Happy Thanksgiving!

Later today, our family will sit down for a lovely Thanksgiving meal with all the trimmings.   But many other people across America won't have that luxury.  According to the Food Research and Action Center, more than 36 million people lived in households in America struggling against hunger in 2007.  Though the numbers aren't in, it must be likely be higher in 2008 as this article by David Cay Johnston in the New York Times points out.

Hunger isn't just a problem in America. In developing countries, nearly 11 million children die every year from preventable and treatable diseases, with 60% of these deaths from hunger and malnutrition.  I thought I'd highlight a few charitable organizations that are working to end hunger and some opportunities for donations. 

So I thought how a couple of bloggers came together to fight hunger.

Blog Action Campaigns where a regroup of bloggers write about a particular issue have been a good way to draw attention to an issue.  The Donors Choose blog action campaign and BlogAction Day have been stellar examples.  But Blog Action Campaigns don't have to be huge international efforts, they can be also smaller focused and extraordinarily effective.

In the video above, Gayle Keck of the San Francisco Food Bank, and Amy Sherman, who does the Cooking With Amy blog, talk about how the Hunger Challenge, blog action campaign, was put together and executed.  A few Bay Area bloggers documented their experiences of living on $21 a week (a typical Food Stamp allotment).

Comments

[John Sheridan]

Hi Beth,

Another example was the recent drive for Feeding America organized by the Twitter GNO ladies (http://mommygossip-gno.blogspot.com/2008/11/rsvp-for-tuesdays-gno-gives-back.html). They raised $1,400 which may not sound like alot, but that provided 44,800 bowls of food for the hungry.

Nothing to shake a stick at. I was happy to be a part of it (http://www.cxmatters.com/?p=28).

I don't think anyone should be hungry in our time. Thanks for keeping this topic forefront. And a Happy Thanksgiving to you & yours.

john