Feed the Hungry!!!

This could be one of the most important missions of your life. 9 million people in the world die each year from hunger. Many of us get too concerned about our own daily stresses, even when we have our basic necessities fulfilled. Millions of people in the world do not even have their basic necessities fulfilled. What can you do? Do as I do, donate to charity for the hungry and starving. I am disabled and have an income below the poverty line in the USA, yet I donate to charity each month. Instead of getting Junior that extra Nintendo game, give to the hungry!!! Two excellent charities for feeding the hungry of the world are:

www.savethechildren.org/

www.foodforthepoor.org/

Remember in the Eternal time-frame, "as often as you did it to one of the least of My brothers and sisters, you did it to Me." Matthew 25:40

May God Bless the Hungry and All!!!

I give all I can to charities, to help children and others suffering from famine.

But how do we know all of that money donated is going straight to the people suffering and not on administration costs?

That would be my concern.

spencerjohnstone, God Bless You for giving to charities!!! Food for the Poor is an excellent charitable organization and 96% of money donated goes to charity and only 4% to administrative costs. The extent of development of a charitable organization might be a 90% to 10% ratio.

God Bless!!!

The latest number I have heard for how many children starve to death every single day is 29 000. I had earlier heard 25 000 a day starved to death plus another 25 000 a day die from lack of basic medical care. That is sickening when you consider that we could easily afford to feed them. Even 1% of the nations' military budgets was redirected towards this cause, I bet it would be more than enough funding to end this horror.
There is a site called thehungersite dot com that I like. You can go there, and with one mouse click, help end hunger. Each click sends 1 cup of food to feed the hungry. Advertizers pay for the food, and all the other costs, so it costs you zip.
Also, from what I understand, all donations (100%) go towards feeding the hungry, and none of it goes to administration etc.

www.thehungersite.com...

[edit on 9/15/2006 by BlackGuardXIII]

Worthwhile charities (including churches) take great pains to earn your trust. They publish reports, employee salaries, corporate tax returns, etc.

My church has an outreach committee, and the people who serve on that committee (I'm one) check out charities before we start giving them money. That way our members know that their gifts are not wasted. Everyone on the committee takes on a different charity, to act as liason. Mine is the local food pantry.

One of the things that has surprised me is how many corporations give tons of stuff away, without asking for a receipt (in other words, they cannot file it as a tax write-off.) Home Depot has given lumber, tools, etc. in my city. Walmart gives us pallets of bottled water during summer heat waves; mom and pop businesses will serve a free lunch to people with a ticket from the local homeless shelter, etc. A cab company even gave free rides to a health clinic for a day, so that homeless people could get a check up.

If you are not religious, there are many civic organizations that do a lot of unsung work: Goodwill, United Way, Masons. etc. Our food pantry has a bunch of volunteers who have no affiliation, they are individuals who showed up and said "I'm here to help."

One friday a month, I drive around and collect "2 day old bread" from local markets, and distribute it at state run retirement homes, where the people must provide their own meals. All the grocery chains are extremely helpful; even having their workers load the trucks on while they're on the clock.

Anyone who wants, from any background----just dive in and start helping. The work will find you.


[edit for spell checks]
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[edit on 15-9-2006 by dr_strangecraft]

BlackGuardXIII and dr_strangecraft, excellent replies!!! Thank you for your comments and information.

You have voted GreatTech for the Way Above Top Secret award.

Here in the west, we will store food that we can't sell even though it would be cheaper to send it to feed the starving. Farmers in Canada even destroyed their pigs when they could not sell them at a profit.

Here in the west, we will store food that we can't sell even though it would be cheaper to send it to feed the starving. Farmers in Canada even destroyed their pigs when they could not sell them at a profit.

This is what gets me.

Does any of that food that is stored, does it go off and has to be disposed off?

If not why cant Governments, free up red tape so the food stored can be sent to help people suffering from famine.

Heck if I could I would donate more. But I have to look out for msyelf as well. Make sure I have food and I do not starve.

Originally posted by spencerjohnstone

Heck if I could I would donate more. But I have to look out for msyelf as well. Make sure I have food and I do not starve.

That's precisely the view of people who make the products.

Outside of the truly destitute, there area a lot of people who are hard pressed, but who could buy the stuff various manufacturers create.

If the mfg'ers just gave the stuff away, they'd be cutting into their own market.

It's callous, but its also a simple fact of economics. If you run a bakery, and give away your stale bread, obviously, some people will hold out and eat it for free, instead of paying money for higher quality (fresh) product.

It's a "quality control" issue.

And despite this economic truth, I can name 3 stores that donate old bread to the poor know they are taking money out of their own pockets. Yet they do it anyway.


Listen, while I am a huge fan of free enterprise, I also see the problems with the excesses of capitalism.

On the other hand . . . fascism and communism both promise to feed everyone; and have done a FAR WORSE job than capitalism does. That drive to make an extra buck makes sure that there is plenty of food for the worker bees.

In the United States, a lot of people who are needy don't suffer from purely physical complaints. While a lot of them DO have physical limitations (elderly, chronically ill, etc.), many more of them are suffering from two other types of oppression:

1) Addiction
2) Lack of "life skills"

4 out of 5 of the adults served by our food pantry have done meth in the past 7 days. 9 out of 10 drank themselves to sleep. Probably 19 out of 20 are addicted to cigarettes----not a small issue, when a pack a day translates into $1000 annually, and even more if you buy your cigarettes at a convenience store, the way the indegent do.

