You can find another e-mail from the people at Food Democracy Now below. This one deals with Thanksgiving and childhood hunger, accordingly. Give it a read and if you are compelled to take some action, then go for it!

Happy Thanksgiving, Friends –

Here at Food Democracy Now! we wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving. We all have a lot to be thankful for this time of year and believe it’s important to take time to honor the incredible work that America’s family farmers do each day, rising early and working late to help put healthy, safe and nutritious food on our tables.

More importantly, we wanted to take a moment to stand up for those that are less fortunate and cannot provide for themselves at this time.

A recent report by the USDA found that 1 in 4 children in America are now on the brink of hunger. This is a sad and sobering statistic: to think that in the “land of opportunity” any child would go hungry, let alone more than 16.7 million.1

Tell your Senator that no child in America should go hungry, that they need to act today.
Fortunately, for America’s needy children Senator Gillibrand (D-NY) recently introduced important legislation to protect and prevent children from going hungry called The Access to Nutritious Meals for Young Children Act (S.2749). If passed, this bill will improve children’s access to healthy meals in child care centers, family child care homes, and Head Start and Early Head Start programs.2

Consider this…

A recent USDA report found that 14.6% of U.S. households, or some 49 million – 1 in 7 Americans – suffered from going hungry at some point in the year 2008, a significant increase from 2007. In 2008 the number of children going hungry in the U.S. reached a record 16.7 million – or 22.5%. That’s 4.3 million more than in 2007.3

Experts believe that the number of Americans experiencing “food insecurity” will climb steadily in 2009 as hard economic times and unemployment continues in the near future.
Help protect those who need it most – our children – by sending this letter to your Senators.

Today, we are also most thankful for you, our community of supporters at Food Democracy Now!. Thank you for joining us and using your voice to create a more just and sustainable food system for future generations that supports us all.

Have a Healthy and Enjoyable Thanksgiving!

Sustainably yours,
Dave Lisa and The Food Democracy Now! Team

If you’d like to see our grassroots work continue, please consider donating as little as $10 to Food Democracy Now! http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/25?akid=46.18844.F285wT&t=1 Thanks for your support!

P.S. We’d also like to take a moment to thanks some of the great organizations that are making sustainable change happen on the ground that we’ve worked with over the past year, including: Farm Aid, Food & Water Watch, Institute of Agriculture and Trade Policy, National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, National Family Farm