Tag: Hunger

‘This Is Not What A Food Bank Was Designed To Do’

“You have so many people that have been displaced from work, you have so many single moms with children at home, and you have so many isolated seniors, that the demand for services has just gone through the roof,” Blake Young, the organization’s president and CEO for 15 years, said. Before the coronavirus pandemic, the organization served approximately 150,000 people each month. In April and May, that number went up to more than 300,000 people.

But the worst may be yet to come, thanks to the ongoing recession. Regional food banks, which are designed to be safety nets, not main sources of food, fear that they won’t be able to meet the swelling need.

The Great Potato Giveaway

Auburn, Washington – When Tina Yates pulled her truck up to a mall in western Washington state on Thursday, workers waved her past hundreds of cars waiting to pick up free russet potatoes. “You get a VIP pass!” Yates, a bus driver in her 50s, said the workers hollered, as she loaded 1,800 pounds (816 kg) of potatoes into her gray Chevy Silverado, bound for the Salvation Army, local food banks and homes throughout western Washington.

Giving away food is just one example of how people around the world are adjusting to the strain the coronavirus pandemic has put on supply chains, as restaurants, schools and hotels close. With unemployment soaring, demand from food banks is rising fast at the same time farmers have fewer outlets to sell their crops.

Farmers Food Hunger Recession

Food Sovereignty Policy Prevents Hunger In Nicaragua

Today, thanks to our peasant families and the public policies of the Sandinista government, Nicaragua is no longer on the hunger map. Instead, we are well on the way to food sovereignty because our food production is local and it is distributed in small clusters—even more true if one considers the size of the country. For this reason, there is enough food in Nicaragua at this difficult time, and prices have remained stable or fallen slightly.

The country’s peasant culture, and its talent and capacity to work in harmony with the earth, ensures that the words of President Daniel Ortega last month will remain true: “We will not die of hunger.” The first round of planting is about to start and farm families are lovingly preparing for it.

Food Sovereignty Hunger Nicaragua Propaganda

The Corporate-Dominated World Faces Not One, But Three Pandemics

On this May Day, the world is witnessing three pandemics simultaneously. The first is the Coronavirus Pandemic. The second is the Hunger Pandemic. The third is the Pandemic of Destruction of Livelihoods.

Thus far, he coronavirus pandemic has infected 3.19 million and killed 228,000. The World Food Programme has warned the world community of the looming “hunger pandemic,” which has the potential to engulf over a quarter of a billion people whose lives and livelihoods will be plunged into immediate danger.

According to the world food program more than a million people who are on the verge of starvation, and 300,000 could starve to death every single day for the next three months.

COVID-19 Hunger Jobs and Wages Pandemic

Colombia: Red Rags On Windows To Protest Amid Quarantine

Faced with the inability of President Ivan Duque administration to manage the COVID-19 pandemic, Colombians are displaying red cloths on windows to express their dissatisfaction.

“They said to take out red rags if people needed help. Today the red rag seems to be the new flag in the most humble neighborhoods. Hunger is not quarantined,” said cartoonist Alex Ro, as reported by local outlet Las2Orillas.

The red rags placement started in some Spanish cities to notify that the inhabitants of a house had some kind of urgent need.

This idea reached Colombia, a South American country where the first reports of red-rag users happened in Soacha city, in the department of Cundinamarca.

Colombia COVID-19 Hunger Pandemic

Milk From Wisconsin Farms To Be Given To People In Need

The Hunger Task Force is joining forces with several other Wisconsin organizations to help the underfed and the unemployed during the coronavirus pandemic.

They are partnering with Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin and the Department of Agriculture, Trade & Consumer Protection to recover and distribute Wisconsin milk across Wisconsin.

Some dairy farmers were dumping their milk as demand fell. A large portion of the dairy industry’s demand comes from schools and the food industry.

In a press release sent early Wednesday morning, the Hunger Task Force said it will commit up to $1 million to the Wisconsin Dairy Recovery. The money will be used to buy it back from dairy farmers and supply it to those in need.

Agriculture COVID-19 Dairy Farm Hunger

These Migrant Workers Did Not Suddenly Fall From the Sky

Madness engulfs the planet. Hundreds of millions of people are in lockdown in their homes, millions of people who work in essential jobs – or who cannot afford to stay home without state assistance – continue to go to work, thousands of people lie in intensive-care beds taken care of by tens of thousands of medical professionals and caregivers who face shortages of equipment and time. Narrow sections of the human population – the billionaires – believe that they can isolate themselves in their enclaves, but the virus knows no borders. The global pandemic driven by the variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus holds us in its grip; even as China seems to have bent the curve of infections, the charts for the rest of the world are forbidding: the light at the end of the tunnel is as dim as it has ever been.

COVID-19 Global Recession Hunger India Poverty

What It Pays To Starve The People + German Reflections

There’s only so much you can take from someone. And with the recent plans to starve some 700,000 Americans, we may have reached that threshold. We dive to the bottom line to uncover the real impetus behind such legislation and the horrifying ways in which we spend money that could – and should – go to we the people. Next up, We don’t shut up, we shut down – a message, parallels and lessons from a recent climate court case in Germany

Climate Change Germany Hunger

The 1% Rules, The 99% Lets Them!

