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A holy mission to end hunger
Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photos by DARWIN WEIGEL
Volunteers Betty Simonds, left, and Sarah Ring of End Hunger in Calvert County sort through potatoes that will be distributed to the 10 pantries it serves in Calvert County, including its own at Chesapeake Church in Huntingtown. The local food bank operates out of donated warehouse space at Kelly Generator and Equipment in Owings.
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Ending hunger is an ambitious goal. Some might even call it impossible. Good thing it's in divine hands, said the Rev. Robert Hahn, chairman of End Hunger in Calvert County, a local nonprofit intent on making people self-sufficient.
With the economy in disarray, unemployment rates have been the chief measures of recession. But in Calvert County, one of the wealthiest counties in the nation, the problem isn't so much unemployment, but "gaps" in the lives of people struggling to make ends meet, Hahn said.
Now in its second year, the campaign has evolved from a way to boost the amount of food going to local food pantries to an organization that is taking a more vested interest in the lives of some individuals.
End Hunger has coordinated with local businesses to provide free services to people toeing the poverty line. In addition to handling food donations, Hahn estimated that End Hunger helps three or four people at a time, with candidates drawn from the Chesapeake Cares Food Pantry operated by Chesapeake Church in Huntingtown, where Hahn serves as senior pastor.
"We are identifying people who are inches away from being self-sufficient and filling the gap," Hahn said inside the warehouse of Kelly Generators in Owings as nearby volunteers sorted potatoes for local food pantries last week.
The idea "fermented" for five or six years before it began in earnest at a May 2008 meeting with local business owners. While it is common for businesses to donate money to local charities, Hahn and End Hunger had a different request — free and discounted services for people in need.
"Money is not always the answer. What they can provide is what they do," Hahn said, adding, "We don't want to subsidize your HBO. We don't want to subsidize your slot machine habit."
Whether it's free car repairs, daycare service for children or college courses, there are countless ways businesses can give to the needy without writing a check, Hahn said.
"The goal is to eliminate the need to do this at all," he added. "The goal is to create an awareness where there is continuous giving in this county."
While End Hunger operates year-round, its big push comes in October, when it places collection bins in each of the county's 23 public schools and select businesses for a month-long food drive. Food drives provide students a great "service learning" experience and show them the difference a community can make, Calvert County Schools Superintendent Jack Smith said.
"I do think that a country as well resourced and where there's so much food … that really there's no reason anybody should go hungry," said Smith, who pointed out the irony in having national hunger and obesity problems simultaneously.
The food collected during October is then sent to Kelly Generators, which donated use of its warehouse to End Hunger last October and this month.
Once the food arrives, volunteers sort items onto pallets for soup, pasta, canned meats and canned vegetables so that 10 member food pantries can quickly pick up the food and restock their stores.
End Hunger also receives large donations — including nearly 5,700 pounds of potatoes last week — from the Maryland Food Bank in Baltimore.
End Hunger's efforts caught the eye of state Senate President Thomas V. "Mike" Miller Jr. (D-Calvert, Prince George's), who recommended Hahn when Rosemary King Johnston, executive director of Gov. Martin O'Malley's Office for Children, was looking for a faith-based representative to join the Partnership to End Childhood Hunger in Maryland.
"It's an amazing, grassroots outreach," Johnston said of End Hunger. "I'm just so grateful that we connected with [Hahn]. We use him as an example all the time of what locals can do."
Hahn hopes to expand End Calvert County and select people from the ECHO shelter and other food pantries in the future. Doing so will require enlisting more businesses willing to offer free services, but Hahn is confident in the community's readiness to help.
"Hunger is the scandal of our time," Hahn said. "In the United States, there's no reason anyone should go hungry unless they want to," Hahn said.
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