Global Food Crisis Day

Around blogland, I've been reading posts about others who are finding new ways to be thrifty and how the economy has affected them. There are so many resourceful wives and moms out there, and so many dedicated to helping their children understand and participate in thrifty measures. I see moms teaching children to make the most of what they have, while shielding them from the negative spin the media puts on everything. I see recycling increasing, new gardens being planned, families learning what they can really do without, yet drawing closer together. I am so encouraged by the positive mindsets I see in so many places.

And then I read stories like this one. And this one. I realize, if I have food in a pantry, a refrigerator, a freezer, I am considered wealthy by 1/3 of the world's population. And my efforts to be thrifty seem so inadequate.
Today is Global Food Crisis Day, an effort by Compassion International to partner with radio stations, the media, churches and bloggers to educate everyone on the "silent tsunami" affecting so many families around the world. With the prices of staples such as beans, rice, wheat doubling this past year, so many families who were barely surviving on $1.00/day are finding that 80 cents of that dollar must go to food, leaving the other 20 cents to cover housing, clothing, medicines, etc. Droughts have affected the crops. Even something as laudable as our efforts to find another source of fuel--biofuels--is affecting the tummies of children around the world.

I won't ask you to give up your daily Starbucks--most of you have already done that, as well as omitting meals out, eliminating cable TV, shopping thrift stores. But what can you do? Can you give $13? Thirteen dollars will help a child for a month. Can you tell friends and family members about Compassion? Can you find 5 more people to give just $13.00 this month? That's 6 more children who might live because of you. Every 7 seconds a child somewhere dies from hunger-related causes.

Please give.