Our country is great at making money but not always the best at creating jobs or helping our own in the direst of need. Locally, Chicago has huge areas called Food Deserts – imagine if the entire population of Naperville, 124,000 people, wasn’t able to get access to fresh food – that number only represents the children that go hungry in Chicago alone. The issue of basic needs being met for all citizens is a national one but to see the impact on a local level is staggering. While there has been improvement over the last five years, we’re still not helping everyone get full bellies!
Chuck Sudo, Chicagoist, wrote a recap this past October pulling out the major points affecting those that go hungry here in Chicago. It’s scary for me to think that we still have this issue of people going hungry. Technology has drawn us closer together but that hasn’t solved many of our problems. The current economy is a temperamental one, helping some but not others. Many people have become disenfranchised and quit seeking employment and are near giving up hope for a good life let alone a better one. I can’t imagine the feelings of a hungry child let alone that same child facing despair at seeing their parents out of work and disillusioned!
I’m doing the triathlon this year for Share Our Strength. They were formed in the 80s to battle childhood hunger and have set a commitment of 2015 to be the year Childhood Hunger ends in America. That is the same timeline Mayor Rahm Emmanuel is setting to end the Food Deserts in Chicago. Skeptics may say there are supermarkets in depressed areas – would you shop there? Would you take home that bag of lettuce? Would you eat that tomato? If it isn’t good enough for your family why should someone else be forced to take what they can get?
America needs to start pulling the rope in the same direction and helping one another. I don’t care about your race, your economic status or your political beliefs if the next generation is facing starvation now what will their lives be like in 10 or 20 years? Will they even make it?
It doesn’t take much to help and I’m not asking you to give up a vacation or a day of retail therapy. Just maybe give up the Starbucks. Quit smoking and donate the money to those in need. Stay in one or two Fridays and donate your drinking fund!
- A simple $1 can help a hungry child get 10, TEN healthy meals!
- Your $4 coffee can feed a child for a weekend when they have no access to school meals.
- $9 or a simple lunch during the work day when not brown bagging it can connect a child to healthy lunches during the summer!
- $50 or a night of beers and wings can help a family access nearly $900 in food assistance to make nutritious meals at home – groceries, healthy groceries.
I’m going to step up the incentives for you to donate to SOS and my triathlon challenge – for those who donate $100 or more, I’m going to fundraise or buy t-shirts myself so you can walk around with pride. I’ll also be asking those in the restaurant/hospitality world to donate what they can to be raffled off later this year. I’ll update as often as I need to so I can entice you to donate.
So far I’ve gotten a couple books from triathlete and author Leib Dodell. There’s a crack in the dam and I hope I get flooded with stuff you want to donate to entice others to give and END Childhood Hunger! Tomorrow, I’ll post a quick update on my training – it’s been a rollercoaster month so far.
You can donate by going to My SOS Page! Thank you for the support and the donation.
Joe Campagna is the Chicago Food Snob. A former restaurant General Manager, Server and Chef you can find him on twitter @chifoodsnob. You can reach him through email at chicagofoodsnob@hotmail.com. Joe also contributes to Eater.com Chicago.
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