Friday, January 7, 2011

Can't We Just Send This To Them?

You know, when I was a kid and didn’t want to finish what was on my dinner plate I was told, “There are little boys and girls in China who don’t have any food to eat, so finish your dinner!”

It took me a few years to come back with the line, “Can’t we just send this to them?” as I looked down at my Brussels sprouts. If you’ve read this blog before, you know how I feel about those little-green-baby-heads.

I had visions of putting my food into a container and then boxing it up and taking it to the post office and mailing it off to China. Once there, some little Chinese girl or boy about my age would open it up and be grateful for the Brussels sprouts that they’d grow up, come to America, find me to say thank you and we’d become the bestest of friends. Yeah, wild imagination, I know. It’s what gets me through.

When my nephew was little and didn’t want to eat his chicken nuggets, I told him, “There are little kids in Boznia that don’t have enough to eat, so finish up!” Part of it was because it was true at the time, but it was just a way of getting back at some poor, little kid for what my own mother had said to me. Yeah, I know there’s something wrong with that, but Tyler’s ok today at nearly 19 years old. I didn’t do any permanent damage.

Today, when I think about kids not having enough to eat, it now comes closer to home. Those kids without enough food to eat are right here in the United States. Some are probably right in my own neighborhood. How is it that the richest, most powerful country in the world can have its children going to bed without dinner or wondering where their next meal is going to come from? It confounds me.

How can you and I, besides collecting non-perishable foods, make a difference in this calamity? Any ideas?

Here’s one place in the U.S. that’s doing something…
You know, when I was a kid and didn’t want to finish what was on my dinner plate I was told, “There are little boys and girls in China who don’t have any food to eat, so finish your dinner!”

It took me a few years to come back with the line, “Can’t we just send this to them?” as I looked down at my Brussels sprouts. If you’ve read this blog before, you know how I feel about those little-green-baby-heads.

I had visions of putting my food into a container and then boxing it up and taking it to the post office and mailing it off to China. Once there, some little Chinese girl or boy about my age would open it up and be grateful for the Brussels sprouts that they’d grow up, come to America, find me to say thank you and we’d become the bestest of friends. Yeah, wild imagination, I know. It’s what gets me through.

When my nephew was little and didn’t want to eat his chicken nuggets, I told him, “There are little kids in Boznia that don’t have enough to eat, so finish up!” Part of it was because it was true at the time, but it was just a way of getting back at some poor, little kid for what my own mother had said to me. Yeah, I know there’s something wrong with that, but Tyler’s ok today at nearly 19 years old. I didn’t do any permanent damage.

Today, when I think about kids not having enough to eat, it now comes closer to home. Those kids without enough food to eat are right here in the United States. Some are probably right in my own neighborhood. How is it that the richest, most powerful country in the world can have its children going to bed without dinner or wondering where their next meal is going to come from? It confounds me.

How can you and I, besides collecting non-perishable foods, make a difference in this calamity? Any ideas?

Here’s one place in the U.S. that’s doing something…

http://www.npr.org/2011/01/06/132705940/l-a-effort-matches-leftover-food-with-the-hungry?utm_source=streamsend&utm_medium=email&utm_content=13208969&utm_campaign=Food%20News%20Friday%2C%20January%207

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