Food for all
In my third year of college, our public health class was taken on a brief tour of an overcrowded government hospital. One moment that clearly stands out in my memory is of a man sitting on the edge of a narrow plant box beneath two hospital windows. He looked famished and was digging through a plastic bag with his bare hands that contained a meager portion of rice. He was likely a relative of a patient or perhaps a patient himself, waiting in line for a consultation or hoping to visit someone who had been admitted. The air was thick with an odor unmistakably associated with poverty. When I returned home, I broke down in front of my sibling, struggling to explain how difficult it was to witness such a scene and the injustice of it all. It wasn’t as if it was a first-time experience. It just hit me hard.
He was about to eat his lunch but quickly stood up to acknowledge my presence. His child was recently diagnosed with measles. As I glanced at his makeshift table, I noticed that his meal consisted of just two small plastic bags of rice. This triggered the core memory from college so vividly that I had to excuse myself and rushed out of the ward before he could see, worried that he might misinterpret the reason for my tears.
These memories are almost two decades old and the situation just seems to have gotten worse. People still go hungry. The tears still come, but this time, minus the helplessness or the guilt because there are ways to address the problem, even in a personal capacity, if one wills it.
After reviewing the most recent Social Weather Stations survey and the 2024 Global Hunger Index report, which indicates that our country has a moderate hunger level of 14.4, I was starved and eager to hear some good news. The optimism I felt didn’t come from press releases about the return of budget allocations for social welfare services and education. Instead, it stemmed from two developments: first, reading about an assurance from the finance secretary that funds allocated for local government units would be delivered, and second, over dinner, gaining a deeper understanding of the power of creating cooperatives courtesy of a friend’s advocacy. While I don’t claim to be an expert in business or economics, I recognize my strengths and place in this discussion. What follows is an attempt to encourage reflection on our collective responsibilities in the present.
While the first half of the earlier remark may face criticism knowing fully well how rampant corruption is, I want to emphasize that we shouldn’t generalize, as there are still individuals who genuinely care about uplifting their communities. I have reason to be optimistic. To illustrate, last year in a health forum, wherein we were tasked to share our best practices from public and private partnerships in increasing immunization coverage rates, a female mayor from a province shared how they had successfully pooled their resources and enacted policies to ensure that her constituents were well provided for and targets would be met. Maybe we could use her program as a template for addressing food insecurity.
So how can we help alleviate hunger?
Seeking to find answers, I came across a blog by Gray Group International, which provided insights into 10 strategies to end hunger. What leaped out of that page was eliminating food waste. According to the article, about “40 percent of nutritious food worldwide is squandered,“ contributing significantly to the problem. Furthermore, efforts to reduce food wastage could be a means by which global hunger can be eradicated and ecological sustainability espoused.
The listed instructions and suggestions are quite easy to follow.
Plan your meals strategically by purchasing only the necessary items to reduce the chances of spoilage. Properly store food, contribute or share any extra food, utilize leftovers for future meals, and compost uneaten food instead of throwing it away. Reflecting on this, a childhood memory comes to mind. During a spiritual school retreat with the Paulinian sisters, they demonstrated these ideas in practice. Our leftovers were creatively transformed into our afternoon snacks which were not only delicious but also imaginative. Looking back, they may have pioneered fusion cuisine by incorporating noodles and fruit peelings into our rice cakes. Nothing was wasted, and rightfully so.
Your parents may on occasion have mentioned, and for some, may have repeatedly reminded you to make sure that you clean your plate and partake only of what you can consume. Other people may not be as fortunate to have three square meals a day. As children, we had very little understanding of how our inability to do so could impact another individual. Now that we know better, let us please do our share in making sure that there is enough food to go around.
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timmygimenez@gmail.com
