Adryanne Hazlewood
October 19th, 2015
English 10
Long
Empty bowl
It’s Saturday afternoon. After a challenging day of studying and four hours of volleyball practice, my stomach grumbles. I am starving. Then I think to myself I’m not starving. The hunger I feel can’t even be compared to the pain that hunger brings many individuals to endure everyday. There are over 21,000 people that die everyday from world hunger, that means one person every four seconds dies from hunger related causes. Many don’t realize how lucky they are to have a warm meal served to them every night. World hunger has a lot of issues it, denies a person their basic human rights, it can lead to an overwhelming number of deaths, and poverty.
Humans have always had five basic needs to survive in this world. This includes security, energy, shelter, water and food. When we don’t give everyone their rights it is almost sure to cause problems. We see our rights as property and when we can’t get them we get defensive. People fight to ensure themselves of their rights. Imagine thinking to yourself every night: “When will I get to eat next?” or “Will I survive the night?” For some this is what goes through their mind when they go to bed. It should be considered breaking the law to not give someone a necessity that they have to have to survive, especially when there is enough food in the world to feed everyone. Just because some can’t afford it isn’t fair to deny them their life it is immoral. A psychologist ,Abraham Maslow, once said, “When social conflicts are caused by the denial of one or more of these essential needs, the victims will fight indefinitely for their achievement and will not give up until that goal is attained.” From 2007 to 2008 there had been forty food riots that occurred all around the world. It drove Mexico into poverty because of corn prices, which made up a big portion of Mexico’s diet. Also, the soaring prices in Haiti led to people living on the street and eventually overthrow the prime minister. People fight for what is theirs and that will never change.
It is a proven fact that people can’t live without food. When people don’t eat healthy, proportional meals they develop severe health problems which can lead to death. People can’t live a healthy active life without food. 795 million people don’t possess enough food to live these healthy, active lives, that means one in nine people on Earth aren’t maintaining nutritious and beneficial diets to meet these requirements. The majority of the people who go hungry and die most often are sadly children. 66 million children show up to school hungry everyday, with 23 million in Africa alone. Look at America, we have proportions that are making children obese. Restaurants in America are offering proportions that are ten times the amount of what we should be eating. If we just donate a small amount of food that America has to offer to these developing countries, we would be saving lives. People don’t understand how serious this problem is, people die, a human life is being taken away because they can’t find food or grow their crops fast enough to meet their constant hunger. People are struggling and are trying to reach out for help but not many come to answer their call. We don’t realize how bad this issue is until you are forced to live in it.
Not every poor person is hungry, but almost every hungry person is poor. Many people go hungry simply because they can not afford to buy themselves or their families nutritious foods. Also, people can’t afford farming supplies to start their own gardens so they can grow their own crops. One of the biggest problems today with world hunger is that many people starving are trapped in severe poverty. When people don’t meet the standards to eat healthy meals they become very ill and weak. If you are extremely ill and weak people don’t hire you and that makes it almost impossible to find work. When you can’t find a stable job you become even more hungrier and broke and soon it will eventually lead you into poverty. This downward spiral will keep failing until their death and the deaths of their families and loved ones. Developing countries need our help. A plan to eliminate world hunger for good is difficult but it can be done.
These are just a few problems that world hunger brings. We need to do something and take action to prevent this from happening. World hunger can’t be stopped alone we all need to work together and actually do something to help the less fortunate. There are many things we can do to help. For example, there are programs being set up where people hire the hungry and instead of money they are being paid with the food that them and their families need. Also, there are academics being used to make students think while giving food to the hungry. There is an online website that asks academic questions which can be used for studying and classwork, and every question you get right ten grains of rice goes to people that need it. The website is called Free Rice, and there are many academic classes you can choose to answer questions and also helps prepare for the ACTs. This is a great way to get people involved, by making them want to learn while doing a great deed to their society. Also, another way to help stop world hunger is to just take some time and donate money to help. Even if you donate five dollars you are still helping the less fortunate and you’re taking action.
Truly, world hunger is a huge, global problem that is being addressed but we need to stop putting up a good talk and take action. Denying a basic right, deaths, and poverty are just a few problems with world hunger today. So the next time that you are “starving” think that just in a few short hours you will get a warm, delicious meal and just be lucky you don't have to wait a week to be fed.
Bibliography
"Hunger Statistics | WFP | United Nations World Food Programme."Hunger Statistics | WFP | United Nations World Food Programme - Fighting Hunger Worldwide. WFP UN, n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2015.
"Hunger and World Poverty." Poverty.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2015.
“Hunger - The Hunger Project." The Hunger Project. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2015.
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