Being hungry has lasting impacts on brain and body, it harms education, pushes up violence, decays society, pushes up needs for health care... what about a government partnership with large chain food restaurants to develop a healthy child and youth menu that our young folk can access for free? In terms of decrease in dealing with societal ills it would soon pay for itself.
So many days I would be asked to teach science to hungry kids. That's insanity. Ask any Granny or Grandpa, it ain't rocket science. First comes the good hearty breakfast and the "how are you?" conversation with deep listening. Then once they are happy and fed, then you can teach and help them reach higher. It is all part of the pyramid of needs, if you want a person to operate at a higher level their other needs, their survival needs, must first be fully met. Food, water, shelter, love and companionship all come before philosophy, empathy and higher brain functions. A world of peace is a fed world. It really is that easy if we try.
Being hungry is a thing most mature adults can endure for several hours at least. It is uncomfortable, yet adults can accept these things and carry on if it is required in caring for the young. The hunger of children however is a cruelty, a gross and grinding foul cruelty that we must work together upon. Such problems should grab our attention and keep it, for a starving and hungry child is a suffering child. Do we love or are we emotionally indifferent? Are we man or monster?
Hunger is manmade. Hungry children are a result of government policies, not of a planet unable to sustain the population. We have enough food for nine billion people and only seven to feed, we have a global surplus. Hunger drives and charities do an awesome job, we love them, but they are pushing the tide back with broken brooms. For real change there has to be a sea-change in how we view and structure our world. To share is to be blessed. It is an honour to give. He gave us our world at no charge and poured in His love, what gives us the right to charge money? What gives us the right to bar access to nourishment when we have excess?
How to stop hunger was the number one obsession. I saw things I can't scrub from my mind. People ate stuff that wasn't food, not caring if it killed them, only that it ended the gnawing pain. There was something about hunger that robbed the spirit as well as the body, as if in such a state the mind is unable to feel love at all. In the throes of severe malnourishment all emotions that could hinder the person's ability to fight and be selfish are switched off. Or at least that's the way it is for most. There are some that would give you their last grain of rice and a hug to go with it, but they're so rare as to be almost an extinct species.
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