KATELYN COLLEY | JAN 29, 2018 | OPINIONS

I’ve heard it countless times: “Kids are starving in Africa,” “Don’t throw that food away, children in China are going hungry every day,” “Wow, that is so thoughtless, just think about those kids in Ecuador.” Yes, there are indeed children and families starving in other parts of the world, but there are also people starving in the United States, in Florida, in Duval County, and down the street in our neighborhoods. World hunger is a serious problem that has been pushed aside as more social and trendy topics take center stage in the media. Just because we do not hear about this hunger problem and excessive global food waste anymore, does not mean the problem has disappeared.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, “815 million people in the world don’t get the food they need to live a healthy life” (2017). The irony is America has an increasing and fatal issue with obesity. So are we and other first-world countries giving as much as we can? More than likely, we are not. According to FAO, “one third of the food produced for human consumption every year gets lost or wasted.” So not only are people physically wasting away, society is also wasting away our food supply. This is an alarming crisis that will not get better if people do not put forth the effort. I am not saying individuals have to go out and conquer global hunger, but giving a little certainly goes a long way.

Here at Stanton College Preparatory School, we can contribute by participating in annual food drives, donating canned goods and supplies for disaster relief, or doing volunteer work through various clubs. The last issue of the Devil’s Advocate released statistics that mentioned, “44 percent of Duval County Public School Students qualify for free or reduced lunch.” While we might not notice it, 13 percent of Stanton students also meet these standards. As our school newspaper has shown, educating and reminding others of threats is always a great place to start. People will only listen if we have something to say, so let’s speak up about it!

This leads me to another crucial point to consider: world hunger is not just about hunger. The issue is about poverty, racial inequality, war, women’s rights, climate change, social status, as well as access to food. As a family grows more financially unstable, they find themselves not being able to afford basic food items. Even if they do have a little bit of money, almost everything they would be able to afford would be “junk food,” known for being awfully cheap, yet often lacking in nutritional value. This reality incorporates both issues of poverty and social status into the need for food. War, another factor, cuts off supplies being traded between conflicting countries and isolates a community’s food supply. That is why so many people are going hungry in places like Iraq and Syria, where war is running rampant. FAO also noted, “If woman farmers had the same equal access to resources as men, the number of hungry people could fall by 150 million.” Ever since the agricultural revolution in 8000 B.C., men have dominated the fields. By tending to women’s rights, a person is, in turn, tending to a society’s economic stability. Climate change disrupts these agricultural processes of growing crops around the world, which affects how much food is produced. It is also estimated that “1 in 5 Latinos are food insecure as compared to just 1 in 10 white, non-Hispanics,” (feedingamerica.org). The African-American community, as well, experiences nearly double the food insecurity than the general American population. There is no denying that as functioning societies, as activists, and above all, as human beings, food is indispensably running our world.

If we do not want to support the fight against hunger simply based on nutritional reasons, we have a plethora of other humanitarian issues we can support. Furthermore, like all of these problems, hunger is preventable. So instead of wasting food and missing our opportunity to give back to those in need, we should make a conscious effort to educate, volunteer, donate, and bring this global phenomenon to light.

Wasting Away