KIDS AND COMMUNITY
By: Judy Shepps Battle
Many of you who are reading this column have a full stomach and a refrigerator stuffed with leftovers. Recipes for creatively using that leftover turkey may be prominently displayed in your kitchen. We are a culture that celebrates both happy and sad occasions with an abundance of food.
Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the winter holiday season. Turkey Thursday, Kwanza/Christmas/Hanukkah, and Valentine’s Day are marked by conspicuous consumption of food. Holiday parties, family gatherings and social dates revolve around meals. Magazine articles offer advice on how to not gain weight this season.
It is hard to remember that lack of food is a daily condition for a significant number of the world’s population. About 24,000 people die every day from hunger or hunger-related causes; three-fourths of those deaths are children under the age of five.
It is even harder to accept that there are people with rumbling bellies in our own community – they often seem invisible, except to social service agencies. We contribute to holiday food pantry efforts at Thanksgiving and Christmas, but what about the other 363 days?
Is it a matter of money? I think not. Just look at the billions of campaign dollars spent in the recent election, the salaries paid to athletes and movie stars, or our own discretionary money spent on entertainment, non-essential wardrobe, and other luxuries.
Why is it so hard to meet such a basic survival need as food in a society of relative abundance?
According to the 1996 World Food Summit, 840 million people live in a condition of chronic and persistent hunger. That is one-seventh of humankind. The vast majority of hungry people are in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
Statistics within United States are equally tragic.
In 1999 there were 31 million Americans who were "food insecure," meaning they were either hungry or unsure of where their next meal would come from.
Twelve million of these were children.
Seniors make up 16.5 percent of all emergency food pantry clients, 17 percent of all soup kitchen clients at emergency shelters, and 17.5 percent of programs such as Meals on Wheels. They, however, only account for 13 percent of the U.S. population.
Research indicates that 1.9 million seniors must choose between buying food and buying needed medicine. It is estimated that 1.1 million have skipped meals because there is no food in the house.
For those unable to find a reliable source of food, chronic hunger produces malnutrition and eventually leads to death. It is estimated that 800 million people in the world suffer from hunger and malnutrition and about 100 times as many die from it each year.
Chronic malnutrition is not pretty. It causes impaired vision, listlessness and stunted growth, and greatly increases susceptibility to disease. Even mild under-nutrition in young children may lead to stunted physical growth, as well as affecting brain development.
The cost of special education for children who cannot participate fully in classroom activities because of stomach rumblings or chronic malnutrition has been calculated in the billions of dollars. The loss to society of the contributions they could make as healthy citizens is incalculable.
Programs such as supplying quality seeds, appropriate tools, and access to water, as well as providing education on farming techniques and food storage methods will often allow an impoverished country to grow enough food to become self-sufficient.
The World Food Programme is the front-line United Nations organization fighting to eradicate world hunger. WFP became operational in 1963 and is now the world’s largest international food aid organization. Last year it helped feed 86 million people, including more than half the world’s refugees and internally displaced people. It has emergency and development projects in 82 countries worldwide and a staff of more than 5,000.
You can make a cost-free contribution to world hunger on your computer by going to The Hunger Site (http://www.thehungersite.com) and clicking on the "donate free food" button. The donations of staple food are paid for by The Hunger Site’s sponsors and are distributed to those in need by the United Nations World Food Programme, Mercy Corps, and America’s Second Harvest. Donations are split evenly between these organizations and go to the aid of hungry people in over 80 countries, including those in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and North America. To date more than 101 million visitors have donated more than 198 million cups of staple food.
The Second Harvest (http://www.thesecondharvest.com) is the largest domestic hunger relief organization in the United States. Annually, they distribute more than one billion pounds of donated food and grocery product, supporting approximately 50,000 local charitable agencies and the operation of more than 94,000 food programs that provide food assistance to more than 26 million hungry Americans, including 8 million children and 4 million seniors each year. Locally, you can use your phone book to locate food pantries and social service agencies within your county and township to make donations.
So…?
The formula to eradicate hunger is simple: Feed people until they can feed themselves.
We know how to train folks to farm and how to develop employment skills that can generate income to buy food. There is enough money in this country to initiate and support both programs immediately.
So why are the hungry still with us?
Sociologists, political scientists, and philosophers have provided theoretical answers involving class structure and social values, but when we ask this question about our own community the answer must be more personal.
What stops each of us from identifying hungry kids and adults in our own community and assuring that chronic malnutrition will not exist in our own locale?
I think it may be as simple as visibility – or invisibility.
How many of us have had face-to-face contact with a hungry person in a social setting? What mechanisms exist in our community to put the haves and the have-nots in the same room? How do we put a face to hunger so we can recognize it is no different from our own face or that of our kids?
And just as importantly, what mechanisms exist in our own hearts that will encourage us to share our own limited wealth and unlimited friendship with others?
As we eat our left-over turkey and apple pie let’s also remember to begin a dialogue on what we can do to ensure that hunger takes a permanent holiday.
Judy Shepps Battle is a South Brunswick resident, addictions specialist, and free-lance writer. She can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].