Irene Hae Shin Yoon Part 2
by admin
The Journey to End Hunger
I decided to donate fifty dollars to World Food Programme (WFP) which is an organization who aims to prevent world hunger alongside the United Nations. Moreover, I worked toward being a flexitarian and also reach to being a lacto-ovo vegan. First of all, I chose to donate to WFP because their strategic plan was absolutely trustworthy: “WFP works worldwide to ensure that no child goes to bed hungry and that the poorest and most vulnerable, particularly women and children, can access the nutritious food they need.” (WFP, Strategic Plan, para. 1) The reason why I strived to become a flexitarian to reach a lacto-ovo vegan is because I wanted to protect the environment by “reducing our ecological footprint, and this is probably the most effective step any individual can take” (Melina, V., & Davis, B. 2003, p.7).
The experience of donating was rewarding because it technically was my first time donating money to the people that needs help. This experience gradually changed and improved my lifestyle as well as my mind. Notably, my eating habits had changed. I started to prefer more leafy greens and the right supplements. I have been consuming nutritious seeds, vegan meats, high fibre and low saturated fat products. As a result, I witnessed internal and external changes within myself. My skin progressively started to glow and I have lost weight ever since I started to become vegan. Along with those changes, I learned how to save money. Since I was striving to become a vegan, I packed my food whenever I had to go out for a long time. I was not that productive, but felt responsible to be a positive contribution in alleviating world hunger. Throughout this experience, I felt ashamed of myself that even though I am a very blessed person, I tend to complain regardless of my fortunate surroundings. Feelings of shame conflicted me that millions of hungry children around the world without meeting basic nutrition, they still seemed happy. As soon as a tiny factor goes south, I started to complain regardless of the fact that I was not going to sleep hungry at night, living in a first-world country with endless amount of resources.
It was a definitely challenging using blogs effectively, thus I had to search and learn how to use the UBC blog. Blog posting was an enjoyable time and memorable.It was an eye-opening experience when reading articles about people suffering from hunger and posting them with my personal opinions attached to them. I did not know that “there are 795 million hungry people in the world and 98 percent of them are in developing countries” (Who are the hungry, 2015). It shocked me because it is equivalent to all of Canadians starving to death and millions more.
I definitely did not make a huge difference but the fifty dollar donation is helping people to consume their nutrition for the next three months. Ertharin Cousin, Executive director of WFP said “even one dollar can make a difference. We’re saying to people: For you it’s a dollar, for them it’s a lifeline” (JT, 2014). Moreover, I had helped motivate all others around me by blog posting, and this small change rapidly develops further success. I have created awareness to my friends in regards to the fact that becoming a vegetarian will stop acres of land being abused for raising cattle and how meat products affect the environment. Not only that, according to Michael Chatham (2014), even though there is enough food to feed every human being in the world, the plant-based food products such as crops are fed to livestock to produce animal-based food. He also stated that “In 2011, 883 million tons of corn, and 260 million tons of soybeans were grown globally. However, on average, 40-50% of that corn, and 80% of those soybeans are fed to farmed animals, rather than being eaten directly by humans” (Chatham, 2014, para. 5).
As with any task there are limitations to actions. My limitation was that it was not tangible enough because I could only know how the money is being used but not who it went to and how it helped them specifically. Another limitation that I faced was I do not know if my blog posts were viewed by others and initiated a different mindset towards their eating habits.
The most important thing I learned is that I am very glad that I now know several actions to prevent world hunger. Around the world, there are innumerable people that needs help and if we do not plan out any actions to prevent world hunger, there will be no future for our next generation. I am looking forward to making a further difference and will keep working towards being a vegan and planning to donate money or food once a year to food organization. As Ayres, B (2013) stated, purchasing a high product in sugar, fat, and salt canned food will lead people to have high cholesterol and high blood pressure, therefore it is better to ask organizations what types of food or supplements they need in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle to the people who depends on food drive.
References
Ayres, B. (2013, November 27). Ten Ways to End Hunger. Retrieved March 26, 2016, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-ayres/ten-ways-to-end-hunger_b_4351633.html
Chatham, M. (2014, September 1). Could Veganism End World Hunger? Retrieved March 27, 2016, from http://gentleworld.org/could-veganism-end-world-hunger/
JT. (2014, December 03). WFP launches aid appeal. Retrieved March 27, 2016, from http://www.jordantimes.com/news/local/wfp-launches-aid-appeal
Melina, V., & Davis, B. (2003). Becoming vegetarian: The complete guide to adopting a healthy vegetarian diet. Summertown, TN: Book Pub. Retrieved February 4, 2016, from https://books,google.ca/books/id=8YvTaNOTr6UC&printsec=copyright#v=onepage&q&f=false
Who are the hungry? | WFP | United Nations World Food Programme – Fighting Hunger Worldwide. (n.d.). Retrieved March 27, 2016, from http://www.wfp.org/hunger/who-are
“World Food Programme.” WFP. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2016 <http://www.wfp.org/>.