As a child I was made to eat everything on my plate and was told that wasting food was affecting the starving children in China. Today, sadly to say, my family and many other Canadians have forgotten the need to avoid food waste and more importantly have turned our eyes away from starvation in other parts of the world. In fact, in the last few years while severe drought has ravaged the eastern part of the African continent, we have been focused on Covid, the war in the Ukraine and inflation to the detriment of millions of people who have suffered and died without mention in our press.
According to the Humanitarian Coalition, 25,000 people are dying per day in Africa as a result of starvation. This means every 2 days, more people die of starvation in Africa than the number of people whose deaths have been attributed to Covid in Canada over 2 years. Yet if you were to listen to the CBC (Covid Broadcasting Corporation) one might think that Covid was indeed still the number one world issue affecting the earth and especially the Canadian population.
Canada’s response to world hunger and this famine has been dismal. In May Harjit S. Sajjan, Minister of International Development announced 68 Million dollars of Funding to Rwanda and Kenya, of which only $6 million dollars was earmarked for humanitarian crisis funding and the majority of the funding $37 million was allocated to promoting women in business. Compare the $6 million dollars that may help with providing food to the $1 Billion dollars that Canada has committed to the conflict in the Ukraine, much of which is allocated to military support and artillery. According to the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Office, $500 million dollars has been deployed this year to the Ukrainian crisis, $73 million of which is allocated to water, sanitation and food, significantly more than is being allocated to providing relief and long term solutions to starving Africans.
So what can we do as Canadians?
1. Reach out to your MP and ask them to petition the government to do more to support the crisis in Africa.
2. Open your wallet and make a donation to feed the hungry in Africa at this time.
https://www.humanitariancoalition.ca/hunger-crisis.
3. Ask your local media to do a story to spread the message about the acute disaster
facing millions of people at this time.
4. Watch your own food waste. According to Love Food Hate Waste, the average
Canadian family throws out 140 kg of food each year.
Starvation in Africa is real and the consequences are dire. It's time that Canada wakes up and does more to recognize that our brothers and sisters are starving and we are sitting by and
ignoring their plight.
Dave Fuller, MBA is an Award Winning Business Coach and the author of the book Profit Yourself Health. Comments? Email dave@pivotleader.com
https://www.humanitariancoalition.ca/hunger-crisis
https://www.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/news/2022/05/minister-sajjan-announces-68-million-in-international-assistance-funding-on-trip-to-rwanda-and-kenya.html
https://pm.gc.ca/en/news/backgrounders/2022/06/28/additional-canadian-support-ukraine-
announced-2022-g7-summit
https://lovefoodhatewaste.ca/about/food-waste/