Friday, November 28, 2008

Food, glorious food


I would venture to say that not too many members of the Jungle Red community are feeling food insecurity this morning. I personally had two dinners yesterday, and seemed to think it was perfectly normal (that's going to translate into one solid hour on the rowing machine today.) Food insecurity is a term I just recently learned and it is, of course, a euphemism for hunger

When I was a kid, I saw a documentary called Harvest of Shame. It’s a classic Edward R. Murrow piece (accompanied by music from Aaron Copland) mostly about migrant workers in the US, but really about hunger. It used to be broadcast every year on the day after Thanksgiving, so I'm always reminded of it on Black Friday when I know I'm supposed to be out shopping. An old friend at CBS sent me a copy when I was in the video business and it’s just as powerful today as it was years ago. Because it’s still a reality for so many people. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvest_of_Shame
Here are a couple of links that you might check out in between shopping and football games today..
This one is fun and absolutely addictive http://www.freerice.com/ It’s word game (we are wordsmiths, after all) where words you can define translate into rice donations.
FreeRice is a sister site of Poverty.com. Our partners are the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and the United Nations World Food Program.

And more traditionally.. http://feedingamerica.org/foodbank-results.aspx
Feeding America is the nation's leading domestic hunger-relief charity. Each year, the Feeding America network provides food assistance to more than 25 million low-income people facing hunger in the United States, including more than 9 million children and nearly 3 million seniors.
Our network of more than 200 food banks serves all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The Feeding America network secures and distributes more than 2 billion pounds of donated food and grocery products annually. The Feeding America network supports approximately 63,000 local charitable agencies that distribute food directly to Americans in need. Those agencies operate more than 70,000 programs including food pantries, soup kitchens, emergency shelters, after-school programs,
Kids Cafes, Community Kitchens and BackPack Programs.
For every dollar donated, Feeding America helps provide 20 pounds of food and grocery products to men, women and children facing hunger in our country.
Learn more about your local Feeding America network member food bank.

My husband and I went to our local food bank yesterday, bringing items that we rarely buy for ourselves, but had been requested by the food bank – mac and cheese, white rice, canned pasta. We rushed to make it before closing, and one of the workers there said, “Don’t worry. We'll still be here next week.”
Now get out there and burn some calories!
Cheers,
Rosemary and the Jungle Red Writers

3 comments:

  1. Ah, Ro, you and Bruce are an inspiration, as always...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lovely, Rosemary.

    Thank you for this reminder.

    ReplyDelete
  3. So...what's the big Jungle Red news?

    Huh?

    Huh?

    Paula

    ReplyDelete