Joel Berg, an expert on hunger issues, spoke recently at Finkelstein Memorial Library.

It would take $24 billion annually to solve hunger problems in the United States, according to Monsey native and nationally recognized hunger relief advocate Joel Berg. Though it is not on most people's radars during these days of trillion dollar bailouts, Berg said that at least 10 percent of the households in the country are "food insecure." In other words - they are unable to consistently provide proper nourishment for everyone in the family. The decrease in productivity and the health care costs caused by the hunger problem is estimated to be $90 billion, Berg said.

Berg was the guest speaker at the annual meeting of the Friends of Finkelstein Memorial Library on June 7 at the library. He lectured on hunger relief and promoted his book "All You Can Eat, How Hungry is America," ($17.21, Seven Stories Press) while also reconnecting with his childhood neighborhood. "I give talks from Alaska and Maine literally, and this is the one on the calendar I looked forward to. I see friends of my late mother here," Berg, a Spring Valley High School graduate who currently lives in Brooklyn, said to the crowd of about 30 people in attendance.

Berg, a past winner of the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture's Honor Award for Superior Service and the Congressional Hunger Center's Mickey Leland National Hunger Fighter Award, encouraged the audience to think of the federal government as having the potential for creative solutions on hunger. Food stamps and school lunch programs had been successful in the past in wiping out hunger and should be expanded again, he said. Berg, who describes himself as a liberal, stated that the Great Society programs during the Johnson Administration in the 1960s brought more 10 million people out of poverty. He also said that President Richard Nixon surprisingly did the most of any U.S. president to eradicate hunger by expanding social service programs. One section in his book is titled "Nixon: Crook, Despot, Thief ... and one of history's greatest (albeit reluctant) hunger fighters."

By the end of the 1970's hunger was basically non-existent in the United States, as it currently is in most of Western Europe. However, under the Reagan administration, Berg, who held senior executive positions within USDA during the Clinton Administration, said much of the social safety net was removed, and people began to fall into hunger again. He also said an increase in the wealth inequality and lack of social mobility is contributing to poverty and hunger. Immigration and lack of upward mobility has caused the poverty rate in Rockland County to increase from 6.4 percent in 1990 to 12.9 percent in 2006, before the current economic crisis hit, he noted.

Berg challenged those who view government as evil to consider the fact that in the 1800's cholera, yellow fever and malaria w ere all common diseases until government solved the problem by creating reservoir systems and water management systems. He compared hunger to those diseases as well as scourges such as slavery and child labor. Berg said he hoped one day the notion of a hungry family in America would be as "unthinkable" to us as slavery is now.

One of the founders of Americorps, a domestic program akin to the Peace Corps, Berg believes simply relying on charity is a "bucket brigade" approach to dealing with poverty. Bucket brigades were decentralized, volunteer firefighters who would show up to fight fires in the early 1800's. They would carry buckets of water into a building and try to douse the flames. They were very libertarian and didn't cost much, Berg said, but unfortunately they didn't work very well and sometimes wouldn't even show up. It took government action to create firefighting departments that worked.

"In the 1980's we were sold a bill of goods that the bucket brigade would solve problems. Charity is not the answer. A dirty little secret is most food for food pantries comes from the government. Only about 5 percent comes from food drives. Charity itself is only 5 percent of the hunger safety net," Berg said. In addition to the $24 billion invested in safety net programs, Berg recommends a progressive program of higher taxes on the wealthy, and increases in the minimum wage and more living wage jobs.

"For those who think the wealthy are 'just better' I have four wordd - Bernie Madoff, Paris Hilton," Berg quipped, noting that many diseases were allowed to flourish in the past simply because they affected more poor people than wealthy people. He also said it's up to people to make President Barak Obama stick to his pledge to end child hunger by 2015.

"Our job is to get him to do that. Get our politicians to do it - Senators Schumer and Gillibrand," he said, aiming at New York's senators.

Prior to Berg's speech the Friends of Finkelstein Library elected officers to two year terms -- Rena Finkelstein, president, Vicky Morse, vice president, Geraldine Jackson and Ruth Cordero, co-secretaries and Joseph Burdige and David Eig, co-treasurers. "The board is very sensitive of the speech on hunger when we're enjoying this wonderful [event]. Many people in Rockland are living in hunger, poverty and homelessness. We feel fortunate and blessed to be able to host this event," Finkelsteing noted.

Berg reminisced that as a Monsey native the Finkelstein Library was "key" to his development as a young man. "I remember coming here and reading New York Times microfilms, learning all a bout history," he said. When asked what Rockland County government should to do fight hunger, Berg recommended they ensure an adequate supply of case workers for social services. To cut back on that staff, he said is "penny-wise and pound-foolish."