By William Holston
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-877033.mp3
Dallas, TX –
INTRO: As many of us look forward to a holiday feast today, commentator William Holston reminds us there are things we can do to help those who aren't so fortunate.
COMMENTARY: Christmas is associated in many of our minds with food. My family enjoys a tradition of sitting and sharing a lavish meal with our best friends on Christmas Eve. Holiday parties involve extravagant feasts. Some of us even like fruit cake. All this food usually results in resolutions to lose the few pounds we put on over the holidays. But for many people, Christmas is just another day without enough food.
According to the United Nations, 1.2 billion people do not have enough to eat. One out of four children - roughly 146 million - in developing countries are underweight. Under-nutrition contributes to 53 percent of the 9.7 million deaths of children under five each year in developing countries. And every six seconds a child dies because of hunger and related causes. The reasons for these daunting statistics are complex but basically hunger persists because of poverty. Poor people spend up to eighty percent of their income on food. Consequently, the recent dramatic increases in food prices are catastrophic for the desperately poor.
The relief organization Bread for the World says between 55 and 90-million more people were expected to live in extreme poverty this year than was anticipated before the global financial crisis. Our family does our small part by purchasing all of our Christmas gifts through the gift catalogs of international aid organizations such as World Vision and Heifer International.
But its not just people in the third world that are hungry. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service reports 49 million Americans, including nearly 17 million children, are food insecure. This means they do not at all times have access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food. This is an increase of 36 percent over one year ago. The state of Texas, at 22.1 percent has one of the highest rates of children in households without consistent access to food.
All of this makes me want to cry. Thankfully, there are alternatives to mere tears. My church is volunteering in the food warehouse at the Network Ministries. My office building's Christmas lunch required attendees to bring canned goods for North Texas Food Bank. And this year, my wife and I added North Texas Food Bank to our list of Christmas charities.
Jan Pruitt, the President and CEO of North Texas Food Bank reports that their agencies are reporting a 36% increase in new faces needing food, and that they have distributed approximately 35% more food in the first four months of the fiscal year than same time last year.
I suppose this is a downer message at Christmas time. We don't like being reminded that children die of hunger. We have a choice, though. We can react with indifference or we can respond with generosity. Christmas is a time for us to really consider our priorities. Many people are factoring charitable giving into their holiday gift buying. Given the global recession, it's a challenge for some of us to give. But, it doesn't take much to change things. Just one dollar provides 4 meals at the Food Bank. Some of us are in the position of giving much more. This Christmas, don't feel guilty about a nice meal. Simply try to remember that a small sacrifice on your part can be a matter of life of death for someone else. Merry Christmas.
William Holston is an attorney from Dallas.
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