The whole point of this blog is to inform you all what I am learning about as I venture into my year of learning about the world.  I don't really feel like I have done a great job with that. 

This past month I have been reading books about hunger, trying to feel what it is like to be hungry in some way, and letting God to continue building on this passion I have.  So here are some thing that I think are important to share.

(I hate statistics, but I think these ones are powerful)
~Everyday almost 16,000 children die from hunger related causes- one child every 5 seconds. 
~ 1.02 BILLION people across the world are hungry today
~Asia and the Pacific region is home to over half the worlds population and nearly 2/3 of the world's hungry people.
~ More than 60% of chronically hungry people are women (Chronically hungry meaning that they have been hungry for a majority of their life)
~ It is estimated that 684,000 child deaths world wide could be prevented by increasing access to Vitamin A and zinc

None of these statistics are okay.  But they are real and don't really seem to be getting any better.  But here are two more statements that are even more shocking to me...
~ "Oxford economist Donald Hay has pointed out that  a mere 2 percent of the world's grain harvest would be enough, if shared, to erase the problem of hunger and malnutrition around the world."  That is 2% people, 2%. 
~ "In 1996, The World Health Organization reported  than an annual increase in preventative care of 75 cents  per person in the Third World  could save 5 million lives every year.  That would take less than $3 billion.  Surely the people of the wealthier nations could find $3 billion  to save 5 million people.  The National Center for Health Statistics reported that people in the United States spend between $30 and $50 billion each year on diets and related expenditures to reduce their calorie intake." 
WHAT....now that is crazy.  If we in the US are spending so much on dieting (aka not eating as much food) yet we can't "afford" 1/10 of that on getting food to people who actually need it.  What if we dieted in a way where we gave the food we weren't eating to those who need it.  Or what if instead of buying diet books or diet videos we looked up everything online, or what if instead of buying a gym membership, we spend time exercising outdoors, and used the money that we would have spent and put it into the pockets of the 1.4 billion people in the world who live on less than $1.25 a day.  Or even easier, what if we all pitched in our part of roughly 75 cents a year to feed those who cannot feed themselves.  75 cents a year.  I know I could scrounge up a lot more than that and hardly notice that it would be gone. 

So think about it...what are some things that you could do?