"I
cannot get used to hunger and desperate poverty in our
plentiful land. There is no reason for it, there is no
excuse for it, and it is time that we as a nation put
an end to it."
--Mickey Leland |
The
Mickey Leland International and Bill Emerson National Hunger
Fellows Programs serve as a living legacy to former Congressmen
Mickey Leland of Texas and Bill
Emerson of Missouri.
Mickey
Leland
Congressman Leland
founded the House Select Committee on Hunger in 1984 and was
a dedicated humanitarian committed to ending hunger both within
the United States and abroad. His dedicated efforts serve
as a foundation for our own anti-hunger work.
With a "heart
as big as Texas," Mickey Leland proudly served as a Representative
to Houston for 11 years. Mickey entered Congress with an agenda
for social change, bringing issues of poverty and justice
into the forefront. He acted as a "compelling voice on behalf
of the voiceless among us - the poor and neglected and abused
and forgotten," according to Representative Joseph Early.
Former Representative Leon Panetta called him the "conscience
of the House," an image that earned Mickey Leland respect
on both sides of the political aisle.
Mickey Leland
established the House Select Committee on Hunger in 1984 and
served as its chairman until his death in 1989. The Select
Committee was instrumental in drawing attention to the problem
of hunger internationally and within the United States. On
a humanitarian mission to Africa, Mickey experienced the death
of a starving child in his arms. This transformative experience
led him to redouble his efforts to fight hunger, resulting
in 350,000 tons of food to aid famine victims in Ethiopia.
In the United States, Mickey Leland and the Select Committee
on Hunger were able to save thousands of women and children
from being denied access to the WIC Program. Mickey serves
as a legacy for our current and future actions.
A man of integrity
and principle, honor and courage, Mickey Leland's mission
knew no political bounds, and transcended party lines and
national boundaries. He died in a plane crash during a humanitarian
mission to Ethiopia in August, 1989. Mickey Leland's vision
of a hunger-free world has yet to be realized, but his example
serves as an inspiration.
In a memorial
service held for Mickey Leland in Washington, D.C., Speaker
Foley said, "He gave his life in the quest to end world hunger,
to the maintenance of peace, to the protection of the young
and the old, those who were disadvantaged and destitute and
by speaking out everywhere at home and abroad for the rights
and spirit of humanity."
Bill
Emerson
Representative
Bill Emerson served eight terms, 1980 until his death in 1996,
as a Representative for the Eighth District of Missouri. Emerson
was a long-time leader in the fight against hunger in the
United States and abroad. Over many years, he held leadership
positions on the House Agriculture Committee, the House Select
Committee on Hunger, and with the Congressional Hunger Center.
Bill Emerson participated
in countless hearings on the issue of hunger. He was a lead
sponsor of many important pieces of legislation, including
the Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Act of 1983, the nutrition
title of the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act of
1987, the Hunger Prevention Act of 1988, and the Mickey Leland
Childhood Hunger Relief Act of 1991.
Representative
Emerson also was a dedicated friend of the anti hunger movement,
working tirelessly to give food banks the tools they need
to provide for the emergency needs of hungry children and
families. He sought to reduce administrative rules that deny
food assistance to hungry Americans and he was considered
a leading congressional advocate of "one-stop shopping," the
concept that public programs' operations should be harmonized
to best meet the needs of low income households.
The Bill Emerson
Good Samaritan Food Donation Act of October 1996 protects
food donors from liability and encourages companies that have
excess food to donate it to charitable feeding programs.
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