Free Republic

GREENSBORO — Cathy Coons has been passionate about fighting hunger since she was a teenager in Westchester County, N.Y. It was there that she first joined in a fast to raise money for Save the Children, the well-known charitable organization for children in need in the United States and around the world. Since moving to Greensboro in 2004, Coons has continued to take part in a variety of volunteer initiatives to alleviate hunger and poverty, primarily through Starmount Presbyterian Church, where — as a member of the mission committee — she is actively involved in such local ministries as senior...

In the 22 years that Swami Durga Das has managed New York’s River Fund Food Pantry, he has never seen hunger like this. Each Saturday, hundreds of hungry people descend on the pantry’s headquarters, an unassuming house on a residential block. The first people arrive around 2 am, forming a line that will wrap around the block before Das even opens his doors. “Each week there’s new people,” Das told MSNBC.com. “The numbers have just skyrocketed.” The new clients are diverse—working people, seniors, single mothers—but many of them share something in common: they represent the millions of Americans who fell...

WASHINGTON, Oct 17 2013 (IPS) - Near the Martin Luther King Jr. Library in downtown Washington, just a few blocks away from the federal district, dozens of homeless men and women wait for the evening shuttles that will take them to their dinners at one of many food shelters around the city. They can get by during the day with the few dimes and quarters spared by passersby, but the only daily meal they can really count on is the one they will get at the local food shelter, and so for them, hunger is a very real problem. Two...

Algae suit generates food to feed your constant hunger When we think of futuristic fashion, our minds often lean toward the minimalist designs of Star Trek or Tron. But maybe what we wear in the future will have more to do with what we eat than what we want to look like. That's the premise behind the algaculture symbiosis suit designed by Michael Burton and Michiko Nitta. The symbiosis suit is designed to make food for you as you go about your daily routine. A number of tubes, placed in front of your mouth, harness the CO2 you breathe and...

Cassidy et al. / Environmental Research Letters Shifting crops grown for animal feed and biofuel to food for direct human consumption can feed an additional 4 billion people with existing cropland, a study says. The lab-grown burger taste-tested Monday in London is billed as one way to avert a looming food crisis by freeing up the agricultural resources used to feed billions of cattle each year. Another way to avert the crisis is to stop eating animal products altogether, according to a recent study.In fact, "we find that doing a complete radical shift away from grain-fed animals, and stop...

New York’s Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake school district has become the latest casualty in first lady Michelle Obama’s preferred lunch plan, dropping the menu after too many students complained of hunger. “[Food service manager Nicky] Boehm and her staff worked hard to implement the new regulations, but there were just too many problems and too many foods that students did not like and would not purchase,” said Assistant Superintendent Chris Abdoo about the National School Lunch Program in a statement reported by EAGNews.org. “Students complained of being hungry with these lunches and the district lost money.” Undaunted, the nattering nabobs from...

World Crisis Alert: Guantanamo Bay detainees don't want to eat. Muslim rapper Yasiin "Mos Def" Bey is so worked up about their appetite plight that he videotaped himself being force-fed to build support for closing Gitmo. Cry me a river. This latest round of hunger strikes isn't an international human rights tragedy. It's another manipulative act of Jihad Theater. Have you forgotten? Calculated Gitmo fabulism goes back to 2005, when Newsweek fell for false rumors that U.S. soldiers "flushed" the Koran down a toilet at the military detention facility in Cuba. Gullible media reports of "desecration" provided a handy pretext...

The 2011 Somali famine killed an estimated 260,000 people, half of them age 5 and under, according to a new report to be published this week that more than doubles previous death toll estimates, officials told The Associated Press. The aid community believes that tens of thousands of people died needlessly because the international community was slow to respond to early signs of approaching hunger in East Africa in late 2010 and early 2011. The toll was also exacerbated by extremist militants from al-Shabab who banned food aid deliveries to the areas of south-central Somalia that they controlled. Quicker action...

European Union families and individuals are increasingly reliant on charity organizations like the Red Cross for basic needs like food, water and shelter. While Germany is relatively unaffected, unemployment and austerity in countries like Spain make the problem even more severe. Two-thirds of national Red Cross societies within the European Union distribute food aid -- a sign that the economic crisis in Europe has an alarming effect on poverty. Yves Daccord, Director-General of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said that the scope of food distribution is the highest since the end of World War II. The Spanish Red...

There are no hard-and-fast rules for food expiration dating. Most people don't want to take chances, so once food hits the printed expiration date, they simply toss it out. But tossing it out has become a problem in itself. It's been estimated that up to 40 percent of food produced in the U.S. goes right in the trash. "I can be as picky as everybody else," says Janet Kalish, and she can afford to be. She's no vagrant - Kalish is a New York City high school teacher who got fed up with seeing supermarkets toss out good food. So...

