On the eve of the one-year anniversary of the Partnership to End Hunger in Maryland, Governor Martin O'Malley renewed his commitment to the project by declaring this week- November 16 through 20 - "Maryland Hunger Awareness Week."
Governor O'Malley made the announcement at a lunch with children at Annapolis Child Care on Friday.
"Especially during these tough times, together, we must ensure that no child goes without the basic nourishment needed to thrive. Ending childhood hunger is an issue which transcends politics," the Governor said. "It's an issue that speaks to who we are as a people, to what kind of society we choose to be in the tough times when our shared efforts matter most, to what kind of society we choose to leave for future generations. When a child goes hungry anywhere in Maryland - it impacts us all. It's all connected."
Governor O'Malley launched the Partnership to End Hunger in Maryland last year with nonprofit organization Share our Strength.
Funding and participation in school lunch, summer meals and food supplement programs has increased substantially since the public-private partnership was founded.
The Obama-Biden administration has the power to make sure that everyone has good, clean food. Change This stewardship agreement!
http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=DocumentDetail&o=090000648084de39
"Technology/stewardship agreements required for the purchase of genetically modified seed explicitly prohibit research. These agreements inhibit public scientists from pursuing their mandated role on behalf of the public good unless the research is approved by industry. As a result of restricted access, no truly independent research can be legally conducted on many critical questions regarding the technology, its performance, its management implications, IRM, and its interactions with insect biology. Consequently, data flowing to an EPA Scientific Advisory Panel from the public sector is unduly limited."
also see
"Rising Rhetoric on Genetically Modified Crops"in PR Watch, Volume 10, No. 1, 1st Quarter 2003.
"Their level of desperation appears to be increasing," says Michael Hansen, a scientist with Consumers Union in the US, who monitors the activities of the biotech industry as it lobbies for acceptance of genetically modified (GM) foods. Hansen has watched with increasing alarm as the pro-GM lobby escalates its vitriolic attacks on critics.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Rising_Rhetoric_on_Genetically_Modified_Crops
I have read several references to a 'tsunami,' with respect to describing the coming effects of this financial cataclysm. I sometimes wonder if those references, by mostly famous people, come from my earlier description, not that that matters. But all those references have gotten it wrong. The water is still going out! Waves are not coming in yet. Oh yes, we have banks and financial houses, even auto companies, on the brink and being 'bailed out.' I guess a good analogous description would put those efforts, the paying out of newly printed money to hold off disaster in those companies and industries, into best perspective in the following way. Our government is paying the wave to stay the hell out there. It can work for a little while. But its gotta come in eventually. That wave is a quadrillion dollar wave. Maybe a bit bigger. That's a thousand trillion dollars. We have assembled about six trillion and spent about four of that so far. We might put together another six trillion, which would make this bailout the largest expenditure of funding ever made by any government, for anything, on this planet. And still, it pales next to the quadrillion or more sitting out there.
Some people are talking about how we are going to be able to get through all this (without going through bankruptcy or cancelling our existing currency) by having a central worldwide bank and extending credit from that. A bigger version of the United States Bank, backed by our government alone, which I expounded on a few blogs back. Are we willing to sacrifice all of our sovereignty? Are we really ready for Friedman's flat earth? If we are, then being poor for a long long time will be where and how we live. Ninety percent of the world lives in some sort of poverty. Yes, that is a huge percentage. Only twenty-five percent of the planet has sufficient energy and food in order to have heating, air conditioning and eat a healthy diet. The media has shown us nothing else, really. We saw some of it marginally when Bono was on tour in Africa, but we kind of blew by it. We see just a few little swatches of the real world on newscasts about the Sahara, the Eastern Bloc and most of China, but we just let that stuff slip by. I liked to say, when I was traveling out there (which I don't do much of anymore) that the difference between a Republican and a Democrat back here was simply world travel. If you go out there, and get away from the airport and four star hotels, you see it. You begin to live it with those people. That expression applies: "If you stare into the abyss long enough, it begins to stare back at you."
