Introduction North Carolina ranks in the fifteen worst states for food insecurity of people under eighteen year of age, according to the North Carolina Association of Feeding America (2017). Also, 81 percent of households in the Raleigh area that receive assistance with food don't know where their next meal is coming from (North Carolina Association of Feeding America, 2017). Many different people can be affected by hunger. Students at school may suffer from this and their only source of food may be from school and programs such as food pantries. Hunger can easily affect homeless kids, seniors, and people that have to choose between paying for food or healthcare. Organizations like Rise Against Hunger rely on volunteers to deliver nutritious food to homeless kids around the world, and a branch of it runs right here in Raleigh. In Raleigh alone, about 4.5 million meals were packaged in 2016 (Rise Against Hunger, 2017). That averages out to about 514 meals every hour. Our goal is to package about three hours worth of food for Rise Against Hunger. We are interested in this issue because food is a vital necessity for growing children like ourselves. We are fortunate to have a good source of food at school, but there are kids who don’t have healthy food at home. The News and Observer says that many low-income kids will go hungry during winter break because they cannot rely on the breakfasts and lunches that Wake County Schools serve (Hui, 2015). We believe that every child should have their basic needs met so that they can learn well in school. According to Feeding America, “Studies have found that food insecurity has been associated with health problems for children that may hinder their ability to function normally and participate fully in school and other activities, ”(2017). The youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow. It is important that we as kids get a good education, but it is also important that we have the full ability to participate in the learning experience. All of us have been a student at least once. Good education allows us to succeed. This is one reason why everyone should care about this issue. Moreover, we as humans should take the responsibility to help those who are less fortunate than ourselves. We need to help get their basic needs met so that they can succeed in life. The Issue Hunger mostly affects people that are of African American and Latino descent. Twenty- two percent of African American households and 21% of Latino households are food insecure. In addition, 27% of African American children and 24% of Latino children live in households that are food insecure (Feeding America 2017). Major hunger in North Carolina has been going on since The Great Depression. North Carolina has been regularly ranked as one of the highest states for food insecurity. Hunger is a problem in North Carolina because some people who are unemployed or bring in low wages struggle to put food on the table. There can be many causes and effects on our community because of hunger in North Carolina. One cause of child hunger could be that their parents don’t have enough money to feed all of the children. This can affect our community because it could not only lead to people in general being hungry, but also children being hungry. People and their children could also become homeless. A cause for seniors being hungry would be after they retire from a job they had, they may not have any income or savings left in order to prevent food insecurity. If this issue isn’t resolved then, hunger could possibly cause death from malnutrition. Another effect hunger could have is that homeless levels and unemployment levels would increase. Also, hunger in not only Raleigh, but also in North Carolina itself could make markets, grocery stores, and other businesses have a decreased income of money which can resort to a decreasing economy. The Solution There are many organizations that can help to end hunger, but only a few operate in this area. The Food Shuttle helps give out hot meals to those who can’t afford one. The Food Shuttle also has food drives which gives food to people who can’t bring it home. They can live off the food given to them for up to a month. Many people help by driving around to other people's houses and tell them about local events that can help with those who have a hunger issue. Rise Against Hunger is a organization that packages nourishing food for those who cannot afford it. Rise Against Hunger is a worldwide organization that is in local area. Unlike The Food Shuttle, you pay 29 cents per meal you want to package. They have packaged a total of 313,894,093 meals and in a week alone they have packaged 776,304 meals. The Rise Against Hunger organization serves 74 countries. They help many schools that are in need of food to feed the students that go there. They also have many places where you can volunteer in the country. There are many ways that we can help in our community such as in churches, we can have food banks and drives. At schools, teachers and staff can ask all the students for the extra canned goods that they don’t use. At many schools, they should have backpack buddies and for high schools could give high school students a meal that they take home meals for many can't afford any meals. Backpack buddies is a program that local schools and local community centers host. It gives canned goods and dinners to those in need. For example WRAL hosted a backpack buddies for the community and lots of people came out to volunteer and help the needy they have out about 10,000 meals. Backpack buddies can be in schools to such as Lacy Elementary. They give you a bag full of can goods boxed foods and they give you snacks that can last for a weekend or for a month Conclusion We personally want to do something for the people who need food. An idea we have is to host a meal packaging event for those in hunger. To do that we will need money and food. The food will be provided by Rise Against Hunger and we will be the ones who raise the money to get enough meals. To raise money we will be doing fun fundraisers and food drives. We will also contact Rise Against Hunger later on throughout the year after we have earned enough money. We are planning to package the meals at Martin Middle School. At the end of the year, all the 8th graders at Martin will do different community projects. Some of them will help us pack meals for those in need. We first need to have enough money. To reach that goal we’ll do fundraisers and food drives. School fundraisers like a bake sale, raffle, and many others might help us raise a lot of money. Many of the students at Martin could have food cans sitting in their kitchen that can be given to us for the food drives. We will also put up posters to help advertise for our fundraisers. If people want to join us they will need some important information . When they join us they will need to know that this is not helping them earn any money. We are raising money to help this in hunger. This is for a good cause, not a job where you earn money to use. Our goal for this project is to feed at least 1,542 meals and raise $450. If we can earn more money and get more meals for more people, that would be a great bonus. We will know if we achieved it when we raised $450 and packaged more than 1,600 meals. We hope we will reach our goal and help all of those who can't get at least one meal in one day. Works Cited Hui, T. Keung. "Many Wake County Students Go Hungry during Winter Break." Newsobserver. N.p., 20 Dec. 2015. Web. 27 Mar. 2017. <http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article50803540.html> "Hunger in North Carolina." North Carolina Food Banks. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2017. <http://ncfoodbanks.org/hunger-in-north-carolina/>. "Our Impact." Rise Against Hunger. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2017. <http://www.riseagainsthunger.org/our-impact/>
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. Archives
May 2017
Categories |