Hunger And Hope [BloggersUnite]

• Sometimes the best way to begin is with a fact. Okay, here's one:
  
  
  
  In the year 2004, it was estimated that farming across the Earth already produces enough food to feed everyone on the planet - six billion, at that time. Indeed, the same statement added that twice that number - 12 billion - could be fed.
  
  -United Nations Food And Agricultural Organization
  
  
  
  Let your head try to wrap around that for a moment. We already have the resources that, if properly distributed, would once and for all end world hunger. Despite this, the UN estimates that 923-million people are hungry worldwide.
  
  
  
  Another fact:
  
  
  
  It's estimated that a person dies every second of every day from hunger, or diseases made worse by undernourishment. One in five of those who die is a child. That works out to 4,000 people an hour, 100,000 a day, 36 million people a year. More than half the deaths on Earth in a year can be attributed to hunger.
  
  - United Nations Food And Agricultural Organization
  
  
  
  Enough information for you? Well, how about a quote:
  
  "...[H]ope comes from just standing up"
  -Studs Terkel
  
  It's time to stand up. Stand up and work for those who are hungry. Yes, Big Government must be a part of the ultimate solution. But four thousand people this hour alone can't wait.
  
  

Below are links to a few groups that are fighting world hunger today. Look them over, then get involved if you wish. But remember that hunger may live up the street from you, or in the next block, or across the street from your best friend [then again, it could be your best friend...]. You probably know of groups near you that are helping to deal with hunger in your area. Support them as well, in body or spirit.

• The Heifer Project [Co-sponsoring today's BloggerUnite project]
• Action Against Hunger
• The Hunger Site [All you have to do here is click on an icon. It's worth about a cup of food. Couldn't be easier...]
• FeedingAmerica [formerly known as America's Second Harvest. Co-ordinating food bank resources across the US]
• The Hunger Project

There are certainly more groups than these. Find one [or more], then go to work...

-Mike Riley