In Mombasa, Kenya, the average yearly income for a family is less than a thousand dollars. I once supported a small village there, for many years, on a contribution of only two hundred and fifty a month. The world is a poor place indeed. And Kenya is not considered anywhere near the poorest! The questions posed by these facts are these: Do we live comfortably, thinking, creating and building technology to the point where all of us are lifted from poverty? Or, do we share absolutely everything we have and live in poverty with everyone else on the planet, and going nowhere? Maybe there ought to be two follow-on questions. Do we have enough generosity built into our culture to share the advances our status allows us to create and build, when we reach that point? And, do we have the kind of generosity it would take to simply distribute everything we now have to those who are not as well off as we are today, and then live with them in their circumstance?
And we ready for one central ruling body running the planet and the representatives of countries appointing those people who would make all the decisions from such an authority? Have we done that great a job with the United Nations? Have we done that great a job with our own country? If you answer no to those two questions then what idiocy would it take for us to just throw in with a financial entity that was created to make financial decisions for the world? Why trust them? Who do we trust now? Do we trust our banker? Our insurance companies? How can we? Did the people we trusted act honorably in taking this quadrillion I write about? Even if they changed and shaded the rules in order to make their thieving 'legal,' do we accept such behavior as being worthy of our trust again? If not, then why are these executives not being discharged across the land? Who's heads are rolling? None of them are losing their jobs. There is only talk of those people not being paid bonuses. Not getting the same amount of stock options. That sort of thing. But the, the wave is not really visible out there yet. But the water keeps on going out farther and farther.
It is Thanksgiving tomorrow. Whom do we thank? God? Well, thanks God. I don't understand You, but then everyone says that I am not supposed to or you would not be God. I would be. And we can't have that. So I thank God, for whatever. I have it okay. I have been given gifts. I prayed for strength so He gave me tremendous problems that I had to solve. After railing against Him about that, I finally figured out that He had also given me the gifts, if applied, to beat the problems. And I have never really figured out whether He gave me the problems, anyway. I just kind of had and have to believe. And He did not give me that gift.
So, I thank the people I am close to. I thank family and friends. I thank some of you out there who communicate with me regularly and positively, even though my rather strange life-style and opinions do not always merit such. I am sorry about the people I have hurt...and there is indeed a line of those back there, and I promise to continue to exert every effort in my being to try harder. To have a stronger sense of honor, integrity and compassion. The very things I write about in all my bodies of work. There is a happiness and bliss in my life and I wish it upon you, whoever you may be out there...on this night and on the morrow. Happy Thanksgiving.
“Our conscience cannot rest as long as people are called ‘working poor’ in America. If you are working, you should not be poor." --Barack Obama
2/29/08 quoted in The Brownsville Herald
HOPE, BELIEVE, CHANGE ... We Are The Change. There is a better day on the horizon. Until the day when food, shelter, clothing, medical care, education and decent work for fair pay become a right; until it's about justice not charity, then consider helping through programs such as the following:
The Hunger Site was founded to focus the power of the Internet on a specific humanitarian need: the eradication of world hunger. Since its launch in June 1999, the site has established itself as a leader in online activism, helping to feed the world's hungry. On average, over 220,000 individuals from around the world visit the site each day to click the yellow "Click Here to Give - it's FREE" button. To date, more than 300 million visitors have given more than 500 million cups of staple food.
The staple food funded by clicks at The Hunger Site is paid for by site sponsors and distributed to those in need by Mercy Corps and Feeding America (formerly America's Second Harvest) . 100% of sponsor advertising fees goes to our charitable partners. Funds are split between these organizations and go to the aid of hungry people in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and North America.
Hunger: Do You Know The Facts?
It is estimated that one billion people in the world suffer from hunger and malnutrition. That's roughly 100 times as many as those who actually die from these causes each year.
About 24,000 people die every day from hunger or hunger-related causes. This is down from 35,000 ten years ago, and 41,000 twenty years ago. Three-fourths of the deaths are children under the age of five.
Famine and wars cause about 10% of hunger deaths, although these tend to be the ones you hear about most often. The majority of hunger deaths are caused by chronic malnutrition. Families facing extreme poverty are simply unable to get enough food to eat.
The Hunger Site began on June 1, 1999. In 1999, a year marked by good economic news, 31 million Americans were food insecure, meaning they were either hungry or unsure of where their next meal would come from. Of these Americans, 12 million were children.
