Lunch Time

 

 

 

"In the land of plenty, how can some have so much, yet many end up with so little?"

Earlier this week, we took my Father-in-Law out to lunch to celebrate his 90th birthday. We went to a nicer restaurant, located not that far from his apartment. My wife and I ordered a sandwich, and my Father-in-Law ordered a half order of spare ribs. When our meals came, the portions were absolutely HUGE! Each of us could only eat a half of what we ordered. My wife and I had the rest of our lunch for supper that night when we got home.

Why do I bring this up? I have noticed more and more the portion size has increased in many restaurants. By the same token, the number of people who daily do not have enough to eat is also going up. What is wrong with this picture? In our land of plenty, the bread basket of the world, while we continue to dine on Gulliver size portions, others go to bed either hungry or malnourished.

After working a few food drives for the Anoka County Food Shelf, the subject of community hunger has become crystal clear to me. It is a big and growing problem. As bad as it is, the problem of world hunger is much, much worse. Thoughts of the 4,000+ children (mostly in Africa) who die daily from drinking tainted drinking water or starvation, haunts my mealtimes. Here I sat at that restaurant, with a portion big enough to feed two or three people, while there are many in the world who have never seen that much eatable food.

What to do? For a start, Minnesota is home base to an organization called Feed My Starving Children. This is an amazing group of people who have dedicated their lives to collecting enough basic food items just to keep some children alive for a day. Many of the food items are donated by kind and generous food manufacturers and then packaged into individual servings by volunteers from the community. The food is then sent overseas to places which absolutely need it the most. Once there it is mixed with water to constitute a meal nutritious enough to sustain life for one child, for one day.

What my wife and I have recently realized is this - potable water is critical to the equation. Many impoverished areas this much needed food goes in to, do not have adequate supplies of potable water. That is the bad news. The good news is this problem is now becoming much more known and addressed. Organizations of good repute are collecting monies to dig wells, buy water purification systems and so on. For Christmas this year, my wife and I are buying a portion of a deep well that will serve a community with good, clean water for years to come.

Hunger is a problem that will not go away any time soon in either our community or our world. However, it is a problem we can do something about. My advice is simply this - if you are not already involved, give it a try. It will make your next oversized meal out much easier to swallow.