Sandpoint residents issue invitation to 'feel the hunger'
Eric Rust, center, with Chris Bessler and Ian Bannister each hold a half-cup of rice in their hands — what they’re intending to limit their food to for “Feel the Hunger” Day on Dec. 8. They hope others will join in the local initiative to raise awareness of world hunger, by signing on at www.feelthehunger.org. (Courtesy photo)
Editor’s note: This is the first of three stories about a local initiative, Feel the Hunger Day, to raise awareness of world hunger.
SANDPOINT — While we’re digging into turkeys on Thanksgiving, it is easy to forget that much of the world lives in hunger. As we prepare to eat more than ever during the holiday season, it seems hard to believe that nearly one billion people — one in every seven people on Earth — are actually starving, according to the United Nations’ World Food Program. Can any of us really imagine what it would be like to feel this kind of hunger?
Eric Rust, pastor at Cedar Hills Church in Sandpoint, believes it is not enough to read a sheet of statistics or look at pictures — we need to really feel this hunger to be truly aware of it. That’s why he decided to organize a “Feel the Hunger Day.” On Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2010, Rust will be inviting people to experience for themselves the hunger that much of the world feels every day, by eating just half a cup of rice all day — approximately the amount of food that Convoy of Hope, an international hunger relief organization, calculates the world’s hungry have to eat on any given day.
“We have an initiative at Cedar Hills inviting families to donate a day’s income to those in need, but I wanted people to feel more than that, to be emotionally involved,” says Rust. “Feel the Hunger Day is better than statistics or pictures. Participants will actually experience the hunger that a billion people feel every day.”
Sandpoint residents taking part in Feel the Hunger Day may still eat as a family, cooking their half cups of rice together. Each participant will eat half a cup of uncooked rice, which means a little more than a cup of cooked rice per person. At other times during the day when they would normally be sitting down to eat, Rust hopes that those who are going hungry for this worthy cause will take the time to pray, or simply to pause, think and reflect.
“At this time of year it’s good to look outwards, to slow down a bit and sacrifice a little something for others,” says Rust.
All members of the community are invited to take part, and enthusiasm for the initiative is already growing. Sandpoint local Chris Bessler, a keen supporter of Feel the Hunger Day, says: “The idea sparked this immediate ‘Yeah, I’m on board’ reaction. For me, doing one day on half a cup of rice is a way to be mindful that an awful lot of people are hungry every single day. Maybe it’s just symbolic, but being mindful is the first step in resolving to do something to help.”
Another Sandpoint resident, Ian Bannister, witnessed hunger firsthand growing up in Africa but agrees that seeing something is different than actually experiencing it.
“Despite living in Malawi for many years, I have never actually felt extreme hunger myself,” he says. “We can all too easily forget what these people are going through as we go about our daily lives, and Feel the Hunger Day is a great way to remind ourselves.”
Those taking part on Dec. 8 will be able to add their names to a list of participants online, and blog about their thoughts and feelings on Facebook as the day goes on.
“On Feel the Hunger Day many people in Sandpoint will go to bed hungry, looking forward to food the next day,” says Rust. “And they will hopefully be inspired to do something to help fight hunger.”
A staggering fact is that 925 million people in the world do not have enough to eat — that’s more than the populations of the United States, Canada and the European Union put together, according to a news release published in September by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. And while 98 percent of these people live in developing countries, you don’t need to travel to a different country to help — there are many ways in which you can join the fight against hunger locally (there are hungry people in America, too). Why not donate some food items to a local food bank, or support one of the many organizations that help fight hunger worldwide?
As Rust says, “It’s only one day! You can do this — sign up, invite your friends to do the same, and feel the hunger.”
Information: www.feelthehunger.org.