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Did you know? National Hunger Awareness Day for 2005 is Tuesday, June 7th.

This day marks an opportunity for the diverse array of non-profit organizations, religious congregations, committed public officials, individual citizens and the media to unify their efforts and bring attention and increased awareness to the lasting problems of hunger and food insecurity that afflict 35 million Americans.

If he was still with us, my dad would be first in line to take advantage of these opportunities. In our "if it bleeds, it leads," media age — when subtler, long-term issues have a hard time earning their 90 second spot on the evening news when they have to compete with the latest murder or celebrity scandal — Harry would be working the angle of the "Day" to get heard through whatever media outlet would have him. Then, he would use his loud, urgent voice and rapid-fire delivery to chide us all for designating only a day to the "ultimate obscenity:" the hunger afflicting 12 percent of us here in the richest, most powerful country in the world.

As many people know, WHY (World Hunger Year) was named by Harry and co-founder Bill Ayres directly in response to this phenomenon; this "event psychosis" that has our information-clogged brains give a year or a day to such immense concerns as women, children, the earth, AIDS, etc.

"So which year is World Hunger Year?" people would ask. Every year is World Hunger Year! — until we bring hunger to an end. It drove Harry and Bill crazy that people would get worked up and self-congratulatory about a day, or a year, or a star-studded benefit, and then be back to business as usual. And yet of course these events — these markings of time — are essential.

National Hunger Awareness Day is a rallying cry, a media angle, an immediate excuse for us to get moving. On the official website of the day, www.hungerday.org/content/index.php, resources are made available for individuals and groups to get involved on a local level, to contact their elected officials, to donate funds, etc. Hopefully the effort will break through this year as never before, and this won't be the first and last time you hear about June 7th.

So what about when the Day is over? Over the years, the excellent staff and volunteers at WHY have learned that hunger is not simply the result of any one cause or catastrophe. Instead, hunger is the tragedy that results from any combination of complex forces and situations. In the extreme cases of famine and long-term malnutrition that we hear about in the international news, hunger can be caused by war, genocide, disease, environmental degradation, lack of access to land, natural catastrophe, and so on. These are the large forces that overwhelm us with a sense of inevitability and the feeling that nothing can be done. Yet when we look behind the TV sound bytes we see that hunger often all comes back to what our friend and fellow activist Frankie Moore LappŽ calls "a scarcity of democracy." We do know that hunger is never really caused by a scarcity of food. And we know that we all have a stake in democracy.

Closer to home, hunger can take the perverse form of a teenager suffering from Type II diabetes because she lives surrounded by miles of fast food joints, or an elderly man living off dog food when his Social Security check leaves no resources left for something more, or the wife of a National Guardsman serving two terms in Iraq who finds her family savings depleted and her cupboard empty of anything nutritious for her kids.

Here we know that the hunger presents an invisible and devastating indictment of our national priorities. In the U.S., hunger is caused by housing and heath care costs that continue to explode despite stagnant wages, by unemployment, by inadequate education, by an agricultural system that sacrifices local food security, small farmer livelihoods and environmental integrity to senseless subsidies and merciless economies of scale, and so on. These are all tough issues, but they are issues that we have a stake in learning about and helping to solve.

Aside from the volunteer work we do in our local food pantry, youth group or park, and aside from the generous charitable contributions that so many of us commit to, we all make small decisions every day that combine to make a big impact. When we recycle and reduce waste, when we seek out diverse sources of information (stop watching the TV news — it is poisoning your brain!), when we mentor a child, when we insure that an employee is paid a living wage — we are recognizing the connection of our lives to those of others and helping to end hunger and poverty.

Below are some more ideas to make every day "Hunger Awareness Day".

Jen Chapin is Chair of WHY's Board of Directors.Ê You can visit her website at http://www.jenchapin.com

Get Active: Fight Hunger & Poverty in Your Neighborhood

WHY encourages you to become part of the solution to hunger and poverty in your community. You can make a difference, and here's how you can get started as an active part of the anti-poverty movement.

Learn about the issues. What is food security? What are the benefits of joining a community garden? How do you improve your school lunch program? How do you find a local farmer's market? How does the government help the hungry? How do you ensure healthy food for you and your family? You can learn about these issues through WHY's Food Security Learning Center, located at www.worldhungeryear.org.
Take a stand. WHY Speaks, our online magazine, brings you our responses to topical issues and events with our underlying goal of ending hunger and poverty by building self-reliance. Write to your elected officials or newspaper and make your voice heard.
Educate and involve children in searching for solutions to hunger and poverty. WHY's KIDS Can Make a Difference (www.kidscanmakeadifference.org) is an educational program that helps middle school and high school students understand the root causes of hunger and poverty, and inspires them to take action.
Identify the problems, organize your community, and fight for change! Learn from WHY's Reinvesting In America model organizations how to create change in your community from the grassroots up.
Channel your creative talents. WHY forges relationships between artists and grassroots organizations to raise funds and public awareness. We make it easy for artists to support social causes by matching them with our network organizations. Artists can join our network by emailing artists@worldhungeryear.org.
Give your time. WHY's National Hunger Clearinghouse connects you to thousands of organizations in the United States that are working on hunger, poverty, nutrition, and agriculture. Whether you are looking for volunteer opportunities, places to donate food or other information about programs in your area, we can help you get started.
Shop with your conscience. You can add extra meaning to your gift by supporting community-based organizations that are empowering people and fighting poverty. There are numerous non-profit organizations that operate small businesses and enterprises that create jobs, develop community wealth, and offer unique job training opportunities. WHY has a convenient list available online called Gifts with Meaning.
Introduce a teacher to Solutions to Hunger: KIDS Can Make A Difference. The guide, developed by WHY board member and teacher Stephanie Kempf, contains many of the activities and information used with the classes taught by KIDS teachers. The lessons are designed to be incorporated into many subject areas.
Make a donation to WHY. Your contribution helps WHY continue to fight the root causes of hunger and poverty. Every bit helps! Click on World Hunger Year to make an instant donation.
Special thanks to WHY and Anna Lappe at the Small Planet Institute for the above suggestions.

10 Ways To Make a Difference