While the world produces enough food to feed over seven billion people, more than one-third of it, approximately 1.3 billion tons, is tossed before getting on the dinner table. Although many do not think about the profound effect wasting food has on themselves, numbers of precious children’s lives are taken by severe poverty, and thus lack of food, every year around the world (“Feed”). An organization called “Feed My Starving Children (FMSC)” has been fighting this issue since 1987 in order alleviate hunger in children less fortunate countries. Its efficient global food assistance system, with unique food production, also contributes to American society by providing fantastic volunteer opportunities to raise one’s spirit, making it one of the best humanitarian efforts in the globe.
According to the Millennium Development Goals Report 2015 by United Nations, over 800 million people still live in extreme poverty, surviving on less than $1.90 a day. Over 160 million children under age five years old face growth deficits due to malnutrition (“Millions”) 2015 UNICEF monitoring also indicates that the estimate of mortality for a child under five is 5.9 million, and nearly half of the deaths are reported to link to malnutrition (“Under”). The World Bank Group, The United Nations, UNICEF, WHO, WFP, USAID, and other major international organizations have been striving to provide better living conditions to those in severe circumstances; however, experts predict that there still much
A. How many of you are worried about where your next meal will come from? Are you unsure of how you’re going to purchase next week’s groceries or what you will be feeding your children for dinner tonight? This probably isn’t something most of you think about from day to day. When you are hungry, you eat. It’s easy for you to grab a sandwich, order a pizza, or run through the drive thru when you are on the go. However, there are many families, not just in other countries, but here in the United States as well, that are going hungry every day. According to kidshealth.org, a child dies from malnutrition and related causes every 6 seconds.
Children who are poor are most often born into poverty. Poverty is the lack of necessary needs in order to survive. Whether this be shelter, food, or water, most comes from a lack of cash flow through the family. Other situations can be divorces, children joining or being taken by rebel forces, parents passing away, or even situations of abuse. Statistics say that, “Around 55% of people live below the poverty line, living on less than a dollar each day. Areas with the greatest number of poor are particularly in the east of the country, where conflict continues”. With the majority of poor people living in the east, this also means that healthcare is worse there. When living conditions are not sanitary and there malnutrition, this causes people to become more susceptible to menial diseases. With all these factors taken into account, “The capital, Kinshasa, contains around 20-25,000 children who sleep rough and survive by begging”. Without means to help support these starving children, the country will continue to stay in this unproductive state; there needs to be a prevention of these preventable diseases killing the
It was difficult to read that countless millions of federal dollars and many of our country's most successful efforts to halt the spread of childhood hunger and starvation have recently been withdrawn. And as a result, this problem of childhood hunger is not getting better but is actually getting worse. The most recent estimates compiled by the USDA in 1999 indicate that 36.2 million Americans live in food-insecure households, which means that their access to adequate and safe food is limited or uncertain. This too is very disturbing information.
Many people do not realize that hunger and malnutrition is a problem that many Americans face on a daily basis. Maybe, we are failing to realize that our country is not perfect, but if we don’t try to do anything then more and more children will die. The problem with child hunger is that the United States may not face as dramatic problems with hunger as that of other countries, but
Have you ever thought about what it is like to be constantly hungry as a result of not having access to adequate food? For some people in the world this is a reality. In my interview with Melinda Vonderhorst she recounts her personal observations from her five trips to Haiti, where she helped to build a school along with working in an orphanage and clinic, of countless children
Hunger is a big social issue facing America today. According to (“Do Something.com”) 1 out of 6 people face hunger in the US. Also 49 Million Americans Struggle to put food on the table. America is the best country in world, we shouldn’t have so many people hungry. Many people have thought of fixing this problem but one company has found a way to help fix this problem, this company is Feeding America. They have been giving people food since 1979. They’ve helped out 46 million Americans. ( feedingamerica.org )
In its State of Food Insecurity in the World 2012 report, the United Nations found that nearly 870 million people around the globe are chronically malnourished (Ruttan 6). Chronic malnourishment weakens the immune system, and it significantly increases people's risk of contracting infectious diseases. As a result of the problem and severity of malnourishment, one of the United Nations top eight goals is to drastically reduce the number of people who suffer from this condition (Johnson 4). During the course of working towards their goal, the U.N. has identified agricultural growth as one of the most effective ways to reduce the prevalence of malnourishment. However, the United Nation has also determined that in order for agricultural growth