The Hunger Site provides a feel-good way to help promote awareness and prevent hunger deaths every day — through easy and quick online activities.
With a simple, daily click of the yellow "Click Here to Give - it's FREE" button at The Hunger Site, visitors help provide food to those in need. Visitors pay nothing. Food is paid for by the site's sponsors and distributed by Mercy Corps worldwide and by Feeding America (formerly America's Second Harvest) to food banks throughout the United States.
http://www.thehungersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces
Artisan Stories:
http://www.thehungersite.com/clickToGive/artisans.faces?siteId=1
I just hope both you guys don't loose the focus of what America needs. I heard in movies and books, "Great Powers comes with the great responsibilities".
This was my favorite volunteer activity I have ever done at the Depository. Think about your box of cornflakes... hundreds of crunchy flakes perfectly formed and waiting for your consumption. But what about the crumb at the bottom. What about those crumbs back at the factory? All of those crumbs are still full of needed calories and nutrients, clean enough to serve and eat, but just not pretty enough to sell. Thousands of pounds of crumbs that could be wasted. But because of places like GCFD, they are not wasted. They are donated by the manufacturer, repackaged, and given to those who might use it as delicious breading or eat it as cereal. Less waste, more food for the hungry. A perfect solution.
The crumbs are useful. Not to be discarded. I'm sure there is a metaphor here for all the Americans who feel they have no voice and are not cared about. But they should not be discarded. If all those cornflake crumbs can come together and feed the hungry, surely we can gather our people together to support Obama and feed the hungry through changes in public policy!
ccyl
http://endpoverty-ccyl.blogspot.com/
Dear Friend:
Thousands of people have lost their lives and thousands more are homeless after a powerful cyclone crashed into the southern coast of Myanmar on Friday. The cyclone tore down houses, flooded streets, and left people without food, clean water, and shelter.
The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) responded to the crisis in a swift and effective manner. Within days of the disaster, WFP began distributing food in the southern coastal regions of Myanmar hardest hit by powerful Cyclone Nargis. Already, 54 tons of rice have been dispatched to the area and thousands of people have received ready-to-eat high energy biscuits (HEBs), which can be easily delivered and consumed. WFP also plans to airlift additional food supplies to the coastal areas that have been cut-off from access as soon as possible.
Time is of the essence and we are already reaching storm victims with food. We are mobilizing all possible resources to save lives given the massive disruption in food, water and shelter caused by this storm," said WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran. WFP plans to provide life-saving food assistance for 630,000 people for six months until the next harvest.
The World Food Program needs your help to continue to provide much needed food assistance to the people of Myanmar. Thank you so much for your support.
Sincerely,Karen SendelbackPresident and CEOFriends of the World Food Program
© 2008 Friends of the World Food Program1819 L Street, NW | Suite 900 | Washington, D.C. 20036Tel: 202.530.1694 | Fax: 202.530.1698 | E-mail: info@friendsofwfp.org | www.friendsofwfp.org
Friends of the World Food Program is a U.S. based non-profit organization that works to increase awareness of global hunger and raise funds to support WFP operations around the world.
The April 18 New York Times ran an article about the increasing food riots across the globe. These clashes are becoming more an more common as people on the edge are feeling desperation and anger. All of these stories are illustrating how extreme poverty alleviation is not only a matter of morality, charity, social justice or national security, but all of those things together. We need our current president _and_ our next president to address this horror much further than we already have. Our next president can start with the Global Poverty Act. Luckily, Obama is a sponsor!
Here are excerpts:
"Saint Louis Meriska’s children ate two spoonfuls of rice apiece as their only meal recently and then went without any food the following day. His eyes downcast, his own stomach empty, the unemployed father said forlornly, “They look at me and say, ‘Papa, I’m hungry,’ and I have to look away. It’s humiliating and it makes you angry. That anger is palpable across the globe. The food crisis is not only being felt among the poor but is also eroding the gains of the working and middle classes, sowing volatile levels of discontent and putting new pressures on fragile governments."
