Hunger

In America we're obsessed with food. As a country with more and more adults and children becoming obese, we're focused on how to eat less. Diet pills, programs, and exercise routines are on every channel and periodical cover. In this environment, it's easy to forget that much of the world is struggling to eat more, or anything at all. According to the UN World Food Programme,

"Despite the impression you often get from the media, emergencies account for less than eight percent of hunger's victims. Few people realise that there are over 963 million hungry people in the world who don't make the headlines -- more than the combined populations of the United States, Japan and the European Union. They are of all ages, from babies whose mothers cannot produce enough milk to the elderly with no relatives to care for them. They are the unemployed inhabitants of urban slums, the landless farmers tilling other people's fields, the orphans of AIDS and the sick, who need special or increased food intake to survive.
Above all, children, women and rural communities are on the frontlines of hunger."

I'm currently in the middle of a 2 day fast. I feel a little dizzy, and it's hard not to think about food or the fact that my tummy is grumbling and complaining. It's amazing and sad to me that this is how many people live their whole lives. Imagine the sorrow of hearing your baby cry from hunger, and knowing that you just can't make enough milk to feed them, because you don't have enough food to eat. Or watching your husband try to find work and provide, despite being malnourished.

I'm glad I'm doing this fast, it makes me think about things that I never consider. About people who are suffering out of my line of sight.

Learn more: http://www.wfp.org/hunger