The Rev. Gary Cook, associate director for Global Service and Witness in the Worldwide Ministries Division, presents Eva Clayton with a Hunger Action Enabler stole. Photo: Evan Silverstein

TACOMA, WA — Global hunger could be eliminated now if leaders exercised the political will to make it happen, a United Nations official said during a recent celebration marking the 35th anniversary of thePresbyterian Church (USA) Hunger Program.

“We have the resources, we have the know-how, what we are missing is the political will to do it,” said Eva Clayton, a Presbyterian elder and assistant director-general of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

She said even though political leaders have the means to reverse the trend, world hunger is increasing, with more than an estimated 800 million people going to bed hungry every night in a world of plenty.

“We look at it as an insurmountable problem that takes centuries,” said Clayton, a retired Democratic U.S. Representative from North Carolina. “There’s no reason for that. Hunger could be ended. There’s enough food to feed everybody.”

Clayton, named to her current post last year, addressed Presbyterian Hunger Program staff, Hunger Action Enablers and others at Pacific Lutheran University here Aug. 3.
They gathered in a campus chapel to celebrate 35 years of effort by the Presbyterian Hunger Program, which was established in 1969 as a channel through which Presbyterians can be engaged in the fight against hunger in the United States and around the world.

The anniversary celebration — which included singing by South African guests — was held during the 2004 Presbyterian Peace and Justice Conference. The hunger program was one of four PC(USA) sponsors of the five-day intergenerational event, which concluded Aug. 7. (Full story)

While never before in the history of the world has so much food been produced, some eight million children under the age of five die each year from hunger-related causes worldwide, Clayton said. In the United States more than 6.6 million individuals experience hunger on a regular basis, she said.

Clayton said hunger causes illness and death, robs people of their potential to work and cripples children’s learning capacity.

She stressed that freedom from hunger would only be achieved by uniting forces and placing the fight at the very top of the political agenda. She challenged Presbyterians to join people of other faiths and religions, national and international organizations, NGOs and governments to create the political will to achieve this goal.

“We should know that our faith calls us — not calls us, it commands us — to feed the poor and to care for the poor and to make sure justice is for all,” said Clayton.

Her work with the FAO focuses on calling nations to commit to ending hunger in their own counties and to building up international alliances of nations committed to combating hunger.

But the international community is losing ground in efforts to reach goals set by leaders in 1996 to cut hunger in half globally by 2015, Clayton said, adding that the world’s hunger rolls have shrunk far too little in recent years to reach the mark.

“If we achieve that goal, we should be reducing hunger by 24 million (people) every year, but instead we are doing 2.5 million,” Clayton said. “We need to do 10 times that much. If we continue at the rate in which we are doing right now, it will be (the year) 2150 when we cut hunger in half.”

International leaders, acknowledging a lack of progress when they met in Rome for the 2002 World Food Summit, urged those involved in reducing hunger to double their efforts with a sense of urgency, Clayton said.
She said summit leaders urged countries to turn verbal commitments into practical programs to end hunger and called on the world’s nations to form an international alliance to battle the problem.

This led to the launching of the International Alliance Against Hunger on World Food Day last October. Clayton said some 84 countries, including the United States, have expressed a willingness to take part “to make sure they create the political force for policy reform and the mobilization of resources for the vulnerable and for the poor.”

Clayton said she’s hopeful that this renewed international consensus will translate into an active, more efficient global partnership that brings together the strengths of all those committed to fighting hunger.

“Governments cannot do it alone,” Clayton said. “No NGOs can do it alone. Even the Presbyterian Church can’t do it (alone). It’s only when there is a coming together in an uncompromising manner that all sections of civil society are working and acting in a concerted way with their elected officials can we have meaningful impact on hunger.”

Despite the world’s bulging hunger rolls, Clayton said, there are reasons to “keep hope alive” for the future.

Her optimism that global hunger could end is fueled by the far reaching efforts of such religious groups as the PC(USA) and its hunger program, and partners like the Christian anti-hunger group Bread for the World.

Clayton said she was also optimistic because a growing number of countries are making ending hunger a national priority. China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Nigeria, Ghana and Peru, have all seen reductions in hunger, she said.

Another reason for being hopeful, she said, is that various international organizations are coming together in record numbers to combat hunger.

She said the upcoming presidential election in November is an “excellent opportunity to make a loud prophetic voice that creates the political will against hunger.”

In 1992, Clayton became the first African-American woman from North Carolina to be elected to Congress where she served five two-year terms in the House of Representatives. Before her retirement in 2002, Clayton was a ranking democrat on two congressional committees and served as co-chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.

With the Presbyterian Church, Clayton has served on the Committee on Ecumenical Mission and Relations (UPCUSA), and worked with Self-Development of People (SDOP).

The longtime member of Cotton Memorial Presbyterian Church in Henderson, NC, was one of three Presbyterian women honored during the PC(USA)’s 215th General Assembly in 2003 with a “Women of Faith” Award for her contributions to government and public service.

The Rev. Gary Cook, associate director for Global Service and Witness in the Worldwide Ministries Division, presented Clayton with a Hunger Action Enabler stole adorned with the Biblical loaves and fishes that symbolize God’s abundant provision for all of creation. Cook, who is also acting coordinator of the hunger program, asked Clayton to wear the garment as an honorary Hunger Action Enabler and representative of the church.

“Thirty-five years is a long time,” Clayton said to the anniversary celebrants as she concluded her speech. “I wish you 35 years more, not of the same energy, but renewed energy. Not of the same activities, but larger activities with a more collaborate voice as you create this political wind and political force to end world hunger.”