Jobs and Hunger

Congratulations are in order for the more than 500 Mobil Oil dealers who are taking a huge interest in Los Angeles youth and providing $250,000 for job training through Love Is Feeding Everyone (LIFE), which is described in your article as a “food program” (Aug. 18).

Readers may be asking why is a food program involved in job training? It’s simple when you understand that LIFE is not just about providing food, but it is about enabling people to end their own hunger, by developing economic opportunities.

In situations such as that covered in your “Sorrows of Somalia” (Aug. 5), bold and immediate food relief is required by the stark specter of famine. However, 90% of the world’s hunger, including hunger in the United States, is chronic persistent undernutrition, rather than famine.

The actions required to deal with chronic hunger are not usually just food relief. What is needed is the courage and creativity to provide economic opportunities. The actions of LIFE and the Mobil dealers are precisely the kind of initiatives that can end hunger in our country--actions that help people feed themselves.

JIM ROSENFIELD

Los Angeles