I live in Connecticut, so I especially noticed a recent article in The Daily Campus about a local hunger workshop called Hunger 101. I include an excerpt of the article:
It is a common misconception that hunger is more of a global than a local issue, but roughly 100,000 people in Connecticut suffer from food insecurity. Of these 100,000 people, 40,000 are children.
Tuesday night ConnPIRG (Public Interest Research Group) held a Hunger 101 workshop in the Student Union to raise hunger awareness. The leaders of the workshop were employees from Foodshare, a regional food bank that distributes to Hartford and Tolland Counties. Foodshare distributes 11 tons of food to 40 locations (including daycares, food pantries and soup kitchens) on a daily basis. Foodshare operates with the assistance of about 1,800 volunteers.
The Hunger 101 workshop is presented locally to different schools and universities, faith communities and companies. There are several different versions of the workshop, each altered to cater to their respective audience. Hunger 101’s aim is to find a way to explain to middle class citizens how people fall into poverty and into situations with low food security.
I think explaining the local prevalence of hunger helps people to comprehend the horrifying reality of hunger.
When people think of hunger, poverty, and homelessness as simply a so-called “global problem”, they may look at it with the same disconnected apathy with which they view fictional movies and such. In contrast, when they realize the effect these social ills have on their own lives and their own communities, then they address these issues as real problems.
Additionally, we can fight hunger locally. We can do it right at home.