“The right time to eat is:  For a rich man, when he is hungry; For a poor man, when he has something to eat.” ~Mexican Proverb

Often I’ve heard people talk about things or events in their life that haunt them and only being 26, I figured there wasn’t really anything that “haunted” me.   That is until one sleepless night I lay in bed allowing my mind to wander and found myself thinking of old WWII documentaries I had seen.  My mind latched on to a scene of a young woman holding a baby in her arms, pacing the streets of a ghetto, wailing in painful despair.  She was hungry.  Her breasts had stopped producing milk and her baby faced death.

The black and white footage playing over and over in my mind was a nightmare, a true nightmare that killed hundreds of thousands during the second World War.  Violence and evil ambitions brought about death by starvation but after the war, starvation didn’t end.  The problem only grew.

The world is hungry.  So called “developed nations” lavish in the privilege to eat while those in the “third world” countries fight for the very right to eat.

When I see children in starving nations eating some kind of white, grainy, snot textured mush I’m haunted and my mind goes back to the woman wailing in despair.  All from hunger.

What kind of people have we become that we could have the audacity to ask the question, “What will we have for dinner?” when hundreds of millions question, “When will we eat again?”  What arrogance!  And an arrogance I have been guilty of.  And now, I am haunted by it.

I’m haunted by the fact that the President of the United States has a personal chef while 1 in 8 of his country men are hungry.  I’m haunted by the fact that 15 million children die each year from starvation.  It scares me that funds which build missiles could feed lunch to school children for FIVE years.  I’m disheartened to know that in the U.S. “race” and hunger are related.  And I’m sad to report that since you started reading this, at least 200 people have died from starvation.

What can be done, if anything, to end world hunger?  What can you do individually to stop a global killing machine?

You can start at home.

Mother Teresa said:  ”If you can’t feed a hundred people, then just feed one.”

If you are blessed to have enough, give some away.  Buy an extra can of vegetables, box of pasta, or cereal to donate to a local food pantry each time you shop.  Make monetary donations to groups like Meals on Wheels, even if it’s just a dollar.  Every little bit helps.  Organize neighborhood cookouts and volunteer at soup kitchens.  You never know who you could help even with the gift of time.

And remember:

“There is no one so rich that they do not need help or so poor that they cannot help.” ~Finnish proverb