Monday, September 27, 2010

Eco-Steps to End World Hunger


September has been a busy month.  The kids are back in school, Fall is in the air (in most places) and many people are getting into what I call "squirrel mode" of gathering food and prepping for the winter months ahead.  But what if you didn't have enough food?  Many people don't.  In fact, just shy of 1 billion people around the world do not have enough to eat.  The Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme estimate that 925 million people go hungry every day.

925 million people is more than three times the population of the United States.  You might be thinking "That's a lotta people!  What could I possibly do to help?" 

Well, there are a lot of things you can do.  But perhaps the first and most important thing is to be aware that this problem exists. 

Next, you could pick one small thing, or take one eco-step up to and including the obvious choice of donating money to a charitable organization that fights hunger.  But it doesn't have to be money.  One person action adds up to one family, one group, one community, one city.  Many people doing many small things can add up to have a tremendous impact.


For example, earlier this year, Kenda Swartz Pepper and Natasha Burge conducted their own personal experiments and wrote about what is like to go hungry.  I strongly encourage you to check these stories out.  They are informative, compelling and give us a closer look into what it would really be like to go hungry and still try to have productive, "normal" daily lives.  Luckily, we will be hearing from Kenda and Natasha again, along with others, beginning in early October.  I will be joining these talented writers from Conducive Chronicle for a 21-day journey to look at the problem of world hunger from many different perspectives.  I will be keeping you up-to-date on the series and will be re-posting them or linking them here on Eco-Steps.


You can check out more at Conducive Chronicle's World Hunger -- Be the Solution.  Or you can become a fan on Facebook to learn more about what you can do to help fight it.

For additional reading: 
12 Myths About Hunger
Waste Not, Want Not
The Rich Get Richer, The Poor Go Hungry

1 comment:

  1. Amy, this is a very important topic, thanks for posting. Also: cute picture of the squirrel! I'd just like to point out to your readers that hunger is not just an issue in far away places such as third world countries; it's also happening right where we live in North America, probably only a few neighbourhoods away from our homes. Luckily more and more organizations are working hard to increase access to healthy food. Where I live, The Stop Community Food Centre (http://www.thestop.org/) runs community kitchens and gardens, cooking classes, after-school programs, drop-in meals, and a food bank. I encourage everyone to find similar groups where they live and donate time or money to fight global hunger at the local level.

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