Let's Fight Hunger!

The first time I heard that 25,000 people die every day of hunger I was shocked. 25,000 families, today, are mourning the child they watched die, the mother, father, sister, brother,friend. How many lives does hunger affect every day? Not only the pain and weakness that it physically causes, but the mental drain it brind not to know when and where your next few bites of food are coming. It must be agony for parents to not be able to put food on their table.

My second emotion was denial. We have had enough food in the world to feed everyone since the 1960s. How have so many generations set back at literally let their fellow citizens of the world starve to death? How have I not heard that simple malnutrition kills more people that AIDS, TB and malaria combined? How can we close our eyes to such a massive AND solvable problem? I was angry, bewildered and determined. Angry- that for so long we have simple sat by and let this go on. Bewildered- at what a student of 19 could do in the small Southern town of Auburn, Alabama, for a problem that affects people all over the world. Determined- to do something to make a difference, even if it was just for one person. 

I am completely conviced that one person can make a difference in the life of someone who is hungry. It costs 25 cents to feed a child in an international school feeding program, even a poor college student can afford a 25 cent donation. The United States budget for food aid is about to be cut in half. Anyone can make a 3 minute phone call to their congressman to ask them to keep feeding desperately hungry people~after all it only makes up less that 1% of the budget. Its simple to pick an extra can up at the grocery to give to the local food bank or volunterr for an hour at a homeless shelter.

There are one billion hungry people. But I have decided to be one person that will fight for them. What are you going to do?