Hunger Is Not Just An Abstract Concept

Today, if I go hungry, it is intentional. I'm usually trying to keep weight off, or occasionally choose to fast for personal reasons.

I don't recall ever going hungry because I, or my family, didn't have enough food to eat. But my memories of life only go as far back as when I was in kindergarten. Before then, I don't remember much of my life.

So, theoretically, I could have gone hungry back then. And this is not just a rhetorical statement from a well-fed American who has everything I need, and more. Really. I could very well have had a day, or days, when I was undernourished.

Why? Because before I was three years old, I was an impoverished infant, living in an orphanage in an Asian metropolis. Before being adopted into a family very much entrenched in the America Dream, I was this orphan, with no family, no home, living in an institution for abandoned children, with no hope for the future. Until an American family decided to embrace me as one of their own.

So when I hear that 10% of Americans are going hungry, it becomes very personal to me. Hunger is not just an abstract fact that doesn't really affect my American upbringing. Hunger instills sadness, because not everyone is lucky enough to be lifted out of poverty by an altruistic family.

Honestly, it also makes me angry. The richest country in the world should not allow one out of every ten citizens to go hungry. Hunger is a horrific structural deficit that in the long run will destabilize the future of our country, if not addressed now.

Throughout this week, I celebrated Thanksgiving with family and close friends. Eating, drinking, shopping, laughing, playing. Did I mention eating? I even went to the gym with some family members to work off our caloric intake.

But underneath the veneer of my personal American Dream, lies sadness that hunger still ravages a significant portion of the world's population. And, sadly, is affecting more and more Americans today.

To me, hunger is certainly not an abstract.


(Pic from http://api.ning.com)