everyday, you are probably wondering why nationwide hunger is an issue. Families that are subject to poverty generally have little money, goods, and don’t often have much support. Economic income does determine if a child is more likely to go hungry or not. Right here in the Central Valley and Imperial County have the highest percentage of child hunger. Due to high unemployment rates, people are having harder times to feed their families. Because of this Feeding America discovered that these families are forced to make the choice between feeding their household or paying bills and rent to provide a roof and warm bed. Even with organizations such as Hungry Harvest, Feed the Children, Meals on Wheels, Feeding America and No Kid Hungry, studies continue to show that nationwide hunger is still a serious issue in the United States. In order to solve this problem more people need to be made aware of how important it is to help those that don’t have the same luxuries and to create new organizations and programs that lower income families can benefit
Last summer I volunteered at our local Planting Hope event. We distrituted food products from the Maryland Food Bank to people of lower-income in my local town. We also gave shoes and clothes to those who needed them. What I learned after this experience is the realism of poverty and hunger in our country and even my hometown. What may seem to be a prevalent idea for third-world countries far from our homeland, the reality is that poverty and hunger are located closer than we think. Over thirteen percent of Americans are food insecure which seems untrue, but in fact it is a reality that sometimes we ignore. Planting Hope has not only signalled this issue into me, but has allowed me to want to learn more about other issues and rising issues
The first place I volunteered at was Feed My Starving Children. Feed My Starving Children is an organization that makes nutritional meals for malnourished children. The meals are called MannaPacks and they are packed with rice, soy, dried vegetables, and flavoring. Each station has to measure the ingredients into the bags, weight the bag, then seal the bag. My role was sealing the bags and putting them in a box; and I did that for two hours. My volunteering and the volunteering of others really helped out because 27,000 meals were packed in our shift, which feeds 74 kids for a year. The other two hours that I did, I helped the staff clean up and take everything down. I benefited from this experience because I actually felt like I somewhat
It is such a privilege to share our food with the poorest of the poor. This is only possible because of the unwavering support of so many people and organizations. Feed My Starving Children makes and donates the food, with the help of their partners. They donate this food to us, and our Love A Child partners sponsor the food to come from the States to Miami, then by boat to Haiti and released through Haiti’s Customs. When it comes to Haiti we depend on our incredible team and our National Haitian Director, Nelio and his staff to bring it to our Kingdom Connection warehouse. We all work together to feed hungry children and their families in Haiti.
Feed My Starving Children (FMSC)–an invaluable partner in Love A Child’s Feeding Programs donates most of our food. The food is packaged and shipped in 40-foot containers. Love A Child pays to transport the food from FMSC in Coon Rapids, MN to the Port of Miami. From there, we pay ocean freight charges to transport the food to Haiti. Once in Haiti, we work with customs officials to have the containers released. Shipping such large containers incurs many charges, including: docking fees, brokerage fees, government fees, and more. Each container of food holds 272,000 meals, Love A Child spends $10,000 in transportation fees for each container. It is through the generosity of our partners, donors and the grace of God that we receive this food each month. That is 2,700,000 meals that we are able to distribute to missionary organizations, our Love A Child Schools, and feeding programs in many poor villages, each month.
A large problem of childhood poverty is malnutrition. Since these children are growing up in poverty, many of the parents have a hard time supplying food for their kids. Surprisingly, there
Unfortunately, it was estimated that roughly 1.2 billion people in 1993 lived in extreme or absolute poverty, that which Robert McNamara regards “‘a condition of life so characterized by malnutrition, illiteracy, disease, squalid surroundings, high infant mortality and low life expectancy as to be beneath any reasonable standard of human dignity’” (Singer 219, 220). These estimates can be projected at nearly 2 billion today. A large majority of the people living in absolute poverty resides in underdeveloped countries. Among the nearly 4.4 billion people in these countries, “3/5 lives in societies lacking basic sanitation; 1/3 go without safe drinking water; 1/4 lack adequate housing; 1/5 are undernourished, and 1.3 billion live on less than $1 a day” (Speth 1).
Among the many fights against poverty, improving children’s’ health is one of the major responsibilities. A healthy child becomes a healthy adult, a person who has the ability to create a better life for them, the people around them, their community, and their countries. One of the core UNICEF objectives is to improve the health of the children of the world.