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View Full Version : International Food Crisis -- what are you doing?



bubbaray
04-23-2008, 09:03 PM
Are you doing anything in response to the growing international food crisis??

http://www.wvi.org/wvi/wviweb.nsf/maindocs/2D1C57866D01845988257433007C00AB?opendocument

This story just breaks my heart.

We have given World Vision gifts as Christmas gifts this past year (yeah -- everyone who received them LOVED the idea).

We are considering sponsoring a child.

I'm not sure what else we could/should do. We are looking for ideas. International adoption isn't really an option as it is exceedingly difficult in Canada and takes over 2 years, so won't help the immediate need of these kids. If we lived in the US, we would definitely pursue the international foster program that the US government permits.

Thoughts???

shilo
04-24-2008, 01:15 AM
i think there are many worthwile organizations out there, but you asked what we're doing?

the UN World Food Programme (www.wfp.org) is and has been one of our chosen international organizations for many years and it's one of my favorites, so forgive my rambling. it is where world vision (as mentioned in your article) and many other NPO's who provide hunger relief worldwide get much of their additional funding and resources from.

my mom started us collecting change at halloween for UNICEF and the WFP as children, and it continues to be a place that both my sister and i choose to put our dollars 25 years later. it's got several 'celeb' type ambassador's of late, but the program itself has been around for more than 4 decades.

as an organization, they are super easy to give to. they have it set up so that you can make an overall commitment for a certain period of time and just set it up to make deductions each month. i have my charities that provide this kind of option set up to correspond with my debit/credit card expiration date, that way, i know when i have to go update them all with new card info (when i get my new cards).

some info that sticks with me (if you're thinking about it but on the fence) from various newsletters i've received...

- we always try to look at an organization's overhead when deciding where to put our dollars. WFP's is something like 7% (that's quite good) and that includes both their administrative and fundraising overhead.

- i fundamentally believe that educating women in this world is the basis for raising future generations out of poverty. altho WFP feeds all children without bias, because they are predominantly a school based program, the program has a history of attracting girls in larger numbers to schools where the program has been started. if food is what it takes to get parents to send their girls to school, i say that's two for the price of one.

- WFP buys their food locally and in most all of the countries they provide food in. so at the same time my dollar is going to help feed a child there, it is going to help grow the local agricultural economy as well.

- in addition to supplying the actual food itself, WFP puts my money into building the infrastructure to make a region more self reliant and ensure the future chain of food supply. be it roads and railways, building adaquate storage to support local supply chains year round (not just in harvesting season), re-foresting to help offset regional climate/topographical changes threatening supply, etc. they do it.

so anyway, since i can't give my time abroad like i can here at home, that's what we're doing on an international level.

lori

Sillygirl
04-24-2008, 08:48 AM
Thank you Melissa for posting this. I followed your link and decided to sponsor a little boy in Mexico, about Jonathan's age, who loves to play with toy cars, just like my son does. We aren't able to send him packages, but we can send a card with stickers. So I think today Jonathan and I will take a trip to Target to see if we can find some great car stickers.

Joolsplus2
04-24-2008, 08:54 AM
I think I'll eat less meat...it takes a lot of grain to feed animals, so eating lower on the food chain keeps demand for grain lower, will help keep prices down http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1717572,00.html (I guess there's not much I can do about my government forcing my gas to have 10% ethanol in it, but I don't drive much...)

mamicka
04-24-2008, 09:26 AM
We sponsor 2 children with Compassion Intl. This is a good reminder to sponsor another one (we committed to sponsoring one child for each child we had). We also support other such international groups (i.e. Covenant World Relief) through our church tithing.

brittone2
04-24-2008, 09:28 AM
I'm going to write my lawmakers and ask them to stop food speculation. See this link:

http://littlebloginthebigwoods.blogspot.com/2008/04/hunger-compilation-and-action.html

(can I link to a blog? It isn't mine. There's an interesting collection of articles on it)

Profiteering in this situation seems so inappropriate.

KBecks
04-24-2008, 01:22 PM
I made donations to my church's sister parishes in Haiti and Mexico last week.

I should write letters about wasting food on ethanol to politicians but it's unrealistic, I just don't get to letter writing.

MartiesMom2B
04-24-2008, 02:01 PM
We are going to cut back on beef and other meat in this household. I'm not going to help on an international level now. I went to donate a bag of food at a local food pantry that my church is involved with and I was taken aback by how empty it was. I'm a coupon collector, so I've decided to buy extra bags of groceries using the coupons that I have to donate to the local pantry. I think that with gas prices and housing that hunger will be felt by so many even close to home. I'm thankful that we are in good circumstances.

kijip
04-24-2008, 10:12 PM
Rising food prices are everywhere, including the USA. For middle class families that means cutting back- we are certainly eating a little more modestly to stay in our very generous budget for food. Part of that is it just seems wrong for me to buy crab when I see familes that can't afford hot dogs. I struggle with what we can/should do when I make our meal plan. For very low income families or those who were already barely affording food, it means crisis. I am up to my elbows in that at work right now. We give food assistance and the rising price means we need to find more money or cut another program or serve fewer people with food assistance. It is a tough situation. Also, some families lack kitchens (living in 1 room studios) so they can't cook, making economizing on food much harder. We are getting an influx of families seeking our services too.

My organzation is not unique in its challenges- food banks and other services around the country are serving more families with less money (adjusted for inflation). When times get tight, charitable donations dwindle. While I commend all donations and volunteerism overseas, I would remind you to think about your local services and local poor as well if you are able to.

Also, I would encourage people to store some extra food or stock up on staples in case the recession hits you harder in the future with a job loss or skipped raise, or we see higher inflation in food.

TahliasMom
04-25-2008, 02:57 AM
as i feel bad for ppl in other countries, there's so much poverty in our own backyard. i think the focus, easier said then done, needs to be on education, prevention and such to help the people out of the poverty cycle.
as for dd & I, we barely can feed ourselves but I donate what I can to the food bank. we live on staples; rice, potatoes, plain yogurt, powered mik, canned fruit and frozen veggies. dd loves cottage cheese so we have that at least twice a week with canned fruit. meat balls and spaghetti are at our house once a week. then we have cheese and potato dumplings or cheese ravioli. i take peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to work. we eat bulk granola or bulk oatmeal for breakfast with frozen or canned fruit. when i have money i try to buy meal basics and fresh fruit at trader joes. so i feel like we're doing our part not to consume meat and add to the food crisis but it's more of necessity than choice. :(
some of you might have seen my grip on the bitching post about our rent being raised 10% which is about 180, our food budget. i have barely enough for us, let alone others. :(

shilo
04-25-2008, 04:02 AM
as i feel bad for ppl in other countries, there's so much poverty in our own backyard. i think the focus, easier said then done, needs to be on education, prevention and such to help the people out of the poverty cycle.

i have barely enough for us, let alone others. :(



i won't even pretend to know what it's like to be in those shoes. but i have to say i don't think you should feel bad about that last statement you made (the :(). i also have to say that i admire what you _are_ doing. i think if more people in our society recognized your opening point, and went so far as to do what each of us can, our country would be a very different place. for me, i can volunteer and contribute at second harvest here locally and sponsor monetarily to WFP, so that's what i do. but in a lot of ways, what you and your daughter are doing takes a much _bigger_ commitment as a family than what we are doing. i see your point about necessity, but think that doing what you can when you can is, well, enough. period. anyway, just wanted to respond that your post spoke to me.

lori