutierrez, a native of Mexico City who leads Latin Connection, the bank’s Latino employee resource group in Charlotte.

The panelists were Armando Belmas, the Director of Commuications at the Latin American Coalition, the largest Hispanic-serving advocacy and social service agency in North Carolina; Kay Carter, Executive Director of Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina, which distributes 3 million pounds of food annually; and Maggie Biscarr, Program Manager with Hunger Impact Area of the AARP Foundation.

In NewYork, the NMH Forum took place in the headquarters of the Hispanic Federation near Wall Street. The Federation provides grants to a broad network of nonprofit agencies serving Latinos in the tri-state area. Representing AARP was Rocky Egusquiza, VP, Multicultural Markts and Engagement, who stressed the importance of working together: “Ending hunger, particularly in the HIspanic community, needs to be a collaborative effort bringing people together from government, nonprofits, business and faith-based organizations to discuss ways it can be done.”

Panelists and speaker included Jessica Powers, Director of the National Hunger Clearinghouse for WhyHunger; Christine Deska, Sr. Program Specialist with AARP New York; Lisa Hines-Johnson, COO of the Food Bank For New York City; Joel Berg, Executive Director of the New York Coalition Against Hunger; and Jose Calderon, President of the Hispanic Federation.

One theme that surfaced in the discussion was the threatened cuts in funding for SNAP benefits, a lifeline to millions of Latino families throughout the country as well as in New York. “It’s our responsibilty collectively to address this issue,”Calderon summed it up. “The social safety net is being withered away. It’s incredibly important that we take part in these policy debates.”

Mil gracias to all our partners and participants in these NMH Forums. For information about future events and the NMH Summit taking place on December 2103 in Washington, DC, please visit NoMasHambre.com.

LOS ANGELES

CHARLOTTE

Maggie Biscarr and Trish Shannon

NEW YORK

Rocky Egusquiza, Lisa HInes-Johnson and
Lorraine Cortes-Vazquez

Jose Calderon, Christine Deska
and Joel Berg

NO MAS HAMBRE (NMH) is an initiative presented by LATINO together with AARP, the AARP Foundation, Wells Fargo, Denny’s, Abbot, UnitedHealthcare, Sodexo, Kraft and others to educate Latinos about food insecurity and encourage them to get involved . Now in its third year, NMH seeks to engage the Latino community through articles in LATINO, our website at NoMasHambre.com and our annual NMH Summit. In 2013, NMH is also holding a series of regional forums around the country to explore local issues. These comunity conversations bring together Latino leaders, anti-hunger activists, elected officials, corporate executives, journalists and ordinary people to discuss ways of addressing hunger and related issues such as nutrition, childhood obesity, SNAP outreach, and food insecurity among the elderly. At each event, pledge cards are passed out and participants write down ways in which they can get involved. Recently, NMH Forums were held in Los Angeles, Charlotte and New York.