By Eugene T. Lowe
January 31, 2005

Cedar Rapids Mayor Paul Pate and Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell, Co-Chairs of the Conference of Mayors Task Force on Hunger and Homelessness, convened the Task Force on Tuesday, January 18, to discuss strategies for addressing the increased demand being made by citizens for emergency shelter and food. The meeting was also held to review some of the efforts of 175 cities that have committed to developing a 10-year plan to end chronic homelessness in their jurisdictions. Several mayors in addition to task force members attended the meeting to sign a Covenant of Partnership to share data, strategies and other successful innovations, and to encourage additional cities to join the effort.

Pate and Purcell reviewed the major findings of the Hunger and Homelessness Survey released in December, 2004. The 27-city survey found that emergency food assistance increased by an average of 14 percent, with 96 percent of the cities registering an increase. Requests for emergency shelter increased in the survey cities by an average of six percent, with 70 percent of the cities registering an increase.

Steve Brady, Senior Vice President for Communications, Sodexho and President of the Sodexho Foundation, gave an overview of the programs that his company has developed to address the issue of hunger in America. Sodexho is the leading contract food service and facilities management company in America, serving more than 6.5 million people every day. Sodexho also sponsors the Conference of Mayors annual survey on hunger and homelessness.

Brady said that "Sodexho, through our foundation, has provided millions of dollars in grants to hunger relief organizations, job training programs such as Community Kitchens in partnership with America's Second Harvest; mentoring programs for children who are failing in Head Start; and the Campus Kitchens program which engages college students in providing meals to the home bound elderly. And we not only provide grants to Habitat for Humanity, but engage our people in supporting builds. We currently have Habitat projects underway in Atlanta, Jacksonville, and here in DC."

Philip Mangano, Executive Director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, who has worked closely with mayors over the last several years developing 10-year plans to eliminate chronic homelessness, briefed the mayors on the results of the many efforts that have been made so far. He said that while the numbers from the hunger and homelessness survey sounds discouraging, there are numbers which are encouraging. As a result of the 10-year plans, "some cities are already seeing an impact. Cities like Philadelphia and Miami are actually seeing reductions in the number of people on their streets as a result of some of the innovative ideas moving forward," Mangano said.