By "life skills" social workers mean the ability to comparison shop, plan ahead for upcoming expenses (driver's license renewal, etc), or how to protest when you are mistreated by a bureaucracy, i.e., how to dispute a late penalty from the utility company, who threatens to cut off your heat.

In the USA (and most developing nations), the biggest problem is less the immediate hungry, and more the lack of life skills, as well as the chains of addiction, which prevent people from taking personal responsibility.

I know it sucks---I wish no one went hungry. But if we gave out food for free, would any of us work?

It's the whole things about teaching a man to fish; teaching the poor to help themselves, rather than merely creating more people hooked on a handout.

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dr_strangecraft, some people are more talented at earthly life skills than others, while some people are more talented at Afterlife skills than others. Addiction and life skills are 2 major problems in earthly life. Everybody needs help from someone at times. A brain surgeon is very talented in earthly life skills but may lack the ability to discuss the Glory of the Afterlife. A person in a coma lacks earthly skills, but may be very talented in Afterlife skills.

God Bless You for working part-time at a food pantry!!!

I grew up with out food to eat most of the time I remember at one point that I was so desperate to eat a rat in one day. I was in a shelter at in the time and many of the Charity are scams but there are some good one. Just check who you giving your money to cause you might be giving to the wrong people.

[edit on 15-9-2006 by El Che]

Oh dr_strangecraft I would give you a WATS if I had any left cause it people like you that saved my life thank for what doing.

GT, I do not always agree with some of the threads you create.

However on this one I applaud you.

You may want to check out this thread I created a few weeks back on the Homeless

Homeless - Pity or Looking to Help?

Western civilization has reached the point where we can waste so many resources on a regular basis that it gets taken for granted.

Our daily scraps would save so many lives, if each person did alittle bit it would make such a difference.


[edit on 15-9-2006 by chissler]

I grew up with out food to eat most of the time I remember at one point that I was so desperate to eat a rat in one day. I was in a shelter at in the time and many of the Charity are scams but there are some good one. Just check who you giving your money to cause you might be giving to the wrong people.

That is what I meant by my first responce.

Alot of those so called aid charities, hit you with aload of bull sometimes. You give them the donations/ money to help out. But you never see for yourself what good your donation does.

Also some charities I have donated to, nice plush offices some of them have, while there is still kids dying off starvation in other countries.

Stopped Donating to them.

Originally posted by chissler
You may want to check out this thread I created a few weeks back on the Homeless

Homeless - Pity or Looking to Help?
[edit on 15-9-2006 by chissler]

chissler, your post on homelessness was excellent. Each day, I am growing in my devotion to the neediest of the needy.

God Bless You!!!

I appreciate your comments and what it is your trying to accomplish here.

To be honest, It has been argued that your posts have no substance and you merely preach your beliefs. The lack of substance takes away from all your points, and leaves you in the dust.

Again, to stay on the honesty key for a moment I will say I have agreed with this in the passed. There was a point when I was reading your posts and I was thinking to myself, I wish this member would back his thoughts or come with something.

Well in this thread you have tossed some statistics combined with opinions, and as I said I applaud your effort and apoligize for my previous doubts. If I read a future post of yours with no substance, I will post and ask for some backing. But on this one I believe you have outdone yourself, and I do apoligize for my doubts in the passed.

For now you have the benefit of the doubt from myself.

Thank you I used to go to the feed the hungry website everyday but then over time just got out of the habit, this time I made it my homepage so I won't forget.

I live in a rural area where people normally raise tobacco but since many receive government subsidies not to raise tobacco that land is available for other crops, it would make sense if an attachment to receive the government subsidy was to raise a crop of food to help feed the hungry, so that the food would be free and some of the moneys contributed would be used to transport it.

This thread which I read is what I mean by Red Tape:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Can you now understand the concern I have when the title of this thread says, feed the hungry.

When the World Bank are guilty of forcing too many conitions on poorer countries.

The link to the source is on that thread.

Originally posted by spencerjohnstone
Alot of those so called aid charities, hit you with aload of bull sometimes. You give them the donations/ money to help out. But you never see for yourself what good your donation does.

Also some charities I have donated to, nice plush offices some of them have, while there is still kids dying off starvation in other countries.

Stopped Donating to them.

spencerjohnstone, stop the distrust of good and great human beings. I use to be a hateful and unkind person until I started believing in God. Distrust shows hate for humankind, while trust shows love for humankind.

The United States Department of Agriculture, an excellent federal agency, recently offered Food for the Poor (an excellent charitable organization whereby 96% of donated money goes to food and only 4% to administrative costs) $11 million worth of food and milk for the starving people of Guatemala and Jamaica. This great sum of money, however, is not enough!!! Food for the Poor needs more money to pay for the shipping and distribution of the food. The food must be shipped by the end of the year. Food for the Poor, a very trustworthy charity, needs your support and everybody's support!!!

Food for the Poor is based in Coconut Creek, Florida. Call (954) 427-2222 or check out www.foodforthepoor.org

God Bless You!!!

There is a spiritual application to feeding the hungry also.

Mark 16:[15] And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.[16] He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.

John 3:[3] Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

John 3:[16] For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
[17] For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
[18] He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.


[edit on 16-9-2006 by dbrandt]