Giving Thanks and Fighting Hunger in Oklahoma

OKLAHOMA CAPITOL -- It’s Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving Dinner has long been the symbol of the holiday.  It may seem hard to believe that in a nation as affluent as the United States, humans go hungry. Occasionally, we’ll read a story about starving horses or dogs in some remote drought-stricken region. But, humans going hungry?
Unfortunately, it is true. With milk at $4 per gallon and food prices climbing higher, persons on fixed incomes are literally choosing between medicine, utilities and food.  When children arrive at school on Monday without eating over the weekend, it is impossible for teachers to fulfill their passion. However, it is exciting and heartwarming to see the generous responses of thousands of Oklahomans to meet this need.

The Food Bank of Central Oklahoma and the Food Bank of Tulsa are long-time partners with Oklahoma Department of Human Services. They distribute millions of pounds of food from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and from hundreds of participating grocery stores and producers to scores of sites where hundreds of volunteers distribute the food through local food pantries.

The federal food stamp program is the cornerstone of the response to hunger. Last year, more than 1 out of every 3 Oklahoma children and approximately 600,000 different persons were certified for food stamps for at least 1 month. Ninety percent of the recipients are either children or persons with earned income who simply do not earn enough to feed their families. The average benefit is $21 per person per week. OKDHS employees certified approximately 125,000 more persons per month than it did 5 years ago with no additional staff. Last year, Oklahoma was recognized as the most outstanding state in our Region in the administration of the food stamp program by the USDA Regional Administrator. This year, we are well on our way to earning that honor again.  We have the lowest error rate in the region and the sixth best rate in the Nation for getting participation in the program. Approximately 77 percent of the persons eligible for the program participate. The national average is 65 percent. The difference between participating at 77 percent and participating at 65 percent amounts to approximately $72 million dollars per year to Oklahoma’s neediest children and families and to Oklahoma’s grocery industry, their employees and our farmers and ranchers.

In late October, the 8,000 employees of OKDHS raised more than $216,000 from bake sales, employee donations and requests for donations from community partners. In partnership with Feed The Children, we purchased 30 tracker-trailer truckloads of food which replenished the food closets of our local OKDHS centers and dozens of churches and community centers throughout Oklahoma.

Scores of churches delivered Thanksgiving food baskets to thousands of Oklahoma families with our help. Thanksgiving baskets for approximately 900 families in Oklahoma County were funded by Life Church, Blue Cross & Blue Shield, Central Oklahoma Integrated Network Systems (COINS), Graham’s Grocers, The City Rescue Mission and a local box company and were distributed by the OKDHS Oklahoma County staff and volunteers.

Thank you, Oklahoma. It is a blessing to work together to combat hunger and to fulfill the purpose for which Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the first Thanksgiving as a National holiday, “as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.”

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Howard H. Hendrick, Oklahoma Cabinet Secretary for Human Services and Director of the Oklahoma Department of Human Services, wrote this opinion editorial.