YATW:World Hunger

My name is Dejanyia Johnson and I am a freshman at Science Leadership Academy. About a month ago in my English class, my teacher Ms.Dunn introduced my class to a project called, “You and the World.”  In this project, we are supposed to pick an issue that we feel strongly passionate about. When she said this to us, so many issues went through my head that I could not pick one. So, I began to ponder and wonder which was important. Was it politics, the economy, the government, gay rights? I couldn’t think of just ONE. That is until I was going home from school and I saw a homeless man with a sign saying, “Will work for food.”That is when I began to think about people who are hungry and need resources. I picked the issue World Hunger. The reason I chose this issue is because there is no reason why anyone should be hungry, many people are dying everyday because of the malnutrition, and people who are able to be fed are taking advantage and not realizing that others suffer.

Today, there should not be anyone in the entire world that goes hungry or without a meal. Why? Well, according to Oxfam, “The world produces about 17% more food per person today than 30 years ago.” That means that everyone who is and was able to consume food, the amount they take in should have increased. But instead, the opposite happened. In the world today, about 925 million people are hungry . That is more than the population of the United States, Canada, and the European Union combined ! In addition to that, there are over three billion people who live off about $2.50 a day. This is one of these reasons why people are hungry. What can $2.50 get you to eat? That is not enough to feed one person let alone an entire family. This happens because, “More than 80 percent of the world’s population lives in countries where income differentials are widening,” according to Global Issues. This means that not only are there gaps in the way the economy is set-up, but it is getting bigger and larger. The reason for the economies being hugely spread out is because the rich(which is about 20%) take up about 3 quarter

s of the economy, while the poor (about 40%) take up less than 5%. This is ridiculous! No one should have to scrape for a meal.

All over the entire world, people, both adults and children are dying from malnutrition. The malnutrition is trigge

red from them not being able to eat. That is what hunger is. At this moment right now, there are 905,814,184 people who are undernourished. That number continues to change everyday according to http://www.stopthehunger.com. Not only that, but every five seconds a child dies from hunger related diseases. That means that there are about 17,280 children who  die from hunger in a day. That number is out of control! The fact that this issue is still going on makes my skin crawl. In addition, women who make up most of the population in the world, are the majority that makes up for the world hunger. Women take up 60% of world hunger. Just today, there are about 23,000 people who died today from hunger. That includes children, men, and women. Th

e crazy thing about this is that every country waste tons of money on food. I can not stomach that. Why? Because I know that there are still people out there who are starving and going without, but we can afford to throw money out on food we will not eat! Although most of the hunger comes from developing countries, we still have countries like America that have the money to feed the people, but chooses not to. I do not understand why. Why is countries like America trying to help out other places and help them with hunger, but can not muster up the same for their own. We are trying to build a strong nation, but yet contradicting ourselves with this foolery.  There are more than 1.4 billion people who are below the poverty line. That means that more than 1.4 billion people are hungry. These facts are so real that it seems unbelievable.

To add fuel to the fire

, people w

ho are able to consume on a regular basis take advantage of that and waste what they have. Today in America, there was about $362,160,257.00 spent on obese disease. That could be money going to people who are hungry! Not to mention, that is only in America! In addition, about 90,000,000 was spent on buying food that we later did not use. That’s just like throwing money in the trash! Something that should concern everyone is the price for food. How do individuals expect people who are of lower class to afford food if everything is above what they make? Like I stated before, some people only make about three dollars a day. That can not even get you a meal at an average fast food restaurant.  That is a sad, but yet it remains true.

This issue is very close to my heart. I believe that this is a strong issue because of the death that is caused and because that I know for sure that this could change. The reason I chose this was because I know that there are billions of people who are affected by this and I know that no matter what there will always be a problem unless some change is made.There are many ways that we can change world hunger. But first, people would have to realize that there is  an issue. The change can occur through many forms. We could have never ending donations for the hungry, a fund, and even more, Not only that, but both you and I can help contribute into that change. We can contribute by spreading the word out to friends, family members, co-workers,and more to help out.

With this project, I plan on being able to contribute to this issue. I want to be able to do multiple service projects and try to get in other areas to get the word out. I would also like to get one of my blogs published so that this could possibly stir up some change. What I really want people to know is all the facts and impact that World Hunger has on people. It destroys lives and kills people who are only trying to get by in life. The government and economies in countries causes this issue to expand everyday. I say that because how can people afford to get the right nutrition if all they get are the minimum? Everyone has the right to a meal. The reason people are still hungry is because no one wants to change what they are used to. If there is no change then there is no progress. Unless you want murder on your hands and you do not care that innocent people are dying, then you need to make a change! Remember that the population is almost 8 billion, and of that number there are about 25,000 people who have died today just from hunger alone! YOU CAN CHANGE THAT WITH SPREADING THE WORD! STOP THE HUNGER!