Take your power into your hands and start an action

We sell California on the sunshine, the ocean, the golden opportunities and the glamor. But we also strive to achieve all these selling points, to prove it. Even the people born and raised here can be caught up in the selling points and turn a blind eye to situations that go against the California dream.  It's time to take the power YOU have and take action.

I live in California, a state that can feed the entire nation at full production. As it is California provides over half of the nation's food with the strength of 1.1 million farmworkers. The irony is which many organizations such as Oxfam's program Sisters on the Planet (see my post -925 million hungry) points out the very people who grow, tend, harvest and pack our food to be sold are oftentimes the ones who are hungry. Do you know how many people in the US are hungry at this moment, all this year? Nearly 50 million out of the 925 million worldwide. The US where we waste nearly a 1/3 of our food has 50 million hungry people (for more information please visit http://feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/hunger-facts/hunger-and-poverty-statistics.aspx.

Hunger is about inequality. Hunger is infuriating to think about. We have food rotting in warehouses, in your local grocery store, in your house, we have food sitting in our own yards going uneaten when a mile or two or 10 away there is a shelter wondering if they will have enough food to feed the homeless Sunday morning.

Isn't this insane? Isn't this stupid? We say many things and yes, people are stupid but the hunger problem worldwide is stupid. Politics and economy (prices for commodity crops could go sky-high meaning a country or two will not be able to afford it; meaning more hunger) and greed and complacency keep people hungry.

So take the power you have and take action. The founder for Food Forward (foodforward.org) began his organization with the help of two friends and one neighbor's tangerine tree. In 2009, in one day from that one tree they picked 85 pounds of tangerines eventually picking over 800 pounds from that one yard. About three months later Food Forward was created, and today they have picked and gathered 393,011 pounds of food that would have lain in people's yards and served it to the hungry.

Please visit this organization for more information: http://foodforward.org/about/.

It is tax-deductible to participate. If you live in California and have some fruit trees with more fruit than you know what to do with, you can contact them for a Food Forward member to come and gather fruit/vegetables from your yard which will be distributed to local food kitchens/pantries. Of course if you only have one tree with about 12 apples on it...and don't want it...take it to work?

A solution literally sits in your yard. A solution to a problem, any problem that may concern you could possibly be sitting in your yard, in your garage, in your voice. Take that strength of yours and apply it for some good. And in my first opportunity to use some Latin here: Carpe Diem  :)