Inside the
Fall Issue:

Home Page

All Because
of Harry...

Harry Chapin
Run Against Hunger

Be Not Afraid

An Extraordinary
Friendship

Larry Austin Helps Keep
Harry’s Long Island
Dreams Alive

Fighting AIDS
in Ethiopia:
One Person
Making a Difference

Bonnie Raitt
Honored With
Chapin Humanitarian
Award

Readers Help
Those Affected by
Hurricane Katrina

Chapin Family
& Friends Plan
Concert in NYC
To Benefit WHY’s
30th Anniversary

Goat Tales

Doing Something

Letter to the Editor

WHY Hosts Free
Anti-Hunger Forum
October 18th

Country Store
Owner Celebrates
“Harry Chapin Weekend”

Circle! Calendar

Be Not Afraid

Editor’s Note: This year marks WHY’s (World Hunger Year) 30th anniversary of fighting hunger. To mark the occasion, WHY Co-Founder and current Executive Director Bill Ayres shares his reflections on the spirit he and Harry Chapin established when they started the organization.

by Bill Ayres

People who are hungry live in fear.

They live in fear of not being able to feed themselves and their families, especially their children, fear of violence from people who have power over them, and fear of eviction from whatever housing they inhabit. They live in fear of losing a job that would spin them into the disaster of debt and homelessness and fear of sickness or an accident that would precipitate losing that all important job, no matter how insignificant and poor paying it might be.

We who have dedicated our lives to fighting hunger and poverty should not live in fear, but often we do. We live in fear of budget cuts for the meager government programs that keep us one step away from closing our doors or cutting back our programs. We live in fear of the fundraiser that flops or the mail appeal that goes unanswered and leaves a large hole in our budget. We live in fear of programs that are well intentioned but ill conceived or ineffective for reasons beyond our control. Virtually all anti-hunger organizations are marginal, living from year to year, sometimes month to month.

When Harry Chapin and I co-founded WHY (World Hunger Year) in 1975 we wanted no part of those fears. Harry had few fears. He was not afraid to take risks, big risks. I grew up with a wonderful father, but a man who had a fear of taking risks, a legacy of growing up in a single parent family during The Great Depression. I decided I would never live my life in fear. Prudent caution yes, but fear of risks has never been a part of my life. We have always run WHY somewhat on the edge but never over it.

Harry started that spirit out by doing half his concerts for hunger and other important causes. Many people though he was nuts to take such risks but that’s how he was and that’s how WHY started.

Over the years, we have been innovators and niche marketers in the hunger movement. That meant taking risks. Our first big idea in 1975 was the Hungerthon, a 28 hour radio show to raise awareness about hunger and poverty locally, nationally and internationally. After Harry died and WHY become destitute for a while, the Hungerthons helped us to continue to spread the word to millions of people but also to raise more than eight million dollars since 1985. That has allowed us to move beyond survival to really grow.

Our next cutting edge hunger fighting idea was the New York City Hunger Hotline, one number to call if you are hungry in NYC. Over the years it helped hundreds of thousands of people to find emergency food and often much more that would help them to get back on their feet and become self reliant. Now, thirty years later, WHY runs the only National Hunger Hotline in America. We answer tens of thousand of calls each year and help the callers to connect to emergency food, government hunger and poverty programs and more. During the past 30 years, we have taken major risks to bring major resources to hungry people.

From the beginning, our whole approach was to help people to move beyond charity, beyond the hand-out to real change in their lives through a hand-up. After Harry died, Sandy Chapin came up with a set of awards to honor him and help reward the best grass roots hunger and poverty programs in the US, the Harry Chapin Self-Reliance Awards. From the knowledge we gained by reading hundreds of applications for the awards we created our Reinvesting In America program that now connects us to more than 9,000 community based programs in America that are transforming millions of lives.

Since Harry died there have been several times when I wondered whether we would be able to continue our work because of a lack of funding but I always stayed true to the spirit I shared with Harry of “be not afraid”. Somehow, WHY has grown in size but more important in effectiveness with that kind of leadership.

Hungry people live in fear. Our job is not to live in fear but to take some prudent risks to make life a little bit easier for them so that they might not live in fear. Right now, thirty years and counting we are more effective than ever, helping more people than ever, with more great partners than ever. I imagine Harry must be smiling.

Check out all that WHY is doing on our website www.worldhungeryear.org or give us a call at 1-800-5-HUNGRY. If you live in the New York area tune in to Hungerthon on October 20th on WCBS-AM 880, from 5 am to 8 pm, (simulcast on www.wcbs880.com), November 20th (WFAN, 6am – 10am), and November 22nd on WFAN, WINS (simulcast on www.1010wins.com), KROCK, WNEW FM, and WCBS FM/Jack FM). Or catch us on SIRIUS Satellite Radio.

Thank you for your interest and support for Harry’s music and his organization, WHY.

For more information on WHY and Hungerthon, and to make an instant, secure, on-line donation, visit www.worldhungeryear.org

Watch for the Next Issue of Circle! on December 7