Commentary : Competitors Can Join Together When Finding a Solution Is a Priority

The holidays are a traditional time of giving, not only to our friends and family but to those we consider less fortunate than we. We receive the usual requests to help the hungry and homeless during this time of celebration, and we respond with our predictable annual generosity.

Unfortunately, this holiday pattern reinforces the thinking that we can make occasional gestures of good will and support but cannot have a real, lasting impact in the lives of the estimated 350,000 hungry men, women and children in Orange County.

Through an unprecedented collaborative effort by ABC, NBC, CBS and the End Hunger Network, we all have an unusual and timely opportunity this holiday season.

While all of us abhor hunger and homelessness in our affluent county, very few of us recognize the critical difference our own individual action will make. That is the focus of the seven prime time network television shows participating in “Prime Time to End Hunger.” This extraordinary project which starts Monday involves seven of the top prime time programs: “Designing Women,” “thirtysomething,” “Head of the Class,” “Jake and the Fatman,” “The Cosby Show,” “Cheers” and “Golden Girls.” The episodes during this week will be about hunger, homelessness, poverty, and illiteracy, with the emphasis being on the impact of volunteerism on these local, national and global problems.

The very existence of this partnership between such fierce competitors as the three television networks is a demonstration of a new mood in our nation. It is becoming a priority to do something that will make a difference in and for our communities. Hopefully viewers will share this commitment as Prime Time goes beyond entertainment and education in our daily lives and asks that we act.

At the end of each program viewers can call a 900 number announced by the show’s celebrities. Orange County respondents will receive an Ending Hunger Handbook, customized with volunteer opportunities at local organizations. This is made possible by another unimaginable partnership between AT&T;, MCI and Sprint.

The triads of network television stations and telecommunications companies are examples of the unpredictable alliances that occur when solving a complex problem becomes a priority. Our history books are filled with other examples of the leadership, creativity, unexpected support and accomplishment that is called forth by a priority being created.

Nationally and globally public opinion is on the move; ending world hunger is becoming a priority. President Bush, on Oct. 25, held a press conference to encourage Americans to watch the Prime Time to End Hunger shows on television this holiday season.

No one is fooled into believing that ending hunger, globally or just here in Orange County, will be simple or easy. Hunger is a complex issue that can be discussed in terms of a variety of “ologies”, “ics” and “isms”: sociology, psychology, ecology, politics, economics, racism, communism and socialism. Hunger has plagued mankind for as long as we have been organized as communities.

But it is possible to end it. How? Not by feeding people endlessly at soup kitchens or in famine camps. To end it sustainably, we must provide hungry people with the opportunities they need to end their own hunger. If any community has the resources to provide the opportunities hungry people need, we do. It is only for the lack of a priority that 17% of our neighbors struggle for adequate nutrition.

Is the problem of hunger complex? Undoubtedly. Is the solution to hunger complicated? Without question hungry people need a wide variety of opportunities to end their hunger, some more difficult to provide than others. This is why hunger will be ended only when we have made it our priority, and express that priority with our time as well as our money. What better time to do that than on the eve of the last decade of the 20th Century?