Too lazy to volunteer and too cheap to donate? Fine. Click here and sign your name and Tyson Foods will donate 35 lbs. of food on your behalf. You ingrate.
A few years back, I tried an experiment where I went without food of any kind for as long as I possibly could. I wanted to test myself, to see if I could stand with greats like Gandhi, who went for three weeks without food at age 70. (I wasn't even counting those IRA guys who went for twice as long—that's just insane.) In the end, I lasted for fifteen days, consuming only water and Dr Pepper the entire time. Ironically, I broke down shortly after volunteering in a soup kitchen, eating a small bag of McDonald's fries.
Thankfully, starvation of this kind is rare in the developed countries of the world. In the United States of America, for example, very extremely few people actually suffer from malnutrition so extreme that it endangers their life. It does still happen, of course—just ask
Dr. Mariana Chilton, one of the friends I made at
Share Our Strength's Conference of Leaders last year. She works with extremely underdeveloped children every single day.
But of far greater concern for a country like the United States is the fact that hunger is still so prevalent. No one is surprised when I say that few Americans die from starvation, but almost everyone I speak with is genuinely surprised to find out that 1 out of 6 children in the United States are at risk of hunger. 12.4 million children (just in the States) are at risk of going 24 hours or longer without food. And they're not doing it for kicks, like I did.
The situation appears even more grave than this if you think about it for a while. In many families, the expense of food is enough to cause family members to go without food much more often than you think. The 12.4 million children statistic is only applicable when there is so little food that not only do adults go without, but children as well. Just think of how many more families are out there that aren't quite at the level where the children go without, but still have to cope with adults going without food on a regular basis.
The fact that this situation exists in a developed country like this is just sickening. There really is no reason for our wealth inequity to be so extreme that this sort of thing has to ever happen. It boggles the mind how our civilization can somehow be okay with this.
That's why I have pledged myself end hunger. I am going to do what it takes to bring real action and get this issue resolved. But I'm not just choosing to do this because the need is great. I'm also doing it because this goal is entirely achievable. We
can end hunger. It is absolutely possible that, with properly applied techniques, we can completely end hunger in the United States within ten years.
I don't say this because I am so patriotic that I care more about Americans than others. No, my real intention is to complete a goal that is actually achievable, yet sounds so impressive that it will cause others to look at the result and say to themselves: look, the USA has completely eradicated hunger within its borders in just ten years; why can't we do the same? I am hoping for a sort of domino effect, where the eradication of hunger in our country will mean ALL developed countries will then solve their hunger problems, and then the inequity with developing countries will cause all those efforts to do the same with the rest of world's population as well.
I know it sounds backwards; helping those best off before those who are worst off seems almost criminal when you first consider it. But this is a question of tactics. Throwing $500 million at ending worldwide hunger will save many lives, but not much more than that. Spending that same $500 million in the USA will literally
eradicate hunger in the US, or at least in a significant portion of it. That will then cause momentum that will carry on to save many others—just think of how many more people would give to end hunger if someone actually showed good results. It is imperative that we have a win in our column that is as big as eradicating hunger in America; the fact of doing so may very well allow us to raise
another $500 million.
This is why I'm asking all my readers to
sign their name and pledge to end hunger, either by donating to a hunger organization like
Share Our Strength, volunteering at
a local food bank, or even just
spreading the word. It doesn't take much to make a difference.
So please, everyone go to the
PledgeToEndHunger.com and sign your name. For every person that puts their name there, Tyson Foods will donate enough food to feed 140 children. Just by putting down your name. That's all. Everyone who reads this can do that much, can't they? Plus, if you can get enough members of your local community to sign the pledge as well, then Tyson Foods will send your state an additional truck filled with food. So
go sign the pledge.
By the way, the reason it was McDonald's fries that did me in was more due to the fact that one of my methods for ensuring I didn't eat was to travel without cash on me in any way. I ate those fries mainly because I found a dollar bill on the ground that day, and the presence of cash in my pocket was enough to make me miss out on the three week mark that Gandhi set for me. Oh, well.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at 10:03AM 
"The differential operator is coming!"
