What comes to mind when you think of what hunger looks like? Do you envision the gaunt-faced unemployed during the Depression Era scavenging for food, the bloated bellies of starving children in Africa? It is a reality check to know that in America, half of hungry households are white, and two-thirds of those households are with children and at least one working adult. In 2006, the U.S. government replaced “hunger” with the term “food insecure” to describe any household where, sometime during the previous year, people didn’t have enough food to eat.
Today, 822 million worldwide are undernourished – one in every nine people. According to the UN hunger report, global hunger is the rise for the 3rd year in a row, from 785 million in 2015 to 822 million in 2018.
When we bring the focus on this subject to the United States, the world’s greatest food-producing nation, we as a country have 37 million people struggling with food scarcity and more than 11 million of those affected being children. This is according to Feeding America. In typing these statistics, knowing that at this moment, someone is hungry, my heart breaks. I applaud the efforts of food banks around the country and worldwide organizations that help where they can.
At this week’s Rotary meeting we have the pleasure of hearing from our own Kellie Battaglia, the Development Director for ACCESS, to bring you up to date on local efforts in combating food scarcity. Please join me for an eye-opening afternoon. You may just find yourself helping fill backpacks on a Friday with your fellow Rotarians more often or signing up for one of ACCESS’s events in the future.
Today there are over 50,000 food emergency programs across the county. It is a blessing to know that ACCESS is here to help our local community!
Yours in Rotary Service,
Michelle Corradetti, President
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