Hunger Happens

This blog is very close to my heart…because it is about something which I have always had in mind, but recently has got me thinking a lot…

The end of last year saw a very catastrophic event, the “tsunami” I remember spending the entire day in front of the TV during the break, in my aunt’s house at NJ watching news reports of how disastrous it proved to be. I logged into the internet and went through few articles and browsed the sites of few relief organizations…This blog isn’t exactly about how big a tragedy the tsunami was (enough has been spoken about it and whatever I blog down will be redundant), its about something which has been of concern for a very long time but has gone unnoticed.

So as I was browsing through, I stumbled upon this word “Hunger”. I stopped and thought, how would it feel to be hungry, I mean real hungry, hungry for long. I am sure those who are reading this blog haven’t experienced that; you wouldn’t have access to a computer with Internet in that case.

I made the following questionnaire based on my thoughts, How many of you’ll have actually said or done or felt the following

Told a colleague or a friend at school that you were eating lunch only at 2 or 3 in the afternoon because you had too much work and how miserable you feel about it?

Plan a diet for yourself and cut down on what you eat for breakfast, and binge by the time of dinner because you feel sorry for yourself because you haven’t eaten properly? (Why else do you think diets don’t work?).

Complained when a friend did not serve dessert at the party he or she threw?

Envied people who could dine in five star hotels and resolved that one-day you would make enough money to treat yourself to that?

Go berserk during grocery shopping, fill up your refrigerator, and later on leave most of the stuff to just rot in there?

Refused to eat the nutritious and hygienic lunch your mom packed for you, but prefer to go for some “fun food” decorated enough to be a treat to both your eyes and taste buds?

Thought at a dinner party that it is stylish to leave some food on your plate once your done, because the host might think you are a glutton if he noticed your plate was clean?

Thought the chef of a restaurant was not good in the way he presented the food on the platter or thought there was something wrong with the color or smell of the food?

Took antacids because you over ate at a party?

I am sure all of us have yes as an answer to at least one of the above, but at these times have we ever thought that at that very instant there are children, men and women losing their lives because they are hungry? Ever thought you could actually stop living because you were hungry? No way…you are sure you will have access to food at the most in a few hours after you start feeling hungry.

Did you know?

Hunger and malnutrition claim:
10 million lives every year
25,000 lives every day
One life every 5 seconds
Hunger & malnutrition are the number 1 risk to global health killing more than AIDS, malaria & TB combined
For 19 cents you can feed a hungry child in school for a day (ever used only 19 c in your life?)
1 out of 7 people in the world suffer from hunger
Six million children under-5 die every year from hunger. (Remember being papered with healthy food at that age and you just wouldn’t eat?)
The world produces enough food for everyone. But over 800 million people remain chronically hungry.
Statistics Courtesy: World Food Programme.

What touched me most was a little square on the left side of the web page - http://www.wfp.org/, which flashed the following

US $10 500 cups of rice
US $25 100 school meals

On browsing the site is saw how much of a difference very meager amounts like this could make, and I bet this amount must be much lesser than the amount we would spend on eating food outside say two or three times.

I am not trying to say that we should starve, eat less or never eat out (None of these will help or make sense in this situation), but it would be great if we keep in mind that we are more fortunate than millions of people around the world and we should never complain about the food we eat and if possible try our best to help the hungry. We should try reducing the number of times we eat out and save that money to feed a whole lot of people who are hungry. Shouldn’t be a big deal. ( Easier than sticking on to your diet ;) )

Food is something basic! Its usual to most of us no big deal in getting it. But, its not so for a whole lot…. think about it and let me know what you feel.