Students Feeding Each Other?

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By M. MarksPosted In: PovertyTagged: , , ,

 

Students at Middle Tennessee colleges recognized hunger amongst their peers and decided to do something about it. They opened up food pantries so that students would no longer go hungry.  Thus today, Austin Peay State and Tennessee State facilities are able to offer free food and toiletries for students encountering temporary difficulties due to economic uncertainty and inflation.  Canned foods and cereals are being given to them to try to supplement their lacking diet.

Save Our Students

The project all began when students at Austin Peay discovered some students were attending classes hungry. They thus took matters into their own hands and started a social work graduate class project.  The next step was to work in conjunction with the university, launching the “Save Our Students” food pantry, providing students with enough food for about three days.

One of the issues that has led to students reaching the poverty line and going hungry, is that parents who would otherwise have supported their children more financially, are losing jobs and homes and simply cannot afford to do so anymore.  So for those not eligible to receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, for various reasons, this is the solution.

Pay It Forward?

Simultaneously, moving over to the University of Central Missouri, business students are providing local day cares and preschools with backpacks of food.  This began when the Early Childhood Hunger Operation during the 2011 fall semester was adopted by one of the classes.  In Warrensburg, $930 and over 50 backpacks of food to children in the area was donated by the ECHO project that sprung out of a UCM class. It is still in operation and going well.  This began with business students and social workers joining forces to find out what was needed.  They saw the kids come for a morning snack who were stuffing themselves, clearly because they were starving.  Thus it was deemed necessary to engage in this project.

Students Hunger Strike

And then there are the students globally who are being educated on hunger issues and taking it upon themselves to “go hungry – so others don’t have to.”  They are being educated on what is going on with the world’s hungry – 925 million people who are not getting enough sustenance daily with around 11,000 children under the age of 5 dying due to hunger.

So, in response to this, many students “do the Famine,” not eating for 30 hours so that they can feel what it is like to be hungry. Thereafter they raise funds to help hungry families around the world. Every $30 raised by each group can help feed and care for a child for a month. Powered by World Vision, The Famine is not just feeding kids for today — it is giving them the opportunity to beat hunger for a lifetime.

Let’s hope the Famine doesn’t come to students in America – without them campaigning against it in third world countries – and that caring individuals in western world countries take action today to ensure this doesn’t happen.

UK Health Charities to Get Cash Injection

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The Benenden Healthcare Society

In 2012, the Benenden Healthcare Society will be giving large amounts of money to two valuable charities in the UK: actionforchildren.org.uk”>Action for Children which “supports and speaks out for the UK's most vulnerable and neglected children and young people, for as long as it takes to make a difference in their lives…” and Yorkshire Air Ambulance (an independent charity providing a life saving rapid response emergency service to 5 million people across Yorkshire). 

It is hoping substantial monies will be raised for these two charities since in 2011, a new fundraising method was put in place which resulted in more than £3000 to be split amongst the two chosen charities of that year.  The hope for 2012 is that even more money will be raised.

How Beneden Healthcare Works

Benenden Healthcare raises funds to provide “affordable mutual healthcare to employees of the public sector as well as their friends and family.”  It is a complimentary service to the UK’s National Health Service that is totally overwhelmed by offering free healthcare to all UK citizens.  When one therefore ends up needing additional care, Benenden Healthcare is the solution.  The way it works is that employees are able to select the charities democratically – and these will be the ones which will benefit from the Society’s fundraising for this year.  So why these two?  What do they do?  How are they helping UK citizens in the field of health? Let’s take a look.

Action for Children

Clearly, this worthy charitable endeavor has exerted extreme efforts to bring smiles to the faces of many kids.  Just one recent example is the case of a 10-year-old sports fanatic who has been given the opportunity to walk out onto the Wembley football pitch next week.  He will be escorting one of the football players – no doubt his hero – during the England Vs Holland game.

How did Action for Children arrange this?  The young lads – 10-year-old Trey Jennings (who has undergone various obstacles with his family) and Luke Stevenson (who has Aspergers Syndrome) – had their names pulled out of a hat in a cool idea set up by  the charity with the help of the FA and the Kirklees Family Intervention Project. It seems a lot of people want to help those who are less well-off than ourselves, and giving to kids in this way will sure render a lot of smiles when they get to do something they only dreamed about.  Clearly, Action for Children makes a real difference in the life of vulnerable kids.

Yorkshire Air Ambulance

Moving over to the other chosen charity, this organization provides a crucial  service to Yorkshire – ambulances – but cannot manage without huge cash injections since it relies on outside funds from the kindness of others to keep it in operation.  

It’s bad enough that it doesn’t get adequate financing from the government for its venture, but recently, the organization has had to start a new battle with the authorities: to get a VAT rebate on all the fuel they use.  Thankfully one resident, Ken Sharpe, is on the case and has to date, collected close to 4,000 signatures for his e-petition against this.  In all fairness though to the British government, it doesn’t have all that much control over this since it is being bamboozled by EU legislation which doesn’t give individual countries under its auspices the power to extend VAT zero rates to any kind of charitable organizations.  But now enough noise has been made and in the Houses of Parliament, one active MP, Mr. Bayley tabled an Early Day Motion to get grants to over the fuel VAT.  Not surprisingly, from all parties the motion won huge amounts of support, crossing party lines.  As he said, “I hope the Chancellor will agree to return the VAT which Yorkshire Air Ambulance pays, so that the service receives the same benefit as the lifeboat service.”

At least if this goes through then Yorkshire Air Ambulance will be able to use the funds it will be receiving from Benenden Healthcare for other expenses, rather than wasting it on bills it shouldn’t need to be paying.

 

Feeding the Hungry

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As more and more individuals battle against poverty, those charitable organizations giving out food to the hungry are working increasingly harder.  In addition, their operations are expanding to deal with this demand.  For example, looking at statistics from Joseph’s Storehouse, when it first opened three years ago, it helped just over 10 people; now it gives out around 25,000 food parcels every year.

Increased Poverty: Why?

So why has there been so much increased poverty over the years?  There has been a huge increase in the price of food (as well as fuel).  As well, the economic situation globally has caused a lot of job losses and all of these factors have pushed people to poverty levels.

So what is being done to help these individuals?  There is one organization, FareShare which distributes excess food that would have been trashed. As such, in Leicestershire, over the last quarter alone, it delivered 120 tons of produce throughout the area.

More Tasks for Food Charities

But the work of Joseph’s Storehouse does not stop here.  And thankfully, it has been recognized and appreciated for its huge efforts.  Just last month, the organization provided food for free to anyone who could prove their income and address in Lebanon, TN.  Most of the food is given out on the last weekend, monthly.  Every family is assessed for eligibility based on employment, health, emergency and other such issues. Those with extenuating circumstances (such as disabilities etc.) receive additional assistance.  The organization is always looking for volunteers and the next monthly food giveaway is set for February 23rd and 25th.

How To Help

Organizations and individuals can always find ways to offer help.  For example, members of ULSTER Farmers’ Union can send excess produce to needy communities through the FareShare Island of Ireland Community Food Network.  FareShare does a lot in this regard.  Not only does it ensure that substantial amounts of food that would otherwise go to waste do not, it also provides immense support to those who would otherwise go hungry.  It is able to achieve its goals of helping the poverty-stricken through the support it receives from the Public Health Agency, FSA NI and DOE.