Program Director, Dorigen Keeney wins 2012 David Goldberg Award

On Friday, June 8th we were proud to cheer on our colleague, Dorigen Keeney, as she accepted the 2012 David Goldberg Child and Youth Advocacy Award from Voices for Vermont's Children.  It is an honor to work with Dorigen every day.  She is a passionate and courageous advocate who has dedicated her life to the well-being of our communities.  Below I have shared her acceptance speech which will hopefully inspire you as much as she inspires her team at Hunger Free Vermont. 

Voices for Vermont’s Children: Children Make a World of Difference

June 8, 2012

I am truly honored to be chosen by Voices for VT children for the David Goldberg award – Both because of the esteem I have for Voices – as an outstanding advocacy organization and because David Goldberg was so committed to ending hunger and improving nutrition. As I have learned from Carlen, David was the first VT Director of the WIC program (and crafted our unique food delivery that served our rural population and supported the dairy industry, at the time). David also worked with the Bread and Law Task Force to improve the nutrition of low income peoples.

Voices for Vermont’s children is a great model for all of us working to improve the lives of Vermonters. They are courageous, collaborative, and dedicated to the children of Vermont. They are willing to take the lead on tackling huge issues like the lack of affordable oral health care for low income Vermonters …. They dare to dream that we could actually end childhood poverty ….  And they are unselfish in helping all of us do our work better.  Please join me in thanking Voices for dedication to improving the lives of Vermont’s children.

I would like to share with you some stories of children and youth who have  been on my mind recently.

In Barre, a young man was going without any food for the whole school day. The food service director noticed and every day would pack a bag lunch for him that he could pick up discretely from the kitchen. But it does not stop there.  The young man would wolf down his lunch and spend the rest of his short lunch break doing dishes to pay back the meal. We hear similar stories in schools everwhere.

On Monday mornings, the cooks at the school in Greensboro double up the recipes because the children come to school so hungry from not having eaten much all weekend. Furthermore, the school has started to leave out muffins and coffee for the parents leaving off their kids as they realize that many are heading to work having not eaten. 

As we all know, many grandparents are taking over care of their grandchildren without enough resources to even care for themselves.  A grandmother in St. Johnsbury, divides her meals on wheels among her grandchildren because there is no other food in the house.  This is echoed all across VT.

13% of our children live below the FPL and almost 40% are low income.  1 in 5 Vermont children are living in homes without adequate food and the extent of food insecurity has been growing faster in Vermont than in most other states.

I’m amongst friends here tonight and so will be blunt.  Why is it that in this supposedly progressive state, we find ourselves politely asking for scraps when we are talking about meeting a child’s most basic needs?  It’s time that we get testy.  Children need adequate food, quality child care and education, and stable housing to thrive. Compassion for our fellow human beings aside, we know the high costs to the individual and to society when children’s basic needs are not met. 

The state of our children must be front and center in every Governor’s State of the State address, every Town’s Annual Report and used as the basis for budgets passed by our state legislature.  All of us should be demanding attention to children’s, families’ and seniors’ needs throughout the year, not just settling for the obligatory news story before Thanksgiving.

Advocacy organizations cannot bring about the necessary shift in priorities alone; we need individuals to press their elected officials to deliver. 

Is it reasonable to expect that Vermonters would be willing to pay 50 cents apiece in order to assure that children are fed at school?  Of course it is.  Is it reasonable to ask that grandparents who care for children have enough food? Of course it is. Is it reasonable that children should have enough to eat even when the food shelf is closed? Of course it is.

Like the teenage boy in Barre, many low income children whose families aren’t poor enough to qualify for free school meals go without food all day because there is no food at home nor is there the 40 cents to buy a meal. The cost to give these children, victims of the benefit cliffs, is about $350,000 – or about 1/3 of a percent of the paving budget for the state. That is .003 of the paving budget.  Kids vs potholes? I’ll drive a little slower if it means children are fed.  I’ll also pay more in taxes. Will you join me?

Based on everything I am told, David Goldberg would not be quiet on these issues, nor is Voices for Vermont’s Children. The children going without food in schools, the grandparents caring for grandchildren and all those suffering without basic necessities need us to raise our voices.

Go out and raise some Cain!                                     

Respectfully, Dorigen Keeney, Hunger Free Vermont