This article is available at www.ajc.com, the Atlanta Journal Constitution's website.

A HUNGER TO HELP
Students address a global need
Shelia M. Poole - staff
Wednesday, November 24, 2004

Joseph McBrayer has never experienced the unbearable stomach pains and waves of weakness often associated with acute hunger. He's never had to wonder when he would eat again.

But that hasn't stopped the 21-year-old Auburn University senior from tackling the issue of global hunger. McBrayer, a native of Carrollton, and other Auburn students are taking part in a unique student-led campaign with the United Nations World Food Program that will shine the spotlight on a problem that affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

"The initial feeling people have is that they can't do anything about worldwide situations like hunger or poverty," said McBrayer, a forestry major. "But people have to realize that there are ways to help."

The Auburn war on hunger is the first advocacy project between the Rome-based U.N. humanitarian agency, which was established in 1963, and a U.S. college. Auburn, in eastern Alabama, was selected because of a long-standing relationship between the two. The WFP's North American spokesman, Trevor Rowe, calls the partnership "a door opening" that could serve as a template for similar projects on other campuses.

'They can change world'

In recent years, Rowe said, hunger has dropped off the public radar screen, replaced by concerns about war, disease and terrorism.

In the United States in particular, hunger is often seen as something that happens elsewhere. And in the past decade or so, campuses have been largely silent on the issue. Indeed, in the United States, people generally are getting fatter, and obesity threatens to overtake tobacco use as the leading preventable cause of death.

By reaching out to student populations, the WFP hopes to educate the next generation about world hunger and poverty. The campaign has included advocacy work and fund-raising.

"I think what's really important here is that students are not only producing unique ideas, they're learning they can change the world," Rowe said. "The world is so much closer to us now. We're living cheek to jowl with these crises."

In 2003, the WFP fed 104 million people in more than 80 countries, including most of the world's refguees. Recently, in an emergency action, the agency airlifted tons of food to Ivory Coast, where violence broke out after the government broke a cease-fire with rebels.

The Auburn program focuses on the WFP's "19 cents a day" program, which is what the agency estimates it costs to feed a child in school. A student's ability to concentrate and learn is significaly improved when hunger isn't a problem, experts say. The WFP has reported enrollment increases of more than 300 percent in some schools that receive its assistance.

Raising consciousness

The Auburn student effort is led by the Committee of 19, so named after the 19 cents a day campaign, and also includes faculty members.

"This is about raising awareness about hunger and consciousness raising," said June Henton, dean of Auburn's college of human sciences. "We are teaching them why they should care."

Henton said the issue of hunger is being integrated into classroom instruction, research and outreach.

"Morally, it's the right thing to do," said Harriet Giles, director of external relations in the college of human sciences.

Giles said students are learning that hunger and poverty often involve gender issues as well. Seven out of every 10 of the world's hungry people are women or girls, she said. "It's very much a female issue in the developing world."

The Committee of 19 kicked off the campaign with a "hunger banquet"

to illustrate the hardship faced by more than 800 million hungry people worldwide. The goal of the "banquet" was for participants to experience how food and other vital resources are unequally distributed around the world.

In line with global income patterns, 55 percent of those present were fed a meager tortilla, 30 percent ate beans and rice, and 15 percent were served an ample three-course dinner.

Auburn junior Angela Montoya has seen hunger up close in her native Colombia.

Montoya, who is from an upper middle class family, said she is used to seeing street kids "who don't have the resources to live life," she said. "Children beg for money. It's pretty bad."

Montoya makes every effort to tell others about her experience in Colombia.

"I tell them how it is in real life and explain to people that so many times people in the United States take things for granted."

McBrayer said he has talked with friends who have served as missionaries in countries including Mexico, Ghana and South Africa. His friend in South Africa told him a disturbing story about walking the streets and seeing as many as a dozen people waiting patiently for residents to put out their trash so they could search for discarded food.

"It made me think, 'How much do I waste in my life?' " McBrayer said. "What do I throw away?"

UNDERNOURISHED PEOPLE
(Percentage of total population. Average for 1999/2001)
Congo...................... 75%..............51.2 million
Tajikistan..................71%.............. 6.2 million
Burundi.................... 70%.............. 6.6 million
Eritrea.................... 61%.............. 4 million
Mozambique..................53%..............18.5 million
Armenia.................... 51%.............. 3.1 million
Sierra Leone and Zambia.... 50%......4.8 and 10.7 million
Angola and Haiti............49%......13.2 and 8.2 million
Sources: World Food Program; United Nations Development Program; Bread for the World Institute; U.S. Department of Agriculture/ MICHAEL DABROWA / Staff

HUNGER FACTS
More than 842 million people worldwide suffer from hunger, more than the combined populations of the United States, Canada, Europe and Japan.
In the least developed countries, 37% of people are undernourished.
3.4 percent of U.S. households experience hunger: they frequently skip meals or eat too little, sometimes going without food for a whole day. 9.4 million people, including 3.1 million children, live in these homes.
Every five seconds, a child dies because she or he is hungry.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has set the minimum requirement for caloric intake per person per day at 2,350. Worldwide, there are 2,805 calories available per person per day.
Fifty-four countries fall below that requirement; they do not produce enough food to feed their populations, nor can they afford to import the necessary commodities to make up the gap. Most of these countries are in sub-Saharan Africa.
There are 11 million AIDS orphans in Africa. Most never learned how their parents grew and prepared food.
Poor families spend more than 70% of their income on food. An average American family spends more than 10%.
The average daily expenditure on food in the developed world is $10. World Food Program food rations cost 29 cents per day.
For 19 cents you can feed a hungry child in school for a day. $1.33 feeds one child for a week. For about $70, you can feed one child for a year.
In the developing world, more than 1.2 billion people live below the international poverty line, earning less than $1 per day.

HOW TO HELP
Instead of having several different kinds of vegetables and desserts, consider dropping one or two items from your holiday feast.
Use the money that would have been spent on that extra dish to make a gift to a hungry family, either by making a contribution to an organization that feeds the hungry or by donating food to a local food drive. At your holiday feast, take a minute to tell your family about what youre not serving for dinner and why. The holidays are a perfect time to be reminded of just how much we have to be thankful for.
(Suggestions from Heifer International)
Where You Can Donate
Can Hunger
Metro Atlanta Kroger stores
Now until Dec. 31.
Visit local Kroger stores and purchase a Can Hunger 2004 prepackaged box of nutritious food for $7.50 to benefit the Atlanta Community Food Bank www.acfb.org/
Donations to the World Food Program can be sent to:
WFP
2 UN Plaza
DC2-2500
New York, NY 10017
For more information, students can visit: WarOnHunger.org
General public can visit www.wfp.org.
Heifer International
www.heifer.org
Give a gift animal to help children and families around the world become self-reliant.

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