WORLD HUNGER & FEEDING AMERICA

World Hunger & Feeding America

40 million people face hunger in the U.S alone! This is a surprising number for the richest nation in the world. This is still only a small percentage compared to hunger in the entire world. No one can grow and develop on an empty stomach. Hunger affects every aspect of the community and leads to a bad quality of life. Some of the major factors contributing to hunger around the world and in the U.S are political instability, food and agriculture policy, and climate change.

Political Instability

Countries facing political instability have a drop in the economy and currency leading to a spike in staple products such as foods. This also harms the country’s relationship with its neighbors and hinders trade. With the drop in the economy, jobs are also lost making it nearly impossible to afford any food. Political instability is not specific to certain countries. natural disasters and poor policy can also have a massive effect on an area’s hunger.

There have been events in the U.S where a natural disaster, poor policy, and even protests have led to hunger in an area for a certain amount of time. If not tended to the area could become extremely unstable mainly because people are not eating, and it could be so severe as to people not being able to get jobs to afford food creating a positive feedback loop and more hunger.

Food and Agriculture Policies

The U.S has had a history of very good policies for farmers and traders. The farmers are heavily subsidized in the U.S and The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) makes sure that good nutrition is being distributed throughout the country. Unfortunately, this is not the case in most countries around the world especially third world countries. Less wealthy countries lack the resources to implement policies for more productive technologies to increase crop yield.

Outdated farming practices and policies put in place to increase crop yield sometimes result in unintended consequences. Soil degradation is a major consequence caused by bad outdated practices. Soil degrades if it is tilled and farmed over and over in the same location. This degrades the nutrients and declines the soil quality. Another reason soil degrades is through the water. watering too much causes the nutrients to be carried away resulting in lower crop yields. Many countries do not have up to date policies and technology to increase their food yield.

Climate Change

As we know, climate change has been discussed for decades and there have been many efforts to slow down climate change. Despite all the efforts, climate change continues to be a looming menace to food production all around the world. Natural disasters have been more common in the past 40 years than in the past 1000 years. Unstable weather patterns can lead to fires, frosts, droughts, and floods. Hurricane seasons have also been more devastating and have caused damage to agricultural production causing a spike in food market prices. During prolonged conditions of undernutrition, the whole country or area can become unstable. Other nations such as the U.S must send over food and first aid as soon as possible. Showing little to no signs of slowing down, climate change will continue to bring devastating natural disasters all around the world and more aid and resources will be required to maintain stability.

How Each of Us Can Help

Many of these issues seem too large to handle alone but collectively between all of us doing a small part; we can change the world. Here is a list of things you can do every day to help decrease world hunger all around the world.

• Use Less Water– farmers need all the water they can use to grow our food
• Eat all Your Food– The United States throws away more food than necessary
• Volunteer- Take the initiative to volunteer for a meal packaging event with a business, school, faith organization, team, or civic club. What groups in your community do you know that support humanitarian issues like ending hunger?
• Show Your Support– follow accounts on social media and share the wonderful humanitarian work they do.

“If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.”

– Mother Teresa

“There’s enough on this planet for everyone’s needs but not for everyone’s greed.”

-Mohandas Gandhi

We are doing our part as well. By partnering with Feeding America we donate a percentage of our monthly income to feed impoverished children. The Feeding America network is the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization, working to connect people with food and end hunger. Donors, staff, and volunteers all play an important role in our efforts to end hunger in the United States. 40 million people face hunger in the U.S. today — including more than 12 million children and nearly five million seniors. “Hunger knows no boundaries — it touches every community in the U.S., including your own”.

For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited me in; | Matthew 25:35

How does my purchase with DiscoverHorizons help contribute 10 meals with this organization?

“Unlike walking into a grocery store and paying retail prices for food, Feeding America works directly with major manufacturers, retailers and other partners across the country to secure safe, healthy food that would otherwise go to waste. According to a ReFED study conducted in 2016, 72 billion pounds of food is wasted in America each year.

Through our partnerships, Feeding America works to rescue this food before it’s wasted — making a difference for the people we serve and for the environment. Because of these successful partnerships, every dollar you donate to Feeding America helps secure and distribute at least 12 pounds of food — the equivalent of 10 meals — through our nationwide network of food banks. Learn more about Feeding America’s allocation of donation dollars.“