I am one of the lucky ones...I don't mean that I'm in the 1 percent, and I do mean that I've never gone hungry a single day in my life...unless you count the days that I was deliberately dieting...
As a child, I never when to school hungry...or without a lunch or lunch money...and my Mom was one of those special women who participated in the Parent Teacher Association...she was always helping to plan one school event or another...and they often involved food...
I remember being in the first grade on Valentine's Day...my Mom baked individual heart-shaped cakes...one for each of my thirty-six classmates...iced in chocolate buttercream, each cake was piped with pink rosettes around the edges...the final touch?...she added the child's name...in freehand script in white icing...emblazoned across the center of the cake...
Mom was lucky in other ways too...she never had to go without food as a child even though she grew up during the depression...she was one of the lucky children who had a father who was employed throughout that time...and her grandparents had a farm...hers was the family that fed everyone else...
She was also lucky in her adult life...she never had to go hungry so that I could eat...and neither did my Dad...
Vegetables for sale in an open market in Paris...
Today in America, there are a lot of people who are not this lucky...today in America, according to the United States Department of Agriculture, one in six people do not have access to enough food...today in America, more than 17 million children live in households that do not have access to enough food...today in America, more than 50 million people do not have access to enough food...
And these are just estimates...which is why I'm volunteering to work on the nationwide Hunger in America 2014 study being undertaken in the Sacramento area by Feeding America, Westat, California Emergency Foodlink and area food banks...together, volunteers with these organizations will collect information to better understand issues faced by both hunger relief agencies and the hungry families and children they serve...findings will be used to advocate for government assistance and support fundraising efforts...
If voluntary commitment feels right to you...and you'd like to participate too...please contact me...I'll put you in touch with the right people wherever you are...and if you don't have time, you can always make a donation to a hunger relief agency near you...