Day 222: Took the Pledge to End Childhood Hunger

Share Our Strength has an aggressive but completely doable plan.  Their plan is to eradicate childhood hunger from America by the year 2015.  They intend to do that through 4 key fronts: break down barriers on the state level that keep kids from accessing healthy food, feeding kids in schools and at places of play, educating children and their parents about the importance of healthy and nutritious eating, and by creating awareness of the problem that is childhood hunger.  They have teamed up with Walmart, The Food Network, ConAgra Foods, and many other food stores, restaurants, and distributors in order to get the word out to as many people possible.  This week, as my wife and I participate in the Live Below the Line challenge, we have definitely gained an appreciation for how difficult it must be to not have access to food, let along healthy food.  We can only imagine what it would be like to have that problem as a child.  So today, for my random act of kindness, I took the No Kid Hungry Pledge to help end childhood hunger by the year 2015.  The pledge states: "I believe that no child in America should go hungry.  By pledging today, I add my voice to the national movement of people committed to ending childhood hunger in America by the year 2015."  If you would also like to take the pledge or learn more about the movement, you can do so here. 

Live Below The Line Update: Hi everyone!  This is Lindsey, Ryan's wife.  Although Ryan is usually the one to post on the blog, I wanted to take a few minutes to chime in with my feelings about this random act.  It has been 96 hours, and although the end is in sight (when I will be feasting on a delicious assortment of candy, greasy Papa Johns pizza, and MEAT), my stomach still aches for food.  There have been many emotions that Ryan and I have both felt, but the feeling that has never disappeared is the emptiness in my stomach.  Since the first day, I noticed a huge craving to eat everything in sight.  Part of the problem with doing this random act and not actually being a person who lives "below the line" everyday, is although we purchased our groceries ahead of time, we still have many snacks, beverages, and other delicious goodies to eat in our house on a normal basis.  So each day when I go to the fridge to grab a glass of water, or a hard-boiled egg, I look up and see the bag of Birthday Cake Oreos staring back at me. I don't mean to be humorous on this random act because it is sad to think that although we are only doing this for 5 days, to many, this is their reality day in, day out.  It makes me realize how lucky and blessed my family and friends are to have the luxury of putting spices in our food, or the option of grabbing any snack at the grocery store without worrying about what it costs.  I have never had to budget the amount of food I have eaten this closely. Of course, there have been times where I don't get the filet mignon at the grocery store because it's not on sale, but then again I have never hesitated at buying a bag of chips or candy.  What I've learned from this experience is that we are blessed so much and should never take anything that we have for granted.