There has never been more access to food – domestic and imported – yet hunger is an ongoing problem everywhere. In the U.S. alone, 16.5 million children go to bed hungry and 20% of community college students are experiencing “food insecurity.”
Never have there been more communications technologies, yet it is harder to get through to people personally than fifty years ago.
Never have people been able to use their right to free speech so unencumbered, yet a torrent of lies are now spread so freely and are often unchallenged.
Never have there been higher corporate profits, yet staggering amounts of poverty and near poverty remain along with stagnant wages.
Never have there been more medicines to alleviate pain, yet far too many of these pain killers have caused massive fatalities and addictions.

Free Speech Hunger Poverty Wall Street

Man Builds Pantry Outside His Home To Feed The Hungry

To all those people claiming humanity is in shambles and moral values are dead — you have no idea what you are talking about. Yes, humanity has certainly taken some hits to the chest, but it is still very much out there. People still believe in kindness, and people still engage in civility.

This is a true event from Watertown, New York, where a citizen named Roman Espinoza has built a ‘blessing box’ — essentially a pantry for people to pick up and food at any point of the day. The box is built in the lawn facing their house; and just like Little free libraries, there are no restrictions for these either.

The concept is extremely simple — the box contains food that people donate — the same food others might want. To put it even more simply, the box was simply a donation box where the poor ate, and the not-so-poor donated.

Food Hunger Mutual Aid Poverty

Hunger For Disarmament Fast

When the Kings Bay Plowshares decided to smash idols and beat swords into Plowshares at the Kings Bay Naval base in St. Marys, GA, we assumed there would be lots of people in that community and surrounding towns and cities who were appalled to live in the shadow of the most insidious weapons system ever built by humans — Trident submarines armed with D-5 missiles. To our surprise the folks in south Georgia and north Florida are actually filled with pride because this weapons system of mass destruction is part of the landscape where they live. They are essentially oblivious to the fact their economy and livelihoods are predicated on a promise to end life as we know it on planet earth. In fact, the Trident system includes enough explosive power to kill almost twice the earth’s population. And that’s just one of the Pentagon’s vast array of nuclear weapons systems.

disarmament Hunger

SNAP Threatened In House Farm Bill

The farm bill is finally making its way through the legislative process. The House Agriculture Committee last month passed H.R.2, the Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018 (the farm bill), on a partisan 26-20 vote.

While the bill maintains and improves international food aid programs, it also proposes harmful changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) is expected to bring the bill to the House floor this month.

“The farm bill is an opportunity to help end hunger in the United States and around the world,” said Bread President David Beckmann.

Agriculture Farm Bill Food Hunger

Indigenous Peoples – Best Allies Or Worst Enemies?

By Baher Kamal for IPS – In a world in which climate change brings new challenges and uncertainties, we cannot eliminate hunger without the participation of youth, said da Silva, noting that “they must participate in these issues that will affect their children and their children’s children. Let’s work together and do it right now.” The Sustainable Development Goals provide an opportunity for countries, indigenous organisations and the United Nations to work together to make an impact starting now through to 2030, he added, while reminding that since the creation of its Indigenous Peoples team in 2014, FAO is strengthening its work with indigenous organisations based on a double approach: “On the one hand, we consider indigenous peoples as fundamental allies in the fight against hunger, food insecurity and poverty because of their wealth of ancestral knowledge and good practices. “On the other hand, “we are aware that the lack of recognition of their rights in the management of natural resources and the marginalization they suffer places them in a vulnerable position. I speak above all of your ancestral rights to land tenure.”

Hunger Indigenous Peoples Poverty

Public Pressure On White House Could Help Prevent Mass Starvation In Yemen

By Mark Weisbrot for The Huffington Post – Shame on us,” wrote Nicholas Kristof in The New York Times last month. “The Saudis have managed to block coverage of the crimes against humanity they are perpetrating in Yemen, and the US backs the Saudis.” He was referring to a Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen, which now puts millions of people at risk of death from famine. As the new administration approaches its first 100 days, Americans who care about the future of their country have understandably been preoccupied with the humanitarian consequences of Trump’s rule at home. These are things that affect us the most – with “us” including immigrants who live here. Health insurance, the environment, education, climate change, taxation and the budget…

Congress Hunger Yemen

Protesters Blocked Road And Bridges Against Macri’s Hunger Policies

By Staff of The Dawn News – Hundreds of blockades around the Latin American country, cutting bridges and routes to the big cities, including Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Chaco, Formosa, were carried on by thousands of workers of the popular economy, people that is desperate by the level of violence that the economical policies unleashes towards the Argentinean inhabitants. The Confederation of Workers of the Popular Economy (CTEP), Standing Neighbourhoods, the Classist and Combative Current, the 19 and 20 Current of the CTEP, the Dignity Popular Movement, the Popular Front Dario Santillán, To Fight and Resist, Motherland, MULCS, FPDS…

Argentina Hunger Policy Protests

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