- 800 million hungry: that's 1 out of every 7 people in the world.
- Every day, 24,000 people die from hunger or hunger-related causes; every 3.6 seconds, someone dies of hunger.
Non-profit organizations -- local, national,
and international, depend on contributions. Many food banks rely heavily on
canned food drives. It is estimated that if everyone in the United States donated
$3.50 (the cost of a large latte) to sub-Saharan Africa, we could cut hunger
in half in sub-Saharan Africa by 2015. Bread for the World writes, "The
United Nations Development Program estimates that the basic health and nutrition
needs of the world's poorest people could be met for an additional $13 billion
a year. Animal lovers in the United States and Europe spend more than that on
pet food each year." For a listing of some hunger-relief organizations,
check out SPOON's page. An interesting position on giving is taken by Peter
Singer, the Princeton philosophy professor, who argues that buying luxury goods
such as fancy cars is unethical because that money could have gone to charity
and saved lives. He writes in his 1999 article "Singer's Solution to World
Poverty" (also on SPOON's website), "Going out to nice restaurants,
buying new clothes because the old ones are no longer stylish, vacationing at
beach resorts - so much of our income is spent on things not essential to the
preservation of our lives and health. Donated to one of a number of charitable
agencies, that money could mean the difference between life and death for children
in need." While tossing money blindly will not eliminate world hunger,
it is a fact that if individuals in rich countries and their governments were
more generous and effective with giving, hunger could be reduced and eventually
eliminated.
Non-profit workers, policy-makers,
researchers can involve hunger every day. Even those in the private sector can
do so as well. Future engineers, doctors and other professions, instead of concentrating
on the problems of rich countries for which there is already enough funding,
can address the needs of the hungry and malnourished across the world. Those
who enter the medical profession can consider the public health needs of the
poor across the world, many of whom are vulnerable to certain diseases because
they are hungry and malnourished. Computer engineers, instead of trying to create
the latest high-tech gadget for the U.S. market, can ask themselves what the
world's hungry need. Websites like thehungersite.com are an excellent example
of how technology can be used to help reduce world hunger.
Join SPOON. There are
plenty of local organizations that would love your help.
Here are a few:
Ecumenical Hunger Program: EHP provides food, clothing, household essentials,
social advocacy, and referral services to the East Palo Alto community. Volunteers
provide a range of services, including packing food boxes, interviewing clients,
sorting food and clothing, and data entry. Phone: (650) 323 - 7781
Urban Ministry of Palo Alto: The Urban Ministry runs several different
programs throughout the area, including a homeless drop-in center and food closets.
Phone: (650) 853-8697, 814-9812
SPOON also organizes volunteer trips to soup kitchens and cooks breakfast for
the homeless; please email spoon@service.stanford.edu
to get more information. There are many organizations that could use your help.
...(and your dorm computer cluster's homepage-ask your RCC to set
it) and click on it everyday. Instead of paying money to advertise, sponsors
pay for food to be given to hungry families from around the world. For a family
starving in an underdeveloped country, this could make all the difference. Please
set it as your homepage and tell all your friends about it.
Remind your friends not to waste food at the dining hall. Encourage discussions
about poverty and hunger issues in the news. Any little thing you can do is
a big help.
Good policy can help to alleviate hunger. Although hunger
is often not on the public agenda, with increased advocacy we can put it on
the agenda. Petitions and phone calls to representatives help. Writing editorials
in your local paper will increase awareness as well as put pressure on elected
officials.
The Oxfam Hunger Banquet directly engages participants in a dramatization of
the unequal distribution of resources and wealth in the world.
Each guest draws a ticket randomly assigning them to the high-, middle- or
low-income tier and is served a corresponding meal. The 15 percent in the high-income
tier are served a sumptuous gourmet meal. The 30 percent in the middle-income
section eat a simple meal of rice and beans. The majority 55 percent in the
low-income tier wait in line for small portions of rice and water.
The Oxfam Hunger Banquet is a powerful tool that brings to life the inequalities
in our world and challenges us, as the more economically fortunate, to realize
how our decisions affect others in the world. Few leave a Hunger Banquet with
full stomachs, but all leave filled with a greater understanding of the problems
of global hunger and poverty and the motivation to do something about it. Source:
http://www.oxfamamerica.org
Take only as much food as you will eat since in most dining halls you can go back. The amount of food
thrown away by students is enormous (just in FloMo dining fall quarter '99,
the food wastage by students was over 1,000 pounds weekly!), and collectively
this has disastrous effects. Initially, this would increase food salvaging by
SPOON (food salvaging is the transfer of unused, leftover food from dining facilities
to local hunger relief organizations). The leftovers would be used to alleviate
hunger in Palo Alto. After the dining halls adjust for reduced student food
waste, your meal plan costs would be reduced; more student waste causes higher
meal plan costs. As the dining halls buy less food, this may free up food resources
for the hungry. Instead of food coming to feed Stanford students and ending
up in the garbage, it may go to other sources, including hunger relief organizations.
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