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — With the economy taking a toll on many food banks across the Southland, donations are desperately needed before the Thanksgiving holiday. If you would like to help families in need, contact one of the following food banks: Los Angeles Regional Food Bank World Harvest Food Bank Project Angel Food San Fernando Valley Rescue Mission Orange County Rescue Mission

Trapping Feral Pigs and Other Parables of Modern Life by Matt Bracken Professional trappers don't catch fast-breeding and destructive feral pigs using hunting dogs and guns, or in little traps one or two at a time. The wily pigs quickly learn to evade humans after such fleeting contacts. So how do the pros trap entire feral pig herds, eliminating them all, from granddads to piglets, in one go? They feed them, most generously. They kill them with kindness. First, in a clearing in the woods, the trappers build an enclosure about twenty feet on a side and four feet high,...

According to the United Nations, world grain reserves are so dangerously low that severe weather in the United States or other food-exporting countries could trigger a major hunger crisis next year.Check the labels on the food you buy the next time youÂ’re in the supermarket; youÂ’ll see that it has traveled a long way to get to you. The sad truth is that the majority of food products we buy are not produced locally. They came from countries such as China, Taiwan, Mexico, Brazil, Peru and Italy. This has significant consequences for us because it makes us dependent on these...

Children and parents across the country are fed up with the restrictive new school meal regulations implemented by the Department of Agriculture under the “Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010,” which has long been touted by first lady Michelle Obama. The standards — which cap meal calories at 650 for students in kindergarten through fifth grade, at 700 calories for middle school students and 850 for high school students — also dictate the number of breads, proteins, vegetables and fruits children are allowed per meal. A spokeswoman for Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King, who earlier this month introduced legislation to...

Welcome Hunger is a reality in Missouri. One in eight Missourians receive emergency food assistance every year. The food banks of the Missouri Food Bank Association are the solution to hunger statewide. Through our network of over 2,000 agencies, we provided 68 million meals to your friends, neighbors, and children’s classmates last year. The need is increasing and your support feeds hungry Missourians.

Going hungry in America: ‘Distressing,’ ‘humbling’ and ‘scary’ By Tim Skillern The Lookout Dave Krepcho, director of the Second Harvest Food Bank, checks inventory at the food bank warehouse in Orlando, Fla. In the past four years, food distribution to 500 pantries, shelters, and other relief agencies in the six-county area has jumped about 60 percent. In the last year alone, that amounted to 36 million pounds of food. Krepcho estimates about 30 percent of those seeking help are first-timers. They're blue-collar and white-collar, many middle class, even some upper middle class. They include college-educated couples and professionals. (John Raoux/AP)...

ScienceDaily (July 23, 2012) — With widespread hunger continuing to haunt developing nations, and obesity fast becoming a global epidemic, any number of efforts on the parts of governments, scientists, non-profit organizations and the business world have taken aim at these twin nutrition-related crises. But all of these efforts have failed to make a large dent in the problems, and now an unusual international collaboration of researchers is explaining why. Publishing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers argue that while hunger and obesity are caused by a perfect storm of multiple factors acting in concert,...

a full hour and a half before the store would open, about two dozen people were already in line shortages of staples like milk, meat and toilet paper are a chronic part of life here The shortages affect both the poor and the well-off “I’m wasting my day here standing in line to buy one chicken and some rice.” Venezuela was long one of the most prosperous countries in the region, with sophisticated manufacturing, vibrant agriculture and strong businesses, making it hard for many residents to accept such widespread scarcities. many economists call it a classic case of a government...

Sesame Street has joined the Class warfare battle choosing to work for the dark side. They are introducing a new character, "Lily" to explore the issues of poverty? hunger in America. The show comes out on 10/9/2011 and I would like some help in countering the propaganda. Done right this could be hilarious. We could go in many directions however I was thinking of a Tea Party Tammy(Tammy Bruce? or Dolly Madison) or richy kid Chris the capitalist. Better than attacking Lily is to educate or demonstrate to her how Obama libs got her family dependent and want her more...

Sesame Street has a new muppet who is hungry for more than just cookies. The iconic kids show is set to unveil a new impoverished puppet named Lily, whose family faces an ongoing struggle with hunger issues. Lily will be revealed in a one-hour Sesame Street primetime special, Growing Hope Against Hunger, which is being sponsored by Walmart. The special will star country singer Brad Paisley and his wife Kimberly Williams Paisley, as well as the Sesame Street Muppets. “Food insecurity is a growing and difficult issue for adults to discuss, much less children,” said the Paisleys in a statement....