Tuesday, October 16th is World Food Day in which Oxfam America uses this day each year to help promote conversation about where your food comes from, who cultivates it, and how you can take personal actions that will make the food system more just and sustainable.
Oxfam has launched the GROW campaign to build a better food system: one that sustainably feeds a growing population (estimated to reach nine billion by 2050) and empowers poor people to earn a living, feed their families, and thrive. This is wonderful because according to Oxfam America:
One in seven people goes to bed hungry every night. Not because there isn’t enough food, but because of deep imbalances in access to resources like fertile land and water.
Can you imagine putting your child to bed every night knowing that it was going hungry and not being able to do anything about it? It is simply heart breaking when you think about it.After checking out the GROW campaign for myself I discovered some very interesting things such as 1 pound of ground beef uses more than 28,000 cups of water to produce and that a third of our food on our plates ends up lost or wasted.
More Information and a Few Things You Can Do:
GROW Method Pinterest Cookbook: find more GROW method recipes r you can pin your recipe using the hashtag #GROWmethod and have it added to the cookbook.
Snap a photo of your World Food Day meal on Instagram and tag it with#WFD2012 .
Host a World Food Day Dinner Discussion: you can find all the information you need to help you host a great discussion here.
I live in a small Georgia town that you most likely have never heard of and I LOVE it! My house is more than full as I am a single mother of four & caregiver to my aging mother and uncle. Lover of all things Outlander. Goes to the beat of her own drum woman.
Karen Glatt says
It is so sad when parents have to send their children to sleep without enough food! It is really important to know what goes into making our food, and to make better food choices for our family! I am going to remember world food day on October 16th!
Patricia says
Thanks for sharing this. We are so blessed.
Leslie G. says
It is so incredibly important that sustainability become as well-practiced as recycling. Thank you for this information!
Rebby says
Thanks for this post. I truly am grateful for what I have and that I can have 3 meals a day. And sad others cannot.
Elizabeth says
Interesting..I hope that we become more sustainable and that so much food will not wasted
Mary Beth Elderton says
I’m glad you made the point that people—children—go hungry not because there is not enough food, but because of unequal access to food. The pictures that pop into mind when this conversation is started are of sad little children some place across the globe. The truth is that food issues affect American children, too. We may have as much or more food than other countries just as we have some of the best medical technology—but the problem is that access to those are unevenly available. I am glad for organizations who are working to make food both more sustainable and more accessible.
Harmony B says
Its hard to think about children going hungry. As sad as it we should be reminded daily.
Thanks for sharing
Betty Baez says
Wow 9 billion reached by 2050 that’s amazing. I’m so grateful everyday that I have clean water and food to eat. I can’t imagine how a mother would feel if she couldn’t feed her child
Stacey Roberson says
This is heartbreaking – Especially for the children. I’m happy there’s a day to celebrate the meaning, but definitely not under the circumstances.
Raine says
I cannot believe the amount of food wasted, yet kids (and adults) go hungry. I wasn’t even aware of World Food Day, great informative post and I’m going to use the information given for good, thank you.
ellen says
According to some studies it is as high as 1 in 5 people going hungry. Feeding America estimates it to 1 in 6- and keep in mind that is here in the USA not some ‘other’ country ! To get a grip on this, go somewhere with a fair number of people and count off every 6th one- they might be your neighbors, your friends even some of your own family.
I volunteer at a food distribution site and it is not who you think it would be visiting if you are blessed to have enough.
Alycia M says
Thanks for sharing this, reminds me how I need to be more thankful for the small things. I can’t imagine knowing that my child was going to bed hungry. So sad.