#1675 (for real this time) -- Good Causes

[bigangry]

I make it a rule to avoid talking about donating to charity, but I have to make an exception this time.

The World Food Programme needs donations to help combat world hunger.

I've been listening to David Letterman lately, and he's really been on about hating Food Network and everything associated with the culture of excess of shows like Cupcake Wars and Man vs. Food (travel channel, but same diff). It came to a head last night with Rachel Ray on. Letterman went on a rant about it, pretty much eating up Ray's entire segment. Being as big a Food Network fanboy as I am, you'd think I'd be defending the shows, but I'm finding myself more and more on Letterman's side. Dave also said that he's talked with people from the WFP on the show, and he's learned that, of all the problems out there, like wars or AIDS or genocides, world hunger CAN be solved. We have the resources, we have the means to do it, and all that we're missing is the funding and the manpower, and both of those can be helped through donating to the WFP.

Look, I'm a huge, giant fat-ass, and I've eaten more than my fair share of horrible food, but there are 50,000,000 people in this COUNTRY that are going hungry, and $5 can feed a family of 4 for 4 days.

Maybe I'm donating in the hopes of getting Dave to shut up about this, but I'm donating to help people much, much less fortunate than me to eat. As a foodie, I know that the one thing that everyone in the world has in common is the need for eating food, and I honestly can't imagine what it would be like to not have adequate food due to poorness. I don't want anyone to have to go through that, and as long as I'm fortunate to have a few bucks I'm able to spend, I'm going to try to donate to help people have food to eat.

Thanks for reading, and I hope that you can find enough time and money to donate a little.

Comments

[foomf.livejournal.com]

How does $5 feed a family of four for a week, and what does it feed them?

[bigangry.livejournal.com]

Ah, got my math wrong. It's $5 will feed a family of 4 for 4 days. It buys rice, beans and vegetables.

[foomf.livejournal.com]

That's barely subsistence. Having been on that diet, I can tell you it's a gateway to insulin resistance, diabetes, and malnutrition. However, $10 will improve it to somewhat better, and $50 will give the kids a chance to grow up healthy.

This doesn't mean "Don't give" but it means "give more" when possible.

The costs are brought down somewhat by subsidy. When Penny and I were receiving food assistance from the state while I was unemployed for four years, we got about $12/day for two of us. That was the minimum the state was willing to provide for food.
When I was growing up, they didn't have that, but they had an agricultural surplus food program that basically provided cheese, flour, sugar, corn syrup, lard, beans and canned meat (big cans of separated but not finely ground chicken, beef or pork) but no vegetables, because they weren't surplus. A family would get a particular amount based on size, that wasn't enough to live on but would help a LOT. Unfortunately that program no longer exists.

[bigangry.livejournal.com]

Actually, I misspoke. The emergency daily rations that the WFP distributes for humanitarian disasters is located here (http://www.wfp.org/nutrition/WFP-foodbasket). But the donation you make can be specified to go toward either nutritional children's school lunch programs, combating world hunger or wherever need is greatest. The $5/4 days stat was taken from Letterman, not the WFP.

It's not as if you're sponsoring a family directly, but whatever you can give goes to combating hunger and malnutrition somewhere. Bill and Melinda Gates are huge sponsors, giving away HALF their entire wealth to charities all over the planet, including a sizable chunk to the WFP.

I wholeheartedly agree with the "Give more" part.

[kiseki.livejournal.com]

Yes ma'am. :)

I really just wanted to take this opportunity to express how much I hate Rachael Ray. She can take her "yummo" and shove it. Also, she is a terrible person (http://images.dailydawdle.com/rachael-ray-eats-family.jpg).