5 minutes on the year that was 2022

Speaker 1 00:00:36 Hi everyone. Welcome back to Just a Bite, and this episode Joy reflects on 2022 and really captures what this year has meant for our network, the Ohioans we serve, and really all of us. We hope that this energizes you for the next year ahead, and all that has to offer. Take a listen. Speaker 2 00:01:03 What does a new year mean? Hope, reflection, renewal, expectations, excitement, maybe some apprehension, wondering about change around the corner, wondering whether we'll be able to persist, to resist, to respond, to fulfill our promises, pursue our passions. Maybe make some sort of meaningful difference. I've been singing holiday songs to my son for a month now, and one of my favorites has this line, the Thrill of hope. A weary world Rejoices. A weary world. That's what we are, aren't we? A world be set by challenges outside of our control, as well as crises of our own making. How do we begin to look back at a year like 2022? There was more heartbreak than can be captured here. An attack on low-income grocery shoppers in a predominantly black community in buffalo. Innocent children, innocent people taken from us violently and cruelly in too many places to list. Speaker 2 00:02:17 Yoi, Texas, Colorado Springs, Chesapeake, Virginia, Highland Park, Illinois, Sacramento. A devastating war of suffering and intimidation in Ukraine, a war on women's rights in Iran, intensifying climate change, global unrest and widespread refugee crises. Millions of covid deaths for the third consecutive year, including hundreds of thousands in the us. There's been economic pain, far-reaching inflation rising in costs left largely unmitigated, the end of advanced, expanded monthly child tax credit payments, the single closest thing to a silver bullet to end deep childhood poverty. In our small corner of the world, we have been sought out for help by more people, workers, parents and caregivers, children seniors than ever before, as Ohioans have struggled like much of the rest of the country and the world, to maintain self-sufficiency in a decade of oligopolies and widening disparities and everything from wealth and wages to health and access to education. Speaker 2 00:03:37 But 2022 also brought hope in our small corner of the world that hope meant more investments by the Ohio General Assembly and Governor DeWine in our proven public-private partnerships that drive surplus and staple foods to people in need. It meant new investments by the U S D A in commodity programs that further embed our hunger relief network. With the critical agricultural sector and local food systems, we all will rely on more with each passing year. Yes, it even meant new members of our team, new partnerships and renewed commitment to build bridges to equity, dignity, and shared prosperity. I still have that thrill of hope for our weary world. Hope that we can come together with unlikely allies to protect our most American principles, hope that we can find common ground and a path forward toward preserving, protecting, and promoting the moral, ethical, logical, and lawful principles that bind us in the year ahead. On behalf of the Hawaii Association of Food Bank's team, I wish you a new year of possibilities and potential. Thank you for all you do and we look forward to talking with you in 2023.