Helping out, one square meal at a time

 

In 2020, over 800 million people worldwide suffered from hunger. That same year, nearly 1 in every 3 people experienced a form of moderate to severe food insecurity. And around 3 billion people did not have access to healthy diets.¹ These problems should be clear, but many are unclear on how to tackle them, and all of this weighed heavily on my mind as my family prepared to usher in the New Year 2021.

At the end of last year, my family and I had made our way over to the supermarket for groceries, in order to prepare a fresh, warm dinner. However, our festive cheer was given pause on our way to the butcher, which was at the far end of the store. As we traversed the aisles, there was a moment when each of us stood in silence (and disbelief!) and looked at the bounty that was laid out before us. There were endless arrays of beautifully decorated, mouth-watering Christmas goods–pastries, confectionery, charcuterie, even gift hampers and advent calendars. And the entire store softly danced to the tunes of Christmas carols in the background.

All of this made it even easier than normal for us to mindlessly stuff our shopping carts with goods. But, this time, my conscience weighed heavily on me. How could we pick up all these fancy goodies when so many around the world do not even have access to one square meal a day? Didn’t we already have a Christmas cake at home? Did we need all of those chocolates and cookies? 

After returning a solid portion of our cart’s contents to the shelves, I took a deep breath and forced myself to walk over to my daughter and dissuade her from her mission to pick up every Frozen-related product she saw. “Darling, I know all these chocolates, candies, and cookies look very tasty and yummy, but we can only pick one item. You get to choose what you want, so long as it’s only one thing.”

When it comes to food (and much more, of course), we can all get carried away with unthinking consumerism. But we also all have the power to resist that temptation–to make positive changes, no matter how big or small, to help those in need! 

What can we do to contribute?

1. BUY WHAT YOU CAN EAT: In Europe and North America alone, an average of 100kg of food is wasted per person per year!² We really do tend to buy too much at one time. After a few days, when the carrots start to look limp, we just throw them out in favor of veggies that are ripe.

2. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF LEFTOVERS: Leftover food suffers from the same problem as the above, finding their way to a trash can all too easily! However, there are tons of cookbooks available, in print and online, with wonderful recipes that use leftovers of all sorts to create tasty meals.

3. WASTE NOT, WANT NOT AT BUFFETS: It’s a wonderful privilege to be able to eat-all-you-can-eat. That doesn’t mean we should waste food, though. When there’s more food than we know what to do with, we tend to create culinary Picasso’s on our plates with miniature bites of everything, and so often leave with half-eaten (or even barely touched) plates.

4. GIVE GENEROUSLY: A helpful tip for donating to charities (especially with food) is to be physically present when you give. This ensures your well-meaning contributions can really do their part to help fill a hungry person’s stomach.

5. LIFE-LONG LEARNING: For many of the 3 billion people who do not have access to healthy diets, it’s a matter of education–knowing what to value, and why. Likewise, instilling good values in your children at home are critical. What we need is often not the same thing as what we want!

To end, I wanted to include my favourite adage: “Every drop of water builds a mighty ocean, every small act of kindness can be felt with great solace somewhere, every responsible act creates a better world for our future and our children.”
 

1. The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2021

2. FAO (United Nations): Global food losses and food waste

About the author:

Pollyana Desouza is a writer, Business Transformation consultant, and mother, with a child enrolled in Grade 1 at ICS. She loves writing adventure and mystery stories for young teens, with hopes to have have her adventure novel for young teens published soon. She also loves travelling, and in her professional role as a Business Transformation consultant has traveled around the globe liaising with different companies and people of all nationalities.