National hunger expert Joel Berg to appear at Harvest Celebration Dinner

By Just Harvest on July 31, 2016 in Events, Fundraiser

We are thrilled to announce that the keynote speaker of the 2016 Harvest Celebration Dinner on October 25 will be Joel Berg, CEO of Hunger Free America.

Joel Berg is a nationally recognized leader and media spokesman in the fields of domestic hunger, food security, obesity, poverty, food-related economic development, national service, and volunteerism. He is also the author of All You Can Eat: How Hungry Is America?, the definitive and most well-reviewed book on American hunger of the last decade. Seven Stories Press will publish his second book, America We Need to Talk: A Self-Help Book for the Nation, in February, 2017.

Hunger Free America (formerly the New York City Coalition Against Hunger) has it as its long-term goal “to build the people’s movement necessary to enact the economic and public policies needed to end hunger entirely.” Since joining the organization in 2001, Joel “has grown the nonprofit into a multi-million-dollar, respected national champion for Americans struggling to obtain nutritious food.”

He is also the author of some of our favorite quotes:

Trying to end hunger with food drives is like trying to fill the Grand Canyon with a teaspoon.”

Or how about this plucky statement from June, when he called out, in no uncertain terms, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Paul Ryan’s disastrous package of policies that the legislator claimed would address American poverty,

This is a policy bait and switch of the first order…. Ryan’s proposals for supposedly reducing poverty should be taken as seriously as Colonel Sanders’ retirement plans for chickens.”

Just Harvest and the United Steelworkers are proud to be honoring Joel Berg with our 2016 George and Jane Becker Memorial Award, which we will present to him at the event.

Our Seeds of Justice Award is presented annually at the Harvest Celebration Dinner to individuals or organizations that make extraordinary contributions in advancing Just Harvest’s mission to eliminate hunger and poverty.

This year’s Seeds of Justice awardee will be our allies at the Kingsley Association. Founded in 1893 as one of the first settlement houses of Pittsburgh’s industrial age, the Kingsley Association today is an anchor and driving force of positive social and economic development in Larimer. They have addressed their community’s food access needs by helping coordinate the large community garden operated by the Larimer Green Team and hosting a mobile produce sales location for Farm Truck Foods. Most recently, they have assisted Just Harvest in engaging community residents and business owners to advance our Fresh Corners project.