A recent conversation prompted this message. The other party consented to my paraphrasing her thoughts if her anonymity was maintained.

When asked to help support world-wide hunger elimination programs she replied that as long as there were hungry people in her local community she would not help others. "That is their responsibility. I will start here and when the neighborhood is fed I will work on the rest of the city, then the county, the state, the region, the country and then the world. Why should we send our resources to the other side of the world when we need them here? Charity begins at home."

Yes, charity does begin at home but it ceases to be charity if it stays there. All efforts to relieve hunger are admirable but if everyone took this narrow view many problems would never be solved.

Consider relationships between hunger and sanitation, hunger and disease, hunger and war, hunger and refugee migration, hunger and politics, hunger and crime... You could add more but these are more than enough to justify a global effort to eliminate hunger.

If we could eliminate hunger, unsanitary conditions, disease and crime only in our locality, we would have to keep everyone else out and not let anyone return. We would need an impervious bubble over us to keep out contaminated winds, bugs and animals. In our isolation we would become an imprisoned, inbred and useless society that would destroy itself in a civil (uncivil?) war.

It is in our selfish and economic interest to help feed people wherever hunger exists. If we refuse to share globally we will perish in our own sewage. When we feed the world, we can always go home.

Tell me where you stand on this issue. An e-mail link is provided here for your convenience.

Jesus said: "I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, I was ill and you comforted me, in prison and you came to visit me. I assure you, as often as you did it for one of my least brothers and sisters, you did it for me."

Please click "The Hunger Site" banner once each day and get 10,000 of your closest friends to do the same. While you're there sign The Hunger Site Petition.

Peace will come when hunger, poverty and injustice are eliminated. Responsibility and solutions are ours. Please accept the challenge with us.

 - David Jackson