By Carie Moore
I know we have all threatened our children at one time or another to eat their food because there are starving children in Africa. The problem is there are starving people right here in the U.S. As farmers, we produce more than enough food to feed everyone, it's just the opportunity for everyone to get food is not always possible.
There are many different reasons why people don’t have access to food, such as transportation or income. I differ from some in the fact that I don't think we need to produce this mega amount of food by 2050 that they project. I honestly believe the key to feeding America is dealing with food waste and food loss and making sure we take care of those right here in our own communities each and every day.
Almost every city has a food pantry of some sort or a local church that distributes food. Like many things, change begins right outside your front door. You don't have to make a huge grand gesture to make sure people get fed. It's as simple as going and helping unload the food truck or contacting food distributors for out-of-date donations or helping serve meals on holidays.
From a farm perspective, technology is so important to help reduce grain loss that comes out the combine and plants that don't grow sufficiently. The better genetics we have in our crops and livestock for desirable food traits and the better technology we have in our equipment, the more we can do to save the environment and have less waste of the raw product that goes into making food.
I had the opportunity to do a community service project while at our American Farm Bureau Fusion Conference and in just over an hour's time we packed 12,000 packets of apple cinnamon oatmeal that had four servings each for the Milwaukee food pantry. That little bit of my time will impact a large city more than I will ever know.
It was a great, fun experience. You can also do something like this. The organization, The Outreach Program, will either send you stuff for meal packing or come and do a meal packing with you. This would be a great church project, 4-H and FFA project, or even a school project.
It's also as simple as having excess vegetables in your garden to donate to the food pantry. Please consider making a difference for those around you. It may be people you know but they hide it because they don't want to say anything. There is no reason for families to be starving when there is no shortage of food.
Please take that step and find some way to help farmers like me get more food into the hands of people who need it.