Update 5/23/22: Lest we think this is an old post, so it’s an old problem, someone sent me this more recent article: World Hunger: Key Facts and Statistics. The information in this link replaces the numbers listed in the post below, but everything else about the post is still valid.
Chances are if you have the resources to be online, you can’t imagine being hungry. Yet, according to Bloggers Unite for Hunger and Hope:
More than 15 million children die of hunger every year. World Health Organization estimates that one-third of the population is underfed and another third is starving.
The numbers are so staggering, we may find the problem so overwhelming that we don’t even bother trying to help. After all, what can one person do?
One person can’t feed all the hungry, but one person can feed some of the hungry. One person can’t solve the problem, but one person can contribute to the solution.
Edward Everett Hale said:
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something;
And because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.
What can I do—what can you do—for world hunger?
Contribute to organizations that help those in need. Even a small donation can make a big difference. Right now, Food for the Poor is raising money to deliver food and supplies that have already been donated for Haiti Emergency Relief. Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, was devastated by storms last year.
Every dollar you give today for shipping will be transformed into $25.34 worth of aid. Every gift will be multiplied twenty-five fold! But you must act quickly.
How tragic that $29 million of food and aid is waiting for money to deliver it while people are dying of starvation! Here is one place you can save lives with the donation of a few dollars.
Heifer International is another excellent organization serving the poor. A donation of only $20 will provide a flock of chicks, ducks, or geese for a family, giving them food and resources to become self-sustaining. Each family “passes on the gift” by giving at least of the offspring of its animals to another family in need.
How wonderful to provide both food and a livelihood for a family with a gift of a few dollars.
Maybe you have been affected by the economy, perhaps even lost your job. You don’t have even a few dollars to donate. But you do have time and talent. Local food banks and other charitable organizations always need more hands and minds and hearts. If you are a person of faith, you can give the gift of prayer.
Whether we contribute a little or a lot, we can each do something to end hunger and bring hope to the hopeless.
Note Added 5/18/09: Comment left by Blog Catalog Blogger Jason: “Your post was chosen as one of the ten best and a link to your post has been included on the BlogCatalog blog as well as the Copywrite, Ink. blog.”