“Why are these riots happening?” asked Arif Husain, senior food security analyst at the World Food Program, which has issued urgent appeals for donations. “The human instinct is to survive, and people are going to do no matter what to survive. And if you’re hungry you get angry quicker.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/world/americas/18food.htmlx=1209614400&en=fad837a1acd76314&ei=5070&emc=eta1
What you can do to help:
Thirty five million (35,000,000) Americansare hungry or living on the brink of hunger!
Peace!
Of the $3,623,477 raised in Minnesota for 2008 presidential candidates, CNN reports that $1,118,400 was raised by Obama, $846,840 by Clinton, and $405,959 by McCain. Guiliana actually has exceeded McCain in the state with his $419,850.
For total contributions, Obama has raised over $240 million, to Clinton's $194 million, and McCain's $80 million. Total cash on hand currently sits at $51 million for Obama, $31 million for Clinton, and $11 million for McCain.
The interesting stat is how much the parties have raised: DNC $72 million to the RNC $149 million. That is where the prolonged Democratic race is hurting Obama. Money that could be spent targeting McCain is being spent for the current primaries coming up in Pennsylvania and Indiana. Are the Dem's shooting themselves in the foot by not coming to agreement on a candidate? Probably, but time will tell.
All I know is there are a lot of sick and hungry people out there that could use a little of this campaign money that is being spent on advertisements and such. Is the US so self-centered that we don't see this? Unfortunately, I think so. All I can do is hope and I am getting pretty good at that!
"The moral question about poverty in America - How can a country like this allow it? - has an easy answer: we can't. The political question that follows - What do we do about it? - has always been more difficult. But now that we're finally seeing the beginnings of an answer, this country has an obligation to keep trying." -- Barack Obama, Washington, DC | July 18, 2007
Yes We Can! (and No We Won't!)
Who? YOU
When? Right Now
What? National Obamafolk Against Hunger Food Drive
Where? Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Food Bank
Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank1 N Linden Street, Duquesne, PA 15110http://www.pittsburghfoodbank.org/
Why? Our message of Hope, Change and Yes, We Can! has been hijacked and we need to take it back. Our Hope is our better future. Our better future comes through Change. We can only have Change if we resurrect the spirit of Yes, We Can!
Yes, We Did! In Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, BOTH Washingtons and Wisconsin.Yes, We Can in Pennsylvania!
So, to take back our message and positively impact the future of our campaign, we are showing Pennsylvanians who we REALLY are by driving the fight against hunger at the grassroots level. This food bank is the state's second largest, serving 11 counties and distributing more than 18 million pounds of food each year. While Pittsburgh's Allegheny County has a population of over 1.2 million, the agency's remaining 10 counties average less than 125,000. Four of its service counties are 90% or more rural, with five more predominantly rural.
If you'd prefer to make a donation rather than send nonperishables, the food bank website features "tribute" donations through a checkbox at the bottom of the page just below "Do you have any additional requests for your contribution?" At the "Next Step," you may enter your choice of Gift (Tribute) and Person being honored (Suggestion: Obama supporters against Hunger and Poverty)
The attached list of items are badly needed at the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. Items the Pittsburgh Food bank needs
(If you are in the Philadelphia area, please contact Chandrima Chatterjee (chandrima@mac.com) who is gearing up a parallel food drive supporting Philabundance, the state's largest food bank.)
CHALLENGE: CAN THE ONLINE DRIVE BEAT THE ONE ON THE GROUND IN PHILLY? We will post results here as they come in, so let us know your progress out there! Yes We Can!
"READ MORE>>" For packing and shipping instructions.
♦ Pack NON PERISHABLE food items in sturdy, medium sized boxes. Use a corrugated, brown box free of other markings or wrap in plain, brown paper.
♦ Use clear or brown packaging tape, reinforced packing tape or paper tape. Do not use cord, string, or twine. Tape the opening of the box and reinforce seams with 2-inch-wide tape.
♦ Try to stagger the sizes of the cans/boxes so the boxes all weigh approximately the same.
♦ Fill extra spaces with foam peanuts, bubble wrap and popcorn
♦ Do NOT send product in glass or liquid items that may leak.
♦ Please discard any opened packages or perishable foods as they are donated. The food bank cannot use them, and they may contaminate the other products.
♦ Do not put monetary donations in with the food donations.
