Tag Archives: hunger

World Issues

The gift of giving food to the hungry

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braeden-presenting-3bHunger is a world issue.

There are many people and foundations who help feed those in need.

My son, Brae, age 10, has developed his own project to feed the hungry and it is called 3B: Brae’s Brown Bag Foundation.

Here is a bit of what 3B is all about:

3B stands for Brae’s Brown Bags. I came up with this idea after winning the 2013 Healthy Lunchtime Challenge and sitting with the First Lady Michelle Obama at the Kids’ State Dinner. She asked me how I could pay the experience forward. I’ve been trying to do that ever since!

I am learning a lot about food scarcity and issues related to being homeless or poor. These are things I didn’t know much about only a few months ago. I think 3B is something which could be implemented at schools or recreation centers for under reached children who have high percentages of obesity. I learned that many people who have a hard time finding food to feed their family have an even harder time finding healthy food options that they can afford.

3B bags have three healthy snacks and a water bottle with a note from me. My Mom and I wrote a grant and received $500 from DoSomething.org for my project. DoSomething.org people asked me what kind of super hero power I would want if I could have one. At first I said I would like to have speed or read minds, but I think that kids can be their own super hero. I think if people see what kids can do and they let kids rise to the occasion than we can help the world and that is the best super power ever.

It’s important to me that people understand 3B bags are unique. They are healthy and encouraging to people. It’s more than just a hand out, it’s a message of hope.

We have two stops to make next week to hand out bags to those in need. One is on the Monday before Christmas and one is on the Saturday after Christmas. But people are in need of food at all times during the year.

If you ever have the desire to help out you can create your own “Brae’s Brown Bag” and have it in your car in case you come across someone in need. Or you can check out Brae’s donation page and see how to help with in-kind donations or monetary donations. Every little bit helps.

 

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Wellness, World Issues

Grow: Food. Life. Planet.

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What is GROW? The GROW Campaign was formed because even though we live during a time when miraculous things happen by the moment, there are still just as many tragic events taking place around the world. GROW is hoping to alleviate one of these tragedies which is starvation.

The GROW Campaign was, in part, put together by Oxfam International which is “an international confederation of 15 organizations working together in 98 countries and with partners and allies around the world to find lasting solutions to poverty and injustice.”

Soon there will be nine billion of us on the planet. Our societies must grow to meet our needs, so we can put enough food on the table for everyone.

Already, almost a billion of us go to bed hungry every night. Not because there isn’t enough. But because of the deep injustice in the way the system works. And because too many of the ways we grow today are using up and destroying the natural resources on which we all rely.

We can grow in a better way – one that contributes much more to human wellbeing, and ensures that everyone on the planet will always have enough to eat.

The food system is buckling under intense pressure from climate change, ecological degradation, population growth, rising energy prices, rising demand for meat and dairy products, and competition for land from biofuels, industry, and urbanization.

In addition to everything just mentioned we have multiple types of governments around the globe who have a variety of different ways of coping with such pressures and not one of them copes with compassion. It is my opinion that most (if not all) governments base their decisions on money, power, worldly gain of control/power or efficiency of some sort and the welfare of their countries people is most always on the bottom of the list.

The GROW Campaign hopes to spread awareness about the following:

  • Growing better by investing in a new future for agriculture.
  • Tackle hunger and reduce vulnerability – creating jobs and investing in climate adaptation, disaster risk reduction, and social protection
  • Food availability food can also be increased massively by addressing waste – estimated at between 30 and 50 per cent of all food grown. Due to poor
    storage and transport infrastructure, governments must increase investment.
  • Pricing water for industry and commercial agriculture will force businesses and large farms to improve their efficiency.
  • Demand for food aid could conceivably double by 2020, yet the system is already buckling. Because donors’ budgets for food assistance are in monetary terms rather than tonnage, food price hikes erode their value.

    • We face three interlinked challenges in an age of growing crisis: feeding 9 billion people without wrecking the planet; finding equitable solutions to end disempowerment and injustice; and increasing our collective resilience to shocks and volatility. No ‘silver bullet’ technology or policy will make these challenges vanish.

    It is up to you and to me to help shape the future.

    www.oxfam.org/grow

Wellness, World Issues

Children are starving

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There are 1.02 billion undernourished people in the world today.
There are 1.02 billion undernourished people in the world today.
Right now, 1 in 6 people around the world don’t have enough to eat. That number is skyrocketing, up 20% since 2005. In July, the G8 pledged $22 billion in new funding to combat hunger. But they still haven’t followed through on that commitment.

Every day, nearly 16,000 children die from hunger related causes. We have the power to save those children. Already, there is more than enough food in the world to feed the 1/6 of our population that is hungry. We just need our world leaders to respect their pledges and commit to a global hunger eradication plan.

It is a tragic reality that the United States, one of the richest nations in the world, is also plagued with a poverty-driven hunger crisis. The statistics tell the troubling story. In 2005:

* 37 million people (12.6%) were in poverty

* 12.9 million (17.8%) children under the age of 18 were in poverty

* 20.5 million (11.3%) of people aged 18-64 were in poverty

* 3.6 million (10.1%) seniors 65 and older were in poverty, an increase from 3.5 million in 2004.

(Carmen DeNavas-Walt, B. Proctor, C. Lee. U.S. Census Bureau. Income, Poverty, and Heath Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2005)

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 38 million people in our nation – 13.9 million of them children – live in households that suffer from hunger or live on the edge of hunger. This hunger and “food insecurity” are far too widespread in our wealthy society. Hunger in the United States is a problem that can be cured.

Hunger reduces a child’s ability to learn, decreases a worker’s productive energy, and weakens an elderly person’s resistance to disease. It weakens families, and prevents our nation from reaching its full potential.

The Campaign to End Childhood Hunger is a movement of people from all walks of life and vocations whose common mission is ending hunger among our children.

The Campaign is ensuring that children from families with low incomes are getting the food they need to be healthy and productive. Coordinated nationally by the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), the Campaign is being waged by hundreds of citizen groups across the country.

Poverty is at the core of the world hunger crisis. The regions across the world that are subjected to extreme poverty conditions are at more risk to have their terrible situation exacerbated by outside forces such as natural disasters and war/conflict, thereby further deepening their difficult situation.

“In short, the poor are hungry and their hunger traps them in poverty.”
– World Food Programme