A celebration of food...for the hungry

You don't need to open a newspaper or hop online to know that food prices have been rising incredibly this year. I'm sure everyone has noticed the difference at the supermarket and your favorite restaurants. Heck, even McDonald's will likely be increasing the price of its Dollar Menu.

I love food, and I have definitely felt the pinch. I bemoan how expensive even simple things like milk and bread have become. But despite the fact that food is taking up a bigger portion of my paycheck, it still is not having a tremendous impact on my life. I have not had to go hungry or decide between food and rent.

However, many people are - both here in the US and around the world. What is an annoyance to me is becoming a matter of survival for so many others.

This started to dawn on me when I heard a few months ago from one of my favorite charities, Mayan Families, that the price of corn had become too high for indigenous families in Guatemala to bear. And when I was in Mexico last month, the top news story was that the price of tortillas was going up.

Guatemala has one of the highest childhood malnutrition rates in the world...and that's before the current food crisis. Many of the children that Mayan Families helps subsist on tortillas and salt, and some do not even eat every day. It's hard to fathom what the food price explosion is now doing to their lives.

Here in the US, there are many - the elderly, the sick, the working poor - who are being severely impacted by the crisis. To add to the perfect storm, donations from companies and individuals have slowed down because of the difficult economic times. So when food pantries are most needed, their shelves are often empty.

In order to draw attention to the crucial issue of hunger, both locally and around the world, I am going to have a Celebration of Food this week on my blog, Gonna Make a Change.

I will be writing some articles about my favorite food experiences, and I will feature a guest blogger or two who will also tempt your tastebuds.

If you like what you read, I ask you to please consider making a donation to your favorite hunger-related charity. The Web makes it so easy to give donations of any size, and you usually can get your receipt for tax purposes within minutes.

I also invite you to spread the word about your charity of choice by leaving its name and URL in a comment. Feel free to explain why it is important to you. If you've got a story to tell, let me know, and I may do a feature on it in a later post!

Now I'm going to go and make a donation to my two favorites, Mayan Families and Community FoodBank of New Jersey.

I'm looking forward to taking you on my food journey starting tomorrow!