Did you know that every 3.6 seconds a person dies of hunger? I didn’t know that until I started working on this project, and I also never realized how many people are suffering from hunger and malnutrition. Hunger is defined as a feeling of pain, emptiness, or weakness induced by lack of food. The definition of Malnutrition is the lack of proper nutrition, inadequate, or unbalanced diet. You might think that these things mean the same thing, but they don’t. Hunger is a painful sensation caused by a want for food, where Malnutrition is a term indicating that you lack the nutrition required for human health. Hunger can sometimes cause malnutrition, but if affected with malnutrition you will most likely die from illness, not starvation.
925 million people are hungry in our world today. It is crazy to think that so many people don’t have food to eat. I think of my family and how hard it would be to live without food, and in poverty. Our world has changed so much that we are now focused on things that don’t really matter. Instead of buying the latest electronic, we could be using that money to donate and help people who are dying from starvation.
Most hunger surprisingly comes from Asia and the Pacific. I always thought that most of the world hunger came from Africa, but that isn’t the case. In 2010, 578 million people suffered from hunger in Asia and the Pacific, and 239 million from Africa. (Sub-Saharan) There is also hunger in other parts of the world, but none are as severe as these.
I was sad to see all the pictures of people who are down-to-the-bone because of hunger. What really get’s me are the children in these pictures. Once again I think of my family, but this time my two sisters. They are lucky enough to have an education and live a happy life, but these kids in hunger haven’t done anything to deserve living this way. I imagine that the parents haven’t done anything to deserve living this way either. They are probably trying they’re hardest to get whatever they can to feed their children, and hopefully themselves.
While doing research for this assignment I watched a video about a father who worked at a fast food restaurant. He watched food get wasted, and thrown in the garbage by the costumers every day. After work he excitingly went through some of the chicken, and loaded up the garbage cans to take back to his neighbors and family. He rode his bike back to his little “village” and sat the garbage on the floor. As soon as it touched the floor, kids were digging through it, devouring whatever remained. The kids were so happy and grateful to receive the garbage scraps of the food that we eat so ungratefully. After giving these neighborhood children the garbage cans, he continued to his home where his family awaited. They had their little table set and ready for whatever he had to bring. He brought the bag of half-eaten chicken and emptied some on each plate. The family, grateful for their food prayed to bless it, and ate as if it was a normal family dinner.
Is there anything we can do to help world hunger? The answer to this is YES! Reducing food waste alone will stop world hunger. If we only bought what we needed, and avoided having left overs we could stop food from going to landfills. There are also many programs and organizations in place to help, and solve world hunger. You can be a part of something great by donating to help people in need.
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