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Since the 1930s the United States government
has engaged in the fight to eliminate hunger and poverty through
its foreign assistance and domestic anti-poverty programs.
In 1984 Congress recognized that it could play an even larger
role in addressing international and domestic hunger through
the establishment of the Select Committee on Hunger. Over
the select committee's ten-year life, hundreds of hearings
were held and legislation passed that strengthened U.S. efforts
to lessen and eliminate this solvable, worldwide problem.
Congressman Mickey Leland of Texas served as the first chairman
of the select committee until his untimely death during a
humanitarian mission to Ethiopia in 1989. Congressman Tony
P. Hall of Ohio became the second and final chairman of the
Select Committee on Hunger.
At the beginning of the 103rd Congress (1993),
all select committees were eliminated as a symbolic cost-cutting
measure. In an effort to use this disappointing event as a
means to elevate the problem of hunger, Chairman Hall embarked
upon a highly publicized 22-day hunger fast. The momentum
and publicity generated by this unusual act led to the creation
of two new anti-hunger entities on Capitol Hill: the Congressional
Hunger Caucus and the Congressional Hunger Center. These twin
successors accomplished much in their first year of operation.
However, leadership of the 104th Congress eliminated the Hunger
Caucus, along with all other caucuses, on the first day of
the 104th Congress, January 4, 1995.
In 1993, Congressman Hall and his long-time
friend, Republican Congressman Bill Emerson, established the
Congressional Hunger Center as a certified 501(c)3 and recruited
early private donations to fund a small staff and programs.
In 1994 the Congressional Hunger Center
successfully initiated a challenge grant from VISTA to establish
a model anti-hunger leadership program, the Mickey Leland
National Hunger Fellows Program. Several years, a name change
or two, and more than 185 fellows later, 2002 finds the Bill
Emerson National Hunger Fellows Program in its 9th year.
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