Kathleen Gorman
Position: Director, URI Feinstein Center
for a Hunger Free America, University of Rhode Island
Background: Before joining the URI faculty in 2000, Gorman was a psychology
professor at the University of Vermont, where she also did research on hunger
issues. Prior to this, she had done research, through the University of California-Davis,
on the effects of malnutrition on infants’ and young children’s cognitive and
social development in Third World countries, and had lived in Guatemala for
two years.
Education: Bachelor’s degrees from the University of Notre Dame (1978)
and the Catholic University of Peru (1982), and licensed as an educational psychologist
(1982). Doctorate in human development from the University of Maryland, College
Park (1987).
Residence: Wakefield
Age: 48
Each fall, the University of Rhode Island’s Honors Program spotlights a
major issue through a semester-long series of lectures, exhibits and other events
that invite the community to join URI students in the discussion. This fall’s
Honors Colloquium, “Food & Human Rights, Hunger & Social Policy,” looks
at food’s role in people’s lives and the growing problem of hunger worldwide
and in Rhode Island.
Conceived by Gorman, the series begins Sept. 14 and will include lectures by CNN international correspondent Christiane Amanpour; Janet Poppendieck, author of “Sweet Charity? Emergency Food and the End of Entitlement”; and Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc., among others, as well as a panel discussion including government, business leaders and advocates.
PBN: First, what do you mean by hunger?
GORMAN: We all know what hunger is, but we talk about hunger in this context as both recurrent and involuntary, so it’s not something you’re choosing to do. If on a regular basis you’re missing meals, you’re experiencing hunger. … We also talk about food insecurity, which includes things like eating just cereal or something that’s not adequate for a good diet … or people who don’t know where their next meal is going to come from. So if you’re eating from a soup kitchen and then getting a bag of groceries from a food pantry, you are food insecure, because you don’t have an assured ability to get food on a regular basis.
Q. How widespread is hunger and food insecurity in Rhode Island?
A. In Rhode Island we estimate 9 to 10 percent of the population is food insecure; of those, about 40 percent are children. If you’re looking at actual hunger, it’s probably closer to 3 percent. But if you think about food insecurity, and those are people who fluctuate in and out of hunger and don’t know where the next meal is coming from, we’re probably talking about 90,000 to 100,000 people in Rhode Island.
Q. I don’t see them, and I don’t think most people in Rhode Island would be able to say, ‘I know somebody who goes hungry.’
A. You’re absolutely right. It’s not something you see, and when you do, it’s some guy going into the Salvation Army soup kitchen. And people are proud. They’re not going to come up and tell you that they don’t have enough money to eat. But if you talk to people, if you see who goes to pantries and soup kitchens, you (find out). … One of the most upsetting groups we see are children. We get calls from teachers who know there are high school students who stand outside the kitchens of their schools and wait until the food gets discarded after the afternoon meal, not to cause trouble, but to take some of that food home to eat. They say, ‘What do we do?’ and you can’t do anything, because the students would be devastated if they thought someone knew.
Q. Why is there hunger in Rhode Island?
A. I think it’s complicated, but the most simple answer is that people don’t have enough money to buy food, and they don’t because if they are working – and many of the people who are experiencing hunger are working – they just don’t make enough money. And they choose to pay their rent or pay for medicines or other big items, and by the end of the month they don’t have enough money, so they eat at a soup kitchen. And it’s easier to give up food than it is to not pay your rent. If you don’t pay your rent, you might get evicted. If you don’t eat, you wait until the next day and you scrounge around.
Q. How solvable is the problem of hunger? Poverty in general seems like such a huge issue to try to deal with.
A. Right, it is. But if you just think about hunger and not poverty, hunger is solvable. We have enough food, and we have enough programs and strategies that we can make sure that people have enough food to eat. What we don’t have is the political will. I’m not saying we could end poverty tomorrow, but if everyone who was eligible for food stamps, WIC, school lunch and school breakfast, and other programs was receiving all the benefits they needed, we would make a huge difference.
Q. Why aren’t people getting all those benefits?
A. I think there’s a lack of information, particularly with food stamps. I’ve spent a lot of time working with the Department of Human Services trying to improve access to food stamps. There’s a lot of misinformation about the program, some stigma; people don’t want to take the benefits or they think they’re not eligible. It’s perceived to be a welfare program, and the emphasis nationwide is to get people off welfare. We talk about food stamps as a nutritional-assistance program and as a work support. You can be working and if you have limited resources, food stamps can help you stretch your dollars.
Q. Are we making inroads toward ending hunger, or is it getting worse?
A. I think the numbers are increasing; low-income people are finding it more and more difficult to make ends meet. Since the 1996 welfare-to-work (reform), we’ve encouraged people and been successful particularly in Rhode Island at getting people into jobs. But it costs money to work, and work doesn’t always pay unless you have other supports: food stamps, child care, RIte Care. If we continue to support these programs, people will be able to work and make more money, and then hunger will decrease.
Q. What about the Rhode Island Community Food Bank? How important is it to support them as well?
A. As a board member and vice president of the board of the Rhode Island Community Food Bank, I would highly encourage people to contribute to the food bank, but it has to be a concerted effort. If people give to the food bank but don’t see the (public policy) side, they think we’re making bad choices. The food bank fulfills a great need, but they can’t do it alone.
Q. Do you see a role for business in reducing hunger?
A. Absolutely. It’s really important for businesses to see themselves as part of the solution. Too often, businesses are pitted against social service agencies, but businesses employ most of the working people in the state, and they have some responsibility to ensure they make enough to support their families. If businesses are struggling to find the resources – and I think many small businesses do have a difficult time – they can at least support the programs Rhode Island has developed to help low-income working people. Food retailers, for example, could benefit directly from greater participation in the food stamp program, which brings millions of dollars each month into the state. If we had full participation, we estimate an additional $2.5 million of federal money a month would come into the Rhode Island economy. Food retailers should be begging people to sign up for the food stamp program, because they will be direct beneficiaries.
Q. Going back to wages: It seems like it’s a real Catch-22 between do you pay minimum wage and employ 10 people, or do you pay $10.50 an hour and employ six.
A. I obviously think the long-term answer is employ 10 people at $10.50 an hour (laughs). I understand that businesses can’t do it alone, but we have to make sure that there are ways to pay better wages. … Having almost one in five children in Rhode Island growing up in poverty is not good for economic development.
Q. Who do you expect to attend this colloquium, and what do you hope they’ll get out of it?
A. The colloquium has built up a loyal following of people who come every year, but there’s also a broader audience. Hunger is a great uniter. Everyone’s against hunger; there’s no one who’s for it. About 80 or 90 percent of people have given to an anti-hunger agency or donated something at a food drive. And food is an important piece of who we are. What I hope people get out of the colloquium is an understanding of the complexity and magnitude of the problem, but also a sense of empowerment, a sense that there are things we can do, strategies and ideas for how to address the problem.
