Hall, who in 2002 became the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture, is writing the book with Tom Price, a longtime reporter for The Journal Herald and Dayton Daily News who first began covering Hall in 1975, when Hall was an Ohio state senator. The book, Changing the Face of Hunger: One Man's Story of How Liberals, Conservatives, Democrats, Republicans and People of Faith are Joining Forces to Help the Hungry, the Poor and the Oppressed, will include personal anecdotes about Hall's travels, and will talk about his faith and how that faith kept him motivated to work to end hunger.
Tony Hall writing book about his anti-hunger drive
Tony Hall writing book about his anti-hunger drive ; Ex-lawmaker to stress role of faith in his activities
Aug 23, 2005
Dayton Daily News
WASHINGTON -- When then-U.S. Rep. Tony Hall headed a House task force on international hunger in the mid-1980s, he received reports of a devastating famine in Ethiopia. Seven thousand were dying each day of starvation.
Hall could not imagine such devastation. Accompanied only by an aide, he flew to Ethiopia and watched at one compound as thousands of parents held up their babies and begged a doctor to save their children. The doctor had the resources to save five or six.
"I never got over that," Hall said, remembering the day more than 20 years later.
It was the beginning of a life's mission that continues today, and now Hall, a Dayton-area Democrat who served nearly 24 years in Congress, is writing about it in a book scheduled to be published next April by W Publishing Group, an imprint of Thomas Nelson Inc. Thomas Nelson is a leading publisher and distributor of books emphasizing Christian and inspirational themes.
Hall, who in 2002 became the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture, is writing the book with Tom Price, a longtime reporter for The Journal Herald and Dayton Daily News who first began covering Hall in 1975, when Hall was an Ohio state senator.
The book, Changing the Face of Hunger: One Man's Story of How Liberals, Conservatives, Democrats, Republicans and People of Faith are Joining Forces to Help the Hungry, the Poor and the Oppressed, will include personal anecdotes about Hall's travels, and will talk about his faith and how that faith kept him motivated to work to end hunger.
Price noted that the book comes during an era of renewed focus on famine in Africa.
Hall said he hopes the book spurs interest in volunteering and working for people who are hurting. But he also said the book is about his personal faith.
Hall, who has three times been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, said he initially became involved in public service when he was in the Peace Corps in the late 1960s. It was his trip to Ethiopia that really spurred his interest in hunger.
"What we did -- what I saw -- goes from Ethiopia to the Congo to North Korea to Dayton, Ohio," he said.
During his trips, Hall kept journals. Years after he began them, he told Price about them.
"I'd been keeping them for my kids, really, and my grandchildren," he said.
