Time to Feel Some Guilt

None of us who heard our mothers admonish us to finish our spinach by reminding us of the “starving children of China” can but feel guilty when we waste food, even though some of us now leave food on our plates simply to save our figures.

But, during this coming week, proclaimed Hunger Week by the Orange County Board of Supervisors, perhaps it is a good idea to let the guilt jab at our consciences. The fact is, as mother said, there are starving children in many parts of the world. And even in an area as affluent as Orange County--where the median income tops $45,000--there are thousands of people who go to bed hungry every night.

Hunger Week is part of a larger program, including World Food Day on Monday, in which 140 countries will focus on hunger in observances sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. In Orange County, events will include food drives, school talks, fund-raising and other programs.

Finding a hungry person sometimes means looking only as far as next door. Nationwide, estimates are that a majority of adults aged 55 to 75 consume less than two-thirds of the nutrients they need to stay healthy, in many cases because they can’t get out to buy food or have no one who cares for them. And one-fifth of all American children are below the federal poverty level, according to the House Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families, with hunger a direct result of poverty.

America is spared the tragedy of massive starvation. And, while it had nothing to do with finishing spinach, so is China. But deadly hunger persists in Africa and parts of Central America, South America, India and Southeast Asia, according to the United Nations.

Up to 18 million people--three-fourths of them children under the age of 5--die of hunger each year, hunger agencies say. Only 10% of them die directly from lack of food, with the rest dying of illnesses that someone with enough food would easily survive.

It is good to focus on hunger, especially in Orange County, where this past year some services to the poor have been threatened by city councils responding to fears of some residents that the homeless will breed crime in their neighborhoods.

While understanding some of their concerns, we recognize those who do not complain. And we especially admire those who open their eyes to the needs of their neighbors and who commit themselves, during Hunger Week and all year long, to finding food for the hungry.