This action project is about SDG 2, Zero Hunger. In my Humanities Class, we've been talking about the difference between SDGs and MDGs. We have mainly been focusing on SDG 1 (No Poverty), SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), and SDG 4 (Quality Education). We've had Adam Olson from Oxfam America come in and talk to us about the organization and their goals on helping other countries. He also talked about what his organization does in the US. A field experience I went on was to the Lincoln Park Community Shelter where I help cook "Homemade Chili" with my classmates. This action project talks about World Hunger.
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World Conference Center (WCC). (2017) Global Festival of Ideas for Sustainable Development https://www.flickr.com/photos/globalfestideas/33263432976 |
Some might argue that access to food shouldn't be a human right because it's a human need. Human needs should become human rights when health and lives are at risk. Hunger is a worldwide problem. People should have the right to have access to food. Therefore nobody starves and or suffers. It shouldn't be a problem in a world full of resources and people. Many people die from hunger, and kids don't fully develop due to malnutrition. Almost all the hungry people live in lower-middle-income countries. There are 11 million people undernourished in developed countries. The human need for food should become a human right when lives are at risk from starvation and access to food becomes a problem. Hunger and malnutrition make the body weak and vulnerable to diseases and infections because the body doesn’t have the fuel to build muscle and fight off infections. This is deadly in children and many children die in hunger prone areas for this reason. Pregnant and malnourished mothers deliver underweight babies, who struggle for survival. Children often have stunted growth as a result of malnutrition. There are 815 million hungry people in the world—one in every nine people...according to (The United Nations). An estimated sixty percent of the worlds hungry are women or girls. Stunted growth, also known as stunting and nutritional stunting, is a reduced growth rate in human development. “It is a primary manifestation of malnutrition (or more precisely undernutrition) and recurrent infections”, such as diarrhea and helminthiasis, in early childhood and even before birth, due to malnutrition during fetal development brought on by a malnourished mother. The definition of stunting according to the is the impaired growth and development that children experience from poor nutrition, repeated infection and poor psychosocial stimulation. Children are defined as stunted if their height-for-age is more than two standard difference below the WHO Child Growth Standards median. Children under 5 affected by stunting (low height-for-age): 150.8 million (22.2%). Children under 5 affected by wasting (low weight-for-height): 50.5 million (7.5%).This data matters because it talks about how many children are affected with low height or weight for their age due to malnutrition and stunting.
We all need food to eat every day so our bodies stay nourished and in good health. Since hunger is a worldwide problem, "we" on this planet need to help come to a solution to this problem. In Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, food falls under physiological needs. A physiological need is something that is necessary for you in order to survive. Some benefits of having access to food and healthy food are that healthy food will provide optimal nutrition for infants that will benefit them throughout their lives, healthy eating can reduce the risk of chronic illness and disease, and having access to healthy food reduces food insecurity.
We as people can come together to help put an end to world hunger. Organizations like Oxfam America focus on poverty. Oxfam America hosts hunger banquets which open up peoples’ eyes to what other people around the world experience every day when they are hungry. Organizations and groups accept volunteers willing to help pack food to send to countries that suffer from hunger, malnutrition, and poverty. Another organization is called “Feed My Starving Children.” This organization allows people to come in and volunteer packing “Manna Packs.” MannaPack Rice: Consists of vitamin-packed flavoring, dried vegetables, soy protein, and rice.
In conclusion, I believe that access to food should be a human right because we need access to food in order to survive and live healthy lives. There is straight up proof that kids without food and who are malnourished don’t grow as much as kids with access to food. Food for all is the goal but we are still working towards this goal. I learned a lot from this action project. I’m grateful to be living in a place where I have to worry about whether or not I will be able to have food for the next day. That concludes this action project.
Works Cited
“Impact of Hunger.” Hunger in America, Feeding America,
www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/impact-of-hunger/.
“Zero Hunger.” Zero Hunger, World Food Programme, www1.wfp.org/zero-hunger.
“History of Feed My Starving Children.” Feed My Starving Children, FMSC,
www.fmsc.org/about-us/history-of-feed-my-starving-children.
“Stunting in a Nutshell.” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, 19 Nov. 2015,
www.who.int/nutrition/healthygrowthproj_stunted_videos/en/.
