Today I am forgoing my usual morning routine to focus on a topic that is too closely tied to child health and nutrition, poverty. It can be overwhelming to think about the number of children going hungry today, in our own community and around the world. But there are also many organizations and great leaders working to combat the problem, and small steps you can take to help make a difference in just a few minutes. Here’s my own “Power of 8” formula:
- Average trip into coffee shop for morning latte and pumpkin muffin: 8 minutes
- Average cost of latte and pastry: $8
- 86.1 million people in 80 countries rely on World Food Program assistance
In the spirit of “eating locally, acting globally,” I am contributing today to both a domestic and an international cause. Locally, I am supporting Share our Strength, a national organization supporting community programs to end child hunger, where $8 will provide a child three meals a day for a week. Globally, $8 will buy 32 school meals through the Friends of the World Food Program. Blog Action Day’s purpose is not just to spend a day highlighting the issue of poverty, but to “change the conversation” and create action. I will be revisiting my contributions on the 8th of each month, setting aside my coffee change to change the world. Oh, and for the rest of my 8 minutes, after donating to those two sites, I’ll be playing Free Rice.
Are you participating in Blog Action Day? Share your link below!
Blog Action Day 2007 post: Eat Organic. Save the Earth.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Gary Baumgarten // Oct 15, 2008 at 7:05 am
World Hunger Year co-founder Bill Ayers will be my guest on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com at 5 PM New York time today to talk about World Food Day.
Please go to my blog at http://www.garybaumgarten.com and click on the link to the show to talk to Ayers.
Thanks.
2 P.Price // Oct 15, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Nice post. Love the “Power of 8” concept.
I’m talking about Victory Gardening to fight poverty at http://www.redwhiteandgrewblog.com.
3 foodietots
Twitter: foodietots
// Oct 17, 2008 at 2:41 pm
@ Gary – Thanks for the note. I didn’t even realize Hunger Day was the day after Blog Action Day – nice tie-in.
@ P.Price – Thanks, love your take on victory gardening, too.