USA (MNN) — Every seven seconds, a child dies from hunger-related causes. Many kids look for food all day long, only to go to bed hungry. They fear never feeling full again. It's believed that one third of the world's population is affected by the global food crisis.
That's why Compassion International has set aside March 11th to talk about the issue. Compassion's President Wes Stafford says they're teaming up with radio stations around the United States and the world to raise money to feed children. He says the situation is desperate. "This is one of the first times we've ever had a famine/food issue that actually is international."
Stafford says, "Two thirds of our world live on about $2 a day. And they spend about 80-percent of that $2 on food. And in the last six months, the price of food has gone up. It has almost doubled."
Children in the third world have never had three meals. They're now down to MAYBE one a day. Stafford says, "That one meal is down to no meat in that soup. No vegetables in that soup. They are warming up water, putting a little salt in it, and feeding it to their children because it kind of tastes like food and it kind of feels like food," but it has no nutritional value.
In Haiti, they're serving cookies made out of mud. "This is how desperate the poor are right now. I've never seen this in three decades of working with the poor," says Stafford.
The Global Food Crisis Day March 11 has one purpose — to raise money to feed those in need. The money raised is sent to their 5,000-church network. Stafford says, "These are funds that we can transfer straight through to that little local church, into the local economy, so they can buy food locally, stimulate the economy, and get food to feed children."
$13 helps a child for an entire month. $39 helps three children. $78 helps six children. Since food is distributed through the local church, Stafford says, kids are turning to Christ. "Over 46,000 children accepted Christ as their Savior in the last three months. Last year in Compassion, it was 184,000. Our job then is to disciple them into their full God-given potential."
Encourage your local radio station to participate in Global Food Crisis Day. If they're not, click here to help.
