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hunger
Being the oldest child, Joseph was plucked from class and sent to work picking coffee for a few neighbours.
Summertime brings its own set of additional pressures that make life that much harder for families who are having a tough time making ends meet.
Climate change is certainly partly to blame for droughts that destroy crops, kill livestock and dry up rivers. However, the main cause of hunger crises is conflict. If the guns were silenced and humanitarian access were restored, it would save more lives in the short term than the return of the rains and crops.
With Earth Day just around the corner, it's a great time to talk about how we can increase our efforts to better care for our planet. Climate change is one of the great challenges of our time, and how we deal with this problem will define our future as a species.
Good nutrition is not only fuel for strong bodies, it also provides power that unlocks potential. This was a lesson I learned from 18-year-old Alima Mbaye, who lives in Thiès, Senegal. Alima and her friends were at a point in their lives where their future and their potential should have been limitless. Instead, malnutrition - and in this case, anemia - was like a brake holding them back.
And feed more than 14,000 people.
Food banks see clients facing these challenges every day, and have responded with innovative programming that not only increases access to healthy food, but turns it into an opportunity to build community. Within the OAFB network, there are food banks in all corners of the province that offer innovative, healthy food options to clients. Here are just a few.
We didn't want charity, especially when we needed it the most. Yet it was the blind kindness of strangers that made the toughest of times a little less daunting. A full belly was one of our first steps towards a fuller life. What was once a source of shame for my family is now an important part of our story.
With the new year upon us, everyone is busy making resolutions to change their lives for the better. While committing to exercise more, eat better, and quit smoking are all laudable goals, why not also set a goal to improve the lives of people in your community?
For the last 40 years, we've been sold a lie about how to solve hunger. It's the kind of deception that sounds so right, so convincing, that we don't even ask questions. We've been told that handing out food to poor, struggling people will fill their need and end their hunger. And yet nothing could be further from the truth.
