“Some experts say to completely solve global hunger would cost about thirty billion dollars a year. Americans spend more than that each year on pizza.”

A thought by Darren Whitehead and Jon Tyson (2011-07-19) in their book, Rumors of God: Experience the Kind of Faith You´ve Only Heard About (Kindle Locations 531-532). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.

We really don’t appreciate the problem of hunger do we?  I know I don’t.  I think I do but I really don’t.  I may be hungry so I get up and go into our kitchen and find something to eat or I dial my phone to get a pizza.  I don’t really know about being hungry.

It comes down to the fact that we don’t have a food problem but a sharing problem. 

Have you heard the story about TOMS Shoes?  I got a pair for my birthday.  I love them.  TOMS Shoes is a unique company founded in 2006 by Blake Mycoskie.  While competing on the second season of The Amazing Race with his sister, Mycoskie visited Argentina. He returned there on vacation in January 2006 and had the idea to develop a shoe company where for every pair sold, a new pair would be donated to a child in need of shoes.  Blake had once said of his revelation, "I was sitting on a farm pondering life, and it occurred to me, ’I’m going to start a shoe company, and for every pair that we sell, I'll give a pair to someone who needs them.’“ After Mycoskie noticed the numerous children without shoes in the poorer villages, he returned to the United States and sold his online driver education company to self-finance the shoe company

Blake saw a problem and did something about it.  He didn’t just start a company to take care of his wants and needs but to help those without shoes who are in deep need.

In my last years of pastoring before retirement I lived in Las Vegas, Nevada and had a deep burden to help people who were going through difficult times; especially families whose children were going hungry.   So I went to the schools in our area and asked them if we could help.  I asked about those boys and girls who the school helped in providing breakfast and lunch five days a week and I said we wanted to help them on the weekend.  I went and bought cases of backpacks and filled each one of them with enough non-perishable food for the weekend and delivered them to the school each Friday so the kids could take them home.  We put the food in backpacks so they wouldn’t be embarrassed.  We found we could help a child in need for $10.00 a week.  We couldn’t solve the whole problem but we could help one kid at a time.

$10.00 is the price of one pizza.  We each one can make a difference in the life of at least one child. Why don’t you find some group that is on the front lines in meeting the needs of those who are hungry?   Many times we make a great effort at Thanksgiving to help people who are hungry and forget that they are hungry everyday of their lives. 

Yes hunger is a major problem but we can each one of us make a major difference in someone’s life.

So what are you going to do?