Update: I'm honored and a little giddy to have this, and other stories from Change Becomes Change featured on Oprah.com. Find great holiday ideas at Oprah's Deck the Blogs Roundup.
Did you enjoy a nice Thanksgiving with the whole spread? We certainly did and were very thankful that we were able to do so this year since there were many families who couldn't. Some scaled back, others likely didn't have much of a spread at all. And still others might have just been thankful for a warm meal at the local shelter. Many put their children first and hope that there's at least enough to provide them a decent meal.
A recent USDA report found that 14.6% of U.S. households, or some 49 million – 1 in 7 Americans – suffered from hunger at some point in 2008,while the number of hungry children in the US reached a record 16.7 million – or 22.5%. The experts believe that the number of Americans experiencing “food insecurity” will climb steadily in 2009 and 2010 as hard economic times and unemployment continues.
Children who suffer from hunger are likely to face lifelong challenges including:
- weaker immune systems
- more stomachaches
- headaches
- colds
- ear infections
- fatigue
- behavioral difficulties
- impaired performance academically, socially and in sports
I hope that you'll agree with me that no child deserves to suffer like this from a lack of food and help make a difference to the almost 17 million children who won't be enjoying holiday meals like us this year.
If you haven't heard of Share Our Strength then let me introduce you. Share Our Strength is a national organization that works hard to see that no child in America grows up hungry. That's no easy task so they rely on many supporters to help them in a variety of ways. This holiday season, whether you're looking for a thoughtful holiday gift for friends and family, or a way to make a lasting difference in the lives of children in need, Share Our Strength offers great ways to Share Your Season and help end childhood hunger.
Here are just a two easy ways you can Share Your Season to help:
1. Let friends and family know about your commitment to childhood hunger by making a donation and giving them Share Our Strength gift tags to spread the word. You can even send these donation announcements as e-cards too.
2. Text in a $5 donation right from your mobile phone (ok, it really doesn't get any easier than that). Get the details here.
Times may be tough for a lot of us this year, which means that giving to others may be less than in year's pass. While there are more people with greater needs this year than ever, we all need to make sure that our own children are fed first.But here's an idea that helps everyone: no matter what your weekly food budget is, let's all cut it by 10% one week this month for the Share Your Season campaign. Just one week. Just 10%. So if your food budget is $100, you're spending $90. And the $10 (or 10%) goes to Share Our Strength to help end childhood hunger. That might mean less dessert or one less meal out this week.
How can you save 10% this week?
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Hello
I am helping Share Our Strength through my eBook "Expert Nutrition Tips for Your Toddler". It is a compilation of expert advice from pediatricians and dietitians in a simple Q&A format. Check out my blog post for details on how to buy this eBook. 100% of the proceeds will go directly to Share Our Strength.
http://bit.ly/6Fwojj
A 6-page FREE excerpt is available for immediate download at
http://bit.ly/4qj3dj
Posted by: TwinToddlersDad | December 02, 2009 at 06:17 PM