neebs | National Hunger Awareness Day: June 7, 2005 (Reply)

On April 28, I had the pleasure of accepting an award for The Pilgrimage as the “2005 Outstanding Volunteer Group” at the Capital Area Food Bank’s 2005 Metropolitan Area Hunger Conference. While at the conference, I also had the chance to attend two workshops and learn more about poverty and hunger here in the DC metropolitan area. Some of the things I heard at the conference have stuck with me, and I’d like to share them with you here:

In the United States, our hunger problems are not starvation; they are malnutrition.
The stereotype of a hungry person in the US is a homeless male; however, this population makes up only 18% of the total. 82% of those who are hungry have jobs, family, a place to live—but since they don’t fit our stereotype of those who are hungry, we don’t acknowledge the size of the problem.
The difference between being hungry and not being hungry is a matter of choice: if you are not hungry, you can choose when you want to eat your next meal.

If you are asking yourself “What can I do to help solve this problem?” then I have a suggestion for you. Take part in National Hunger Awareness Day on Tuesday, June 7. You can find more information at www.hungerday.org. The National Cathedral is hosting an Interfaith Convocation at 7pm on Monday June 5. More information on the Convocation can be found on the Hunger Awareness Day website or at the National Cathedral’s website at www.cathedral.org.

I would like to leave you with this last thought, from the Keynote Speaker at the Hunger Conference, Ms. Karyn T. Lynch, Director of Prince George’s county Department of Social Services. I think it sums up what we do at The Pilgrimage and why people keep coming back, and I encourage you to apply this to your own life as well: “What kind of world do we want to live in and what are we doing to make it so?”