Hunger & Poverty & Events

-- Quote of the Day --

“On average there is a death from hunger around the world every 3 seconds of every day. During the course of the World Hunger Strike campaign there will have been 1,756,800 people around the world that will have died of hunger.”
~ Bob Williamson (founder and chairman of the Greenhouse Neutral Foundation)

-- Hunger & Poverty --

As you may already be aware, I've been sharing information, tips & resources on green & frugal living & calls to action in celebration of the homeless, poverty & peace awareness holidays being celebrated at this time of the year. In honor of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty events happening today I'd like to extend this topic just a little more to share a couple of interesting discussions I was a part of & some events that are happening this weekend.

Interestingly, I was listening to a radio show last night (www.blogtalkradio.com/aprilsims) which was having a discussion on homeless issues, poverty & in the chat room some of the listeners and I were talking about ways we can give that can help the issue.

Some of the ideas were:
- Donate one dollar, send out challenges to peers for fundraising/donations…
- Habitat for Humanity, Whispers of Hope & other similar city-wide organizations will pick up appliances & deliver them to the needy.
- Women's transition houses accept clothes for women and children of all ages - they often leave with little more than the clothes on their back & every spoon, every shirt can help.
- Non-profit thrift stores raise funds for community causes including hospital equipment, food banks & homeless support services – these places vary in what they accept but generally you can offer clothes and accessories including footwear and books.
- Handing out "book-bags" with zippers, backpacks or reusable canvas bags to the homeless
- Handing out smaller containers, i.e. travel size, of personal products
- Collecting restaurant, café & other food service industry's left over foods at the end of the day & have volunteers to delivering them to the homeless. *Now you've got to know that this idea really appealed to my passion for Zero Waste – I mean what a great way to divert organic waste from the landfill, by feeding the hungry! Of course organizations that collect the food work closely with the food service industry because no one wants to make anyone sick. Food banks are also taking things like donuts and breads from bakeries – anything that isn’t perishable… things that are perishable are rarely accepted, although some food banks will accept excess garden harvests.

Interestingly, poverty and homelessness can come in many guises. It can mean living without your own apartment or house, living in your car, staying on a variety of friend's couches or using their spare room. There are employed individuals living in horrible low-rent conditions, or in their car, simply because they can't afford better housing. Did you know that there are an estimated 1.4 million children who are caregivers in the United States alone? And how about the other working poor, couples who are barely able to pay their bills and feed themselves, elderly who have to choose between medication and food, or parents who cannot fill their cupboards with nutritious food. So you see - there are many guises to this issue. One of the experts on peace (Debbie Jordan; Oct 13) that I featured recently on the Conscious Discussions Talk Radio show shared how these issues add up to horrible frustrations, emotions like shame and rage and this can easily lead to unhealthy lifestyle habits, drug use or releasing the rage in some damaging way. Thus the connection between poverty, hunger and peace.

-- Conscious Celebrations & Events --

Event: Copenhagen Climate Change World Hunger Strike
Date: The Greenhouse Neutral Organization is hosting a campaign from Oct 18 – Dec 18 to raise awareness for an important climate conference in Copenhagen that is coming up in the near future.
Information: Check out their site for more information - www.greenhouseneutralfoundation.com


Event: Organic Magic with Worms - Workshop
Date: Oct. 18, 2009
Location: Royal Botanical Gardens - 680 Plains Road West, Burlington (Canada)

-- Authors Read Radio --

Today's featured author - Dr David Robinson reads excerpts from his non-fiction self-help health book: Transforming Body, Mind and Spirit - Check it out by clicking on the hyper-links here or look to the right to find links to today's Authors Read radio episode.

Find Dave & Lillian Brummet, excerpts from their books, information about their radio shows & free resources & articles at www.brummet.ca