Many circumstances exacerbate the risk of food insecurity within any household in the United States. Yet the statistical factors of education level, race, and parental involvement mean little to a hungry child on their way to school.
From my own experiences with hunger and poverty, I can tell you there is no greater drain on the human spirit than watching your child suffer from something you feel responsible for.
Without proper nutrition, a child is at an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, bone growth problems, asthma, hip problems, liver problems, reproductive concerns, and type 2 diabetes. Yet homes with children are at a “substantially higher” risk of food insecurity.
Interestingly, during the pandemic’s state and federally-sponsored free lunch programs, food insecurity in children decreased from 14.8% to 12.5% and correlated access to school lunches with lifting children out of poverty.
Families are more likely to overcome poverty when they are offered support to feed their children.
Food ends poverty.
Our last blog post briefly discussed the cost of ending world hunger. According to multiple sources, including the Borgen Project, “the price to eradicate global hunger is $45 billion a year until 2030.” In seven years, we could end world hunger.
Elon Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion.
Mark Zuckerberg lost $100 billion of net worth in 13 months.
Compared to the likes of the world’s wealthiest humans, ending world hunger can seem insurmountable. How can we possibly put a dent in those numbers?
Simple, we don’t do it alone.
Joe Sweeney, speaker, and author, illustrates the strength of interconnectivity in his research on Belgian Horses.
“These amazingly strong animals can pull 8,000 pounds. The interesting fact is that when two horses pull a load together, they don’t just pull 16,000 pounds combined. The team can pull 22,000 pounds. When they train together and pull together, they can pull up to 32,000 pounds.”
Indeed, we may not be able to influence the whims of our wealthiest citizens. We may be unable to pull out our checkbooks and end world hunger. We can, however, influence the lives of our most vulnerable. We can come together to move the needle.
There is no time better for greatness than now.
As we watch and wait for our moment to make a difference, we prolong the suffering of those around us. When we at Dealer Talk began our endeavor to end hunger wherever we see it, we fully anticipated witnessing tragedy, sorrow, and despair.
Conceptualizing those things is different from encountering them. We have been humbled, impacted, and changed by the experience. We have begun to see more clearly the value one meal may have on not just a single individual but their entire family. A free child’s lunch at school has the power to change the entire fabric of a family.
A single action can change a dozen, a hundred, a thousand, a million lives. We challenge each of our loyal listeners, vendor partners, and dealers to act. Perhaps it is simply handing lunch to a homeless person or offering to pay for the meal behind you in McDonald’s. Or perhaps you have a more significant means for enacting change and can buy a single student lunch for a year or purchase a cart of groceries for a young mother. Any of these actions will make a difference, and as we work together, we build the strength to pull the world toward greatness.
