So often when we speak of hunger in the world, and specifically in the United States it occurs from a distance and in an impersonal manner, until it gets personal. Getting personal can occur when someone you know or someone you love finds themselves debating whether food is something which should be purchased today. Think about that for a minute. If you’ve never had such a thought, where will the food come for my or my family’s next meal, count yourself amongst the fortunate, but more than 50 million in the United States have such thoughts daily; more than 900,000,000 persons in this world we share have those thoughts daily. Please ask yourself, is it possible that the United States (the land of plenty) can have 1/20th of the world’s hungry within it’s population? Then, please ask yourself, what can I do.
Let Us Give Thanks…
Let us give thanks 85 percent of the households in the United States are food secure Let us give thanks our family is not amongst the remaining 15 percent, which equates to more than 50+ million persons who are food insecure. Let us give thanks our children are not amongst the one in one in four in the United States …
BackPack Programs
In the United States there are programs within the public school systems to assist children with reduced resources to be able to have a light meal cum snack before school and a reduced price lunch during school. When the child goes home, they eat what is placed on the table which if they are fortunate their parent/guardian will prepare, but as often as not, they themselves must prepare. What if there isn’t any food at home? The child goes hungry? Not if there is a Backpack Program.
Breakfast, Did You Have Yours?
Breakfast is the meal which energizes us for the day. Unfortunately, not all in the United States have the means to provide their families with this all important meal. One in six families are food insecure in the United States – 300,000,000+ is our population, that means 50,000,000 citizens worry about their breakfast. Did you have your breakfast? Many didn’t, …
Hunger Should be Illegal
This morning I read an extraordinarily uplifting piece about the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil. They have declared hunger to be illegal. I shalln’t recap the entire article (see link below), but allow me to highlight some of details with hopes that those reading can take the data and emulate in their own villages, towns and cities. In 1993, the city of 2.5 million had 275,000 in absolute poverty and 20% of the children suffering hunger. Fast forward to 2010, hunger is virtually non-existent and only 2% (two percent) of the city’s budget was used to achieve this result – how much was two percent, 2 million dollars – less than a dollar per constituent.