Recipe for Hope: Responding to the Hunger Crisis, Week #3

From Bread for the World's Recipe for Hope action event. Here is the third installment:
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Ingredient for Despair: The Weather Connection

Environmental degradation and climate change are already having far-reaching effects on food production, particularly in tropical regions of Africa, Latin America, and India. In Africa's Sahel, warmer and drier conditions have led to a shorter growing season. Receding Himalayan glaciers in India mean more floods in the monsoon season and more water shortages in the dry season.

But we can’t simply blame the weather—even extreme weather conditions like Australia’s continuing drought. Australia is one of the world’s top wheat exporters, and the drought has reduced its production by 98 percent in the past six years. However, more than 90 percent of the world’s wheat crop is produced elsewhere.

For more on this, download Bread for the World's June Background Paper: Responding to the Global Hunger Crisis.

Ingredients for Hope:

Our Recipe for Hope has two components—something you can do; and something you can say to our nation’s leaders.
Flood your local food bank with canned and boxed food contributions. With more people seeking help from food banks, shelves are being emptied quickly. Locate a food-rescue organization that serves your local community through America's Second Harvest: The Nation's Food Bank Network.

The local Web sites often provide lists of most-needed items, guidance on holding food drives, and drop-off information. If you don't find the information you need online, you will also get contact emails and local phone numbers for assistance.

Write to Congress:
Urge your members of Congress to include an additional $1.8 billion in the supplemental appropriations bill to help address this hunger crisis. Send an email to Congress. Send an email to Congress.