Why Rep. Tony Hall goes to drastic lengths to motivate compassion.
U.S. Rep. Tony Hall defies narrow categories. The Ohio Democrat prays devoutly, yet he is no closeted quietist. He cuts the profile of an activist, yet his Christian faith keeps him from being a mere do-gooder. An active participant in the National Prayer Breakfast, a convener of a weekly Capitol Hill prayer and Bible-study breakfast, he is best known outside Washington, perhaps, for his work in fighting hunger.
In the 1960s, Hall served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand. He lived with the poor, experienced their suffering, and entered politics as a result.
Last year, when the U.S. Congress cut off funds for the Select Committee on Hunger, Hall fasted 22 days in protest. After his hunger strike, he organized a Congressional Hunger Caucus and a nonprofit organization, the Hunger Center. In March, he announced a three-day fast during Holy Week to draw attention to hunger and keep it from getting eclipsed by other issues. Twenty members of Congress from both parties joined in for at least part of the time, as did President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore.
In promoting hunger programs, Hall seeks a balance between local efforts and overseas relief. For ten years, he has cultivated a “constituency for hunger” among the people of Dayton, Ohio. And he scheduled a visit to Angola in early April to assess firsthand the hunger crisis there.
CT spoke with Hall on the eve of Good Friday, the last day of his fast.
Are you looking for any specific results from this year’s fast?
Not like last year. I am simply trying to raise the consciousness of the nation. I want people to begin to realize there are 25 million Americans that are hungry, who go to food banks and soup kitchens, and half of them are under the age of 17. So many people don’t understand that, even when you tell them, because in this country you don’t see the hungry like you do in Sudan and Ethiopia. What we have in America are poor women with children—the working poor who don’t qualify for any assistance. After they pay the rent and utilities, they have about two or three days every month when they don’t have money for food.
And we have four or five million senior citizens who fall through the cracks because they live on a fixed income just a little over the poverty line. We have children who go to school, have no energy, and fall asleep in class because their brains are not being fed.
You have blamed the hunger problem on a lack of political will. What do you mean?
Hunger should be in the top 5 issues in this country, but it’s not even close—it’s probably not even in the top 40. When we have so many Americans going hungry and 35,000 people dying overseas from hunger every day, it is a major issue. It would be helpful if the top leaders in our country, the President and the leaders of both parties, would say hunger is an important issue.
We know how to feed people, how to immunize children, how to teach mothers and fathers about nutrition and breast-feeding. We know about vitamin A and how to get people off welfare. It simply must become a priority.
Also, communities, neighborhoods, and cities have hunger programs. It’s not so much a matter of money as it is deciding to do something. Many towns don’t even have good food banks or nonprofit grocery stores.
We do not have enough small-loan programs that get people off welfare. We have done it for years overseas with a default rate of less than one-half of 1 percent. And every community that can should have gleaning programs, where people can collect unharvested food from fields and trees.
How has your hometown of Dayton tackled these issues?
We have a large Emergency Resource Bank, and 66 food banks and soup kitchens. For ten years we’ve had a gleaning program and a senior citizens’ feeding program on weekends. We have Operation Food Share, where local businessmen collect leftover food from restaurants, country clubs, hospitals, and hotels and take it to the Emergency Resource Bank. Then the call goes out, “We’ve got stroganoff tonight.” I’ll tell you, my people in Dayton are eating better than anyone in the country.
How have you managed to keep people involved?
Many years ago I visited Ethiopia during a big famine. I saw so many die. But I realized that many people in my home district did not know about it. We needed to dramatize the problem, so we organized a 40-hour event called Stop Hunger … Fast! People raised money for every hour they fasted. Four thousand participated. We brought in ambassadors from African countries to talk about their nations. We had workshops. We made a big deal out of it, and we raised $380,000. Half went overseas and half stayed in Dayton.
You seem not to have fallen victim to “compassion fatigue.” What keeps you and others going?
I get tired. I’ve seen hunger so many times it’s hard for me to look at it. We keep it going by making it local, making it something people can touch, something they can see with their own eyes.
Why did you go to Angola?
People told me it was so bad there that people were walking around in the major town just dying in the street. We wanted to see it and find out how to help. Conflict has been going on for years—government and antigovernment forces fighting one another. Often a quest for power oppresses and destroys the people. It’s a glaring reason why God says to pray for people in authority.
They have a saying in Africa: “When the elephants fight, the grass dies.” When the leaders fight, the people perish. In 1 Timothy 2, Paul says we should pray for those in authority so that the people “may live a quiet and peaceable life.” We are to pray for the leaders, not because they are special, but because they have the power to make things good or make things bad.
What does fasting mean to you personally?
I have seen the vitality and the power of it. The best part for me is in the morning when I’m alone, reading, praying, and thinking. The 22-day fast brought a real closeness to God. It really is an act of self-denial. It is a way of taking the focus off yourself to put it on something else, a way to humble yourself before God.
If we fast in earnest and humbly, God’s Word becomes very powerful. Isaiah 58 describes the kind of fast God wants: “To loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke to set the oppressed free and break every yoke.… to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter” (6–7, NIV).
If we spend ourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, it says, we will receive God’s guidance, strengthening, and blessing.
For people who fast, a lot of things happen. They identify with hunger because they’re going without. They want to know more. It changes their opinion about reaching out and doing something.
Is life for hungry people today better or worse?
Things have gotten worse, but I think awareness of the issue is improving. If more people can be motivated, both inside and outside government, we will make a major dent in the issue of hunger. That’s one reason for a fast: to raise consciousness about the whole issue and motivate people to do something. I don’t care so much about what they do, as long as they do something. They’ll figure out what they have to do.
By Beth Spring, a freelance writer and author of Staying Safe: Prison Fellowship’s Guide to Crime Prevention.
