Hunger

In a story in the Food Section of The Times (Oct. 30), U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Richard E. Lyng said that his department has achieved the goal of "the elimination of poverty-caused hunger" in the United States. In Part 1 of The Times the following day, in an Associated Press story on Page 27, we learn that "30% of Oakland (California) residents suffer from the 'chronic reality' of hunger." A report by the Oakland Community Development Department is quoted as saying "For these Oakland residents, hunger is only one of the many consequences of poverty."

Re "The case for food stamps," Opinion, May 24 The proposed reductions to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (also known as food stamps) are more evidence of the inequality between rich and poor in the United States. There are some 50 million Americans who are "food insecure," including roughly 17 million children, according to the charity Feeding America. The cuts are more than an economic misstep - they are a moral failing. The average food stamp benefit is a little more than $4 a day, about what one pays for a latte at Starbucks.

Re "Tuition costs prompt hunger strikes," April 29 California State University spokesman Mike Uhlenkamp says the students planning hunger strikes to protest excessive executive compensation don't understand the issues. It is the university that seems not to understand the issues. I am a Cal State faculty member, and as such it is important to me that people understand that the university leadership does not represent the thousands of faculty and staff of Cal State. We stand with the students against excessive executive compensation.

A 100-day-old hunger strike at the Guantanamo Bay prison for suspected terrorists has agitated international human rights advocates anew, prompting fresh calls worldwide for closure of the detention center that President Obama vowed to shutter more than three years ago. The European Parliament, the United Nations' human rights commissioner, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and U.S.-allied governments with citizens stuck in indefinite detention...

Every day, we wake up to headlines and images of devastating and seemingly endless violence in hot spots around the globe. In Pakistan, for example, a series of attacks over the last few weeks has killed scores and seriously injured many more. But beneath the headlines, there is another great challenge that is often the root cause of violence or its unintended consequences: increasing rates of hunger and an alarming lack of food. One of the recent attacks in Pakistan struck the United Nations World Food Program office in Islamabad.

At a time when record numbers of people are losing their homes, unemployment is rising and a growing number of families are in need, California caterers, hotels and restaurants throw out roughly 1.5 million tons of perfectly good food every year, according to the state Integrated Waste Management Board. And you know what? If you're the one springing for that hotel banquet, wedding party or corporate event, you have the right to insist that any leftovers be donated to charity.

Congratulations are in order for the more than 500 Mobil Oil dealers who are taking a huge interest in Los Angeles youth and providing $250,000 for job training through Love Is Feeding Everyone (LIFE), which is described in your article as a "food program" (Aug. 18). Readers may be asking why is a food program involved in job training? It's simple when you understand that LIFE is not just about providing food, but it is about enabling people to end their own hunger, by developing economic opportunities.

The question posed to a group of 500 high school students Wednesday morning resonated of John F. Kennedy's famed 1961 rallying call to the American public. "What are you going to do to make America make good on its promises?" asked Joel Berg, director of national service for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Although I, too, have been moved by the work of Knut Hamsun, errors of fact and judgment and the critically narrow scope of Judith Freeman's paean to "Hunger" (Aug. 11) move me to a few words of qualification. First, but of lesser importance, the errors of fact: Hamsun was awarded the Nobel Prize not for "Hunger" but for "Growth of the Soil." "Hunger" is, in fact, something of an anomaly in Hamsun's opus: The majority of his fiction has much more in common with the politically dubious romantic nature-worship of the later novel.

WASHINGTON - Obaidullah, an Afghan villager captured with diagrams of improvised bombs, has marked nearly 11 years as a detainee at the U.S. naval base on Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Three months ago, outraged by what he called another prison "shakedown," he joined a hunger strike there, and now is locked in solitary confinement with at least 100 fellow detainees. "I have seen men who are on the verge of death being taken away to be force-fed," Obaidullah said in a federal court affidavit declassified Friday.

WASHINGTON - Confronted with a mass hunger strike and the use of forced feedings to keep inmates from starving, President Obama broke a long silence on the military prison for suspected foreign terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, declaring it "not sustainable" and making a strongly worded plea Tuesday for its closure. Guantanamo is "a problem that is not going to get better. It's going to get worse. It's going to fester," Obama said at a White House news conference in his most extensive comments on the issue in two years.

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Kings' 16-second breakdown is the short, efficient way of describing their 2-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild here on Tuesday night. But it's not the complete version. The Kings allowed goals by Charlie Coyle and Cal Clutterbuck in the span of 16 seconds in the first period to help determine their fate against Minnesota at Xcel Energy Center. That was exacerbated when they were outworked in the first 40-plus minutes by a team fighting for its playoff life.

RAMALLAH, West Bank - A Palestinian inmate ended a prolonged hunger strike Tuesday after reaching a deal with Israeli military prosecutors for early release, his lawyer and family said. Samer Issawi, whose fast helped fuel weeks of protests in the West Bank this year, will be allowed to return home to East Jerusalem after he serves eight more months , his attorney, Jawad Boulus, said. Issawi, 33, had refused food for 227 days, receiving only infusions of water, vitamins and other supplements, Boulus said.

Halle Berry and Michael Kors have teamed up to work with the United Nations World Food Program. They designed two watches that will be sold to benefit the organization. For every watch sold, 100 meals for hungry children will be provided. The watches will be sold in Michael Kors stores and at MichaelKors.com. [Los Angeles Times] After a year and a half trying to remake J.C. Penney, Ron Johnson was replaced as chief executive by his predecessor, Myron E. Ullman III. [New York Times]

Halle Berry is touting her new pregnancy and motherhood as she prepares to launch a philanthropic campaign with designer Michael Kors. The duo has paired up to launch Watch Hunger Stop, which will provide meals to children in Africa, Syria and maybe Central America. They plan to raise money via the sale of Kors' ubiquitous $295 Runway watch, according to the Associated Press. For each watch sold, 100 meals will be provided to children as part of the U.N. World Food Programme.

RAMALLAH, West Bank - A Palestinian from the West Bank who has been on a hunger strike in Israeli jails since July 1 was released Sunday under an agreement to resettle in the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian officials. Ayman Sharawna, 36, a resident of Dura, near the southern West Bank city of Hebron, was taken Sunday evening from a hospital in southern Israel straight to Gaza, where he was quickly taken to a hospital for further treatment. He was reported to be in poor health after months of not eating.