Project MANA - A Hunger Relief Agency

North Lake Tahoe Bonanza:   Recently one of my sons was given a reading assignment and he had to choose from a list of approved books. Since it was in his best interest to get on my good side during this particular time, he let me influence his choice of books and selected "The Grapes of Wrath." The thickness of the book's three inches compared to the normal half inch he would choose, by size, indicated a sincere desire to subdue my wrath.

I had read the book when I was in high school, over 40 years ago, but remembered little about it other than it was a required classic. I decided to read along with him and whenever the book was not in use I picked it up and found a quiet corner to read.

For those of you who have not read this John Steinbeck classic, or happen to share my selective memory process because of limited brain storage capacity, here is a quick recap. It is about the Great Depression and the thousands of dispossessed souls (Okies) escaping to a better life in California with the promise of work. They arrive to find they are competing against hundreds for a job that needs only ten. As a result, the employers have the advantage and in a world before workers rights and unions the "Okies" are exploited and punished for believing in the promise of something better. In some cases they have to work for as little as five cents an hour, barely enough to keep them alive.

Obviously I was now reading this with a different perspective than when I was made to read it as a teenage student. What struck me the most was how little people had to eat. Every day was a struggle for food until in the end they were trapped in their jobs by the company store. They had to literally spend their day's earnings and go into debt just to keep from starving to death. Many did starve and many others died from complications of malnutrition.

Eventually the story is completely focused on day to day survival. Hunger was a constant and starvation was always right around the corner. Many survived on a mixture of flour and water fried in lard, once a day. Once in a while a pot of beans with a bone in it represented several days' wages and gave them the strength to keep on working in an exhaustive, depressing state of being.

As I progressed with the book I found myself with a new appreciation for food. I also felt a renewed sense of discipline and strength. I did not need to eat as much as I normally would. Each little meal felt like a bonus and even the smallest amount satisfying.

After months of near starvation, some of the Okies became desperate and struck back at their oppressors. Some resorted to stealing to keep their children alive. If they were caught, the punishment was excessive, including jail sentences that effectively separated the "bread winner" from his family. If they tried to organize and protest their low wages, they were called "reds" for causing problems and faced night raids that destroyed what little they had, including their will and belief in mankind.

The onset of World War II pulled us out of the Great Depression. The military found large numbers of draftees were being turned away as potential recruits because of issues related to malnutrition. Alarmed at the high numbers and worried about the security of our country, the government created our school lunch program "in the interest of national security."

This all happened seventy years ago. The contrast between now and then is astounding to me. Our school lunch program, which was once destined to be the kitchen of health for our most precious resource, has turned into "warming facilities," where "hot lunches" are unpackaged. No fault of the cafeteria staff, the decisions are made at the policy level.

The average child sees at least 500 advertisements a week for junk food. The food industry has become a successful and powerful lobbyist, allowed to target our children with foods high in sugar and fat. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention states that the obesity epidemic is the number one threat to our nation's health costing the taxpayers billions of dollars each year. One in every three children born in the year 2000 will get diabetes according to the CDC. The head of the Children's Hospital in Los Angeles spoke at a conference I participated in last year. She stated that they are dealing with eleven year olds that weigh more than 500 lbs.

On one hand we have an obesity epidemic created from marketing and our obsession with food. On the other hand we still have Americans that are food insecure. I still have a hard time throwing away food on my plate, preferring to increase my waist size rather than to throw good calories away. I can still hear my parents, "take what you want, but eat what you take." I am learning, though, to change my habits and I now realize where some of them came from. It is that same mindset carried over from my grandparents and parents who remembered the Great Depression and passed on, in a way, a sense of "food-insecurity."

Not all is doom and gloom. The last known case of starvation was in the 1960s. There are also a lot of good things happening with health, nutrition education, and physical exercise. The government has been pushing the food industry to provide better labeling and to be more socially responsible, instead of reverting to tricky marketing. Schools are starting to pull the vending machines out or replacing them with water and juice. School lunches are beginning to provide alternatives like salad at the high school level. Not last, and not least, science has finally caught up with what many of us have intuitively known for years. Nutrition plays an important role in our health.

In recognition of Health and Nutrition Month, Project MANA is organizing a number of activities to encourage students to develop eating habits that promote lifelong health. Some of these activities include nutrition education classes with local elementary schools, Fun Food Days, which introduce kids to fruits and vegetables, a Fruit and Veggie challenge with second graders, Kids Can Cook classes, a Hunger Awareness banquet, and Nutrition Breaks at the elementary and middle schools.

For more information, contact Project MANA at (775) 298-0008.

George LeBard is the executive director at Project MANA.

George LeBard
Special to the Bonanza

Please call 775-298-0008 for specifics.

North Lake Tahoe Bonanza: Project MANA staff and board of directors would like to thank Mrs. Dorothy Lemelson for donating $10,000 to our program. Mrs. Lemelson has been very generous to our community over the years donating not only to us but to many other organizations as well.

The funding we received will be used for hunger relief programs in the communities that we serve. The Lemelson Education and Assistance Program, founded by Mrs. Lemelson in 2001, supports programs dedicated to improving the daily lives of children and families through local community educational and cultural programs, projects and organizations.

We applaud her thoughtfulness and kind consideration to make a difference in the lives of those in need.

Golf Fore Education 2008 Website

21, 22, and 23 June 2008

A collaboration of Incline Schools Academic Excellence Foundation (ISAEF), the American Association of University Women-Tahoe/Nevada (AAUW), Project MANA, and Lake Tahoe School.