The plot may sound familiar: a minority party candidate with grassroots experience runs for office. He probably won’t win — he may not even earn 5 percent of the vote — but he still wants to bring attention to his cause.
No, this movie isn’t about Ralph Nader. Instead, the 75-minute “Taylor’s Campaign” focuses on one man’s struggle to raise awareness of the plight of the homeless by running for the Santa Monica, Calif., City Council.
The film will be featured at the Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Event, held today from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in the Ben Linder Room in the EMU. The ASUO, with help from OSPIRG and Tzedek Hillel, designed the event to increase campus and community awareness about the growing number of hungry and homeless Oregonians.
A question-and-answer session will follow the film, which is narrated by Martin Sheen and directed by Richard Cohen. A panel of experts, including representatives from the Eugene Mission, St. Vincent de Paul, Food for Lane County and the City of Eugene, will field questions. Eugene mayor Jim Torrey and a member of the Eugene City Council are also expected to attend.
The event is ASUO intern Jessica Lurie’s project.
“I hope to see people from the audience ask questions about what the situation is like in Eugene,” Lurie said. “And be motivated to ultimately act on that concern that might be fostered.”
A topic that may arise during the question-and-answer session is Oregon’s demand for subsidized food and housing. Recently, a United States Department of Agriculture study ranked Oregon the highest in the nation for food insecurity. However, panelist Lynn Antis, the assistant director of the Eugene Mission, doesn’t think anyone in Lane County is going hungry.
“There are some really warped numbers being thrown around here,” he said.
On a recent cold night, Antis said the Eugene Mission had 98 spare beds. To Antis, this demonstrates that resources exist for the needy in Lane County. He also suggested that an overabundance of food is a problem that leads to the recipient’s lack of accountability.
Antis said he believes the Mission, which provides food, clothing, shelter and chapel services to the needy, as well as other local organizations, is meeting the homeless population’s primary needs.
“Mental health and drug and alcohol recovery are the two most glaring issues that are not being addressed adequately,” Antis said.
Event panelist Jake Dudell, the emergency services director for St. Vincent de Paul, agrees with Antis that providing food and shelter just places a Band-Aid over hunger and homelessness.
“It’s like solving the coughing or sneezing,” he said. “It’s just a symptom of a more serious disease.”
During the discussion, Dudell will explain that a lack of political will, education and family stability creates hunger and homelessness.
“It wasn’t one incident that caused someone to be hungry or homeless — it is multiple issues snowballed over time,” he said. “You need to have those three working together with common core values to get to the root of the problem and relieve a lot of the tension.”
Lurie said she hopes that greater awareness about these issues will cause people to become concerned and take action.
“The purpose is to get people more involved in these issues locally,” she said.