Excerpt from #Giving Tuesday
Millions of people around the world don’t know where their next meal is coming from. Ending food insecurity is a monumental task, but small actions facilitated on a local level will add up to big changes across the globe.
In a nutshell: help those struggling with hunger and food insecurity closest to home first. These acts of kindness and giving will have a ripple effect that will radiate outward.
Easy ways your family can help fight food insecurity:
– Volunteer at a local soup kitchen or offer to help pack lunches for kids through Operation Sandwich. Operation Sandwich is a grassroots initiative that helps to fill empty tummies during the months when school lunches are not available.
-Anonymously gift a grocery store gift card to a family (or individual) that you know is struggling.
– Get involved with your local food bank, community fridge, or mutual aid society
– Consider creating a Blessing Box or Little Free Food Pantry in your neighborhood. Neighbors can take what they need and leave what they can spare
– Give to organizations that are fighting food insecurity worldwide
Books that help Young Readers Understand Hunger & Food Insecurity
Author Padma Venkatraman stopped by the MCBD blog to share a story about her college years when she witnessed what we Americans call a “food fight” in the cafeteria. Coming from a country where the next meal was never taken for granted, Padma shared her horror at this causal mistreatment of what nourishes our body and how it inspired her to write her award-winning book, THE BRIDGE HOME.
“Perhaps it’s because I spent my first nineteen years in India, where I saw hungry children on the streets, every single day. Maybe it’s also because my grandfather faced hunger as a child. And in part, it’s probably because I was raised by a single mom and for several years our economic situation was fraught.
Then again, I always had enough to eat. But although I never went hungry, I came into close contact with children who had – because my mother volunteered at several schools that were attended by children who’d faced dire poverty.”
Read this excellent guest post in its entirety on the MCBD blog.
Hungry for Food, Hungry for Books {Guest Post by Padma Venkatraman}
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Keep Calm and Read On!
Rebecca “Becky” Flansburg is an author, freelance writer, and project manager for the non-profit online children’s literacy initiative, Multicultural Children’s Book Day/ #ReadYourWorld. Join the celebration! Our 9th annual celebration will take place on January 28, 2022. For more information, visit Multicultural Children’s Book Day on the web.
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