Hungry For Change?

Probably your synagogue runs a canned food drive during Yom Kippur. The youth group will collect cans of unperishable food and later they’ll be dropped off at a local food pantry, right? It’s a great idea, but on the eve of a fast, I don’t find it quite as fulfilling as I might want. If you’re not fasting this year, and certainly if you are, I recommend spending a few minutes researching just how bad food distribution is in this country, and the world over. You may want to start at the ThinkQuest site for World Hunger, which tells us:

In 1994 the Urban Institute in Washington DC estimated that one out of 6 elderly people in the U.S. has an inadequate diet.

In the U.S. hunger and race are related. In 1991 46% of African-American children were chronically hungry, and 40% of Latino children were chronically hungry compared to 16% of white children.

The infant mortality rate is closely linked to inadequate nutrition among pregnant women. The U.S. ranks 23rd among industrial nations in infant mortality. African-American infants die at nearly twice the rate of white infants.

One out of every eight children under the age of twelve in the U.S. goes to bed hungry every night.

Half of all children under five years of age in South Asia and one third of those in sub-Saharan Africa are malnourished.

And once you’ve done your research, consider donating money to a group that works on hunger relief (I love Mazon and Changing the Present) and donating time to local hunger fighting groups. My favorite food distribution group is called Food Not Bombs. They have chapters in cities all over the world, and meet weekly to give away free vegan food to homeless people. It may be a cliché that your rabbi uses every year, but unfortunately, it’s still true: for some people, every day is Yom Kippur. Wishing you an easy and meaningful fast.