NEW YORK — WhyHunger would have liked to be out of service by now.
Singer-songwriter Harry Chapin and radio DJ Bill Ayres founded the grassroots support organization in 1975 with the idea they could eradicate hunger at its root by leveraging their music industry connections to fund community groups advancing economic and food security. And, yet, the global nonprofit is hitting the half-century mark this year — an anniversary that reflects the sobering need for continued food assistance.
“It is pride and shame in equal measure,” said Jen Chapin, the daughter of Harry Chapin and a WhyHunger board member, at the nonprofit’s gala Wednesday night. “That this organization is still relevant when hunger is a completely solvable problem — it’s embarrassing.”
Established amid transformative expansions of federal food programs just before the United States significantly cut social welfare, WhyHunger marks its 50-year milestone at a time of worsening food insecurity worldwide when some of the wealthiest countries are decreasing their humanitarian commitments.
As part of the Trump administration’s swift scaling back of the federal government, funding streams are being shut off for many in the nonprofit’s network that help millions of hungry people access nutritious food.
Chapin said the immense need, and “that the political conversation has gone backward,” would be “infuriating” to her late father.
“But he wouldn’t pause to rant,” she said. “He’d be like, ‘OK, what can we do?’”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates more than 47 million people, including nearly 14 million children, lived in food-insecure households in 2023 — a crisis WhyHunger blames on “deeper systemic issues” of rising inflation, the rollback of pandemic relief and poor wages.
Those statistics were “ridiculous” to Grammy award-winning rockers Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo. The couple, which performed its hit “Love Is a Battlefield,” was recognized Wednesday with the ASCAP Harry Chapin Humanitarian Award, given to artists who use their influence to foster social justice.
Giraldo said they’ve been in