Extirpating hunger is not hopeless

Poverty is a subject that comes up in all areas of an individuals life. Our children or
ourselves have learned about it in school during the holidays when they have the food drives and
ask for everyone to bring in dry goods and can foods, you see it on the street corners with a
person holding a Homeless and Hungry sign on the corner of the street, or you have likely seen
the info-commercials in-between programs giving you a visual of the little children in other
countries that are going without food and clean water. All of it is sad to see because no one
should be without food or shelter. Those are the basic necessities of a persons life to be able to
function. And so many are going without it. As I read over the The Earth Charter Initiative
(2000) it really supports my feelings, as it says We must join together to bring forth a
sustainable global society founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic
justice, and a culture of peace. Towards this end, it is imperative that we, the peoples of Earth,
declare our responsibility to one another, to the greater community of life, and to future
generations. That statement really pulls on my heart strings because I truly believe in this
statement, and that is the reason why I am studying to be a social worker. How are we capable of
helping end hunger? I truly believe in education being the key to eliminating hunger with putting
what we learn into action, and it starts with us being leaders with teaching and empowering our
youth to become involved.
In Plan B 4.0, Lester Brown (2009), he stated that The World Bank observed that
higher food prices during 2008 may have increased the number of children suffering permanent
cognitive and physical injury caused by malnutrition by 44 million, (p. 169). I remembered that
statement when I came across this article done by Beery, M. et al. (2014) on a project that was
done in Johannesburg, South Africa. They took 68 students in a school during a year term and

integrated an organic permaculture food garden into their curriculum. The findings after the 1
year was that the garden can contribute to the childrens physical, mental, and emotional health
and can be a resource for teachers and learners Beery, M. et al. (2014). This could be a way for
our students in schools to contribute to fighting hunger. I could see our school systems
implementing these type of gardens as part of their school curriculum. Instead of doing science
fair projects, they could opt out for gardening. It would teach them the importance of caring for
our environment and put them in touch with nature. Not only would it be beneficial for them to
develop a connection with their outside surroundings, but they would be learning how to grow
their own foods and the importance of horticulture. In turn, they could take home their produce,
give it to the school, or provide it to a soup kitchen for someone that is need of a meal.
Incorporating these types of lessons in school are not only beneficial to our childrens education,
but it is valuable to teach them that they can make a difference for our environment and in a
persons life.
Service learning is essential for all ages. I mentor a group within my church that is for
middle school to college age students. This group does skits for churches all over the state of
Florida, but their main focus is serving the community. They do not limit themselves to what
they will do. They have done heavy duty lawn clean-up for the elderly to cooking for and serving
the hungry. This group of youth does this voluntarily, and their reasoning for it is because it feels
good. There has not ever been a time that when I have seen a younger person given the chance to
help that they did not get gratification out of helping. In support of how I feel regarding the need
of all ages being a part of service learning, In the article by Fox, K. R. (2010) schools here in the
United States that are carrying out service learning services in their schools as a part of an
educational program called National Curriculum for Social Studies that are focused solely on

social studies. They define the way their service learning is as a method in which children can
learn through active participation in organized service experiences to meet the needs of a certain
population and/or environment. The school and community correlate with each other to develop
a service for a child or the children to accomplish. Their goal by doing this is to give the children
a life-changing experience through the curriculum. Their focus is to teach children ...to work
with their naturally caring heart and critical eye to develop a sense of social justice. The
curriculum is to help children to look past the stereotypical circumstances of poverty and teaches
them to engage into finding solutions. The activities that these students engage in have a list of
steps that they go through and the students can decide on which project they would like to
participate in. These activities are geared more towards the elementary age, so their participation
is not as involved as middle school or high school students, but it prepares them to go on to do
that in the middle and high school years. An example of their activity would be to pick a project,
in this example it is Challenging the Cycle of Poverty. They have a Purpose, and this is a
lesson for the children to challenge themselves by forming statements that pertain to their
thoughts of how to battle poverty, they develop a plan that they will participate as a class and
individually to take action against poverty. They have a list of Activities to take an active role
in observing their role models and places within their community that help people in poverty, and
they have to come up with ideas that for local projects, such as, placing jars on counters in of
stores to collect change for a cause that the choose to donate to or setting up a designated area for
food drop-off when someone wants to donate something while grocery shopping. There is a list
of activities for these children to do, but that is an example of what these teachers and children
are doing to conquer hunger. It is crucial for our youth to be taught as soon as they are

cognitively able to comprehend of the importance to care beyond the classroom and beyond what
they think is important for themselves.
Education is the key to help solve all problems, and pivotal in reducing hunger. Sadly,
these impoverished countries do not have the ability to obtain an education to teach them to
sustain their well-being. They are not lazy; they simply do not have the resources to help
themselves. At this point, it is going to take more than just our youth to help, however, the youth
that we are guiding in teaching the importance of taking care of our environment along with
helping others, are the ones that will have solutions to the problems creating people,
communities, and countries to be hungry. The article by Uwakwe Felicia, E., & Kamalu Nkeiru,
A. (2012) says, The knowledge and practice of effective environmental management offer a lot
of opportunities for economic development of any country. However, there has to be a starting
point. There needs to be educated individuals willing to teach the ones in need in order to help
them determine the best practices for the environment in order for them to have a sustainable
environment for the community they live in. I know there would likely be eagerness to learn and
work. I have gone through difficult times in my younger years and I felt the feeling of being
hungry on many occasions. When I did my service learning out at Happehatchee Center, it was to
work on a butterfly garden, but I ended up learning much more because there was someone there
willing to teach me. I could not but to think of how wonderful it felt to learn new things that
were going to benefit me. I could not help but to think in that setting of those times I was
struggling, and how wonderful it would have been to be taught how to grow my own food. No
one deserves to go without food. I will never forget the feeling of being hungry and not having
food. I feel that if people had the opportunity to be taught, then they would be able to sustain
themselves.

People, communities, and developing countries are not going to be able to help
themselves. People need to care and want to help make a difference in the lives of others, and it
is going to take us guiding our youth through the knowledge that we provide them with the
education in the class and outside of the class. That will empower them to be leaders in the areas
of their own strengths. As Brown (2009) states, Children without any formal education start life
with a severe handicap, one that almost ensures they will remain in abject poverty (p. 171). It
is a guarantee to feel hopeless when you are starving and not knowing when your next meal is
going to be. Starting now, we can make a change by being an example to the generations
following behind us, simply by helping others and teaching them the importance of our actions,
not just our words.