Mmmmm, food.  Wave a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken in my face, and I’ll follow you anywhere.  The same goes for Chinese Chicken Wings and Fried Rice.  And chocolate; we’d better not talk about chocolate because I could go on and on and on about chocolate.

There’s no doubt about it, food is one of life’s great pleasures.  Food is a double-edged sword, though.  Too much food can be bad for you, and lead to obesity and fat-clogged arteries.  Too little food can be just as bad for you, and lead to a wide variety of nutrient-deficient diseases and mental health problems.  Mental health problems?  Personally, I get very grumpy when I’m hungry.  If I couldn’t eat when I wanted to and what I wanted to eat, I’d be grumpy, surly and downright unpleasant all the time.

Did you know that in 2010, there were 14 million hungry children (out of 37 million Americans) in the U.S.A.?  In a country with so many millionaires and billionaires, that’s a shameful statistic.  The U.S.A. spends billions shipping food to other countries, while 37 million Americans are hungry because they don’t have enough to eat.  Although the food we ship to other countries wouldn’t be eaten by most Americans, stuff like powdered milk and eggs, in a country of wealth even one hungry American, adult or child, is one too many.

Since the economic downturn of 2008, millions of Americans are without jobs and programs for feeding the hungry have seen the number of people needing to be fed climb.  Add to this the fact that those who contributed money to these feeding programs are now unemployed themselves and unable to contribute to these feeding programs any longer, and you have an untenable situation.

Although the U.S.A. can find money to make war, give tax breaks to corporations and fund political campaigns, we don’t seem to be able to find the money to feed our hungry.

Something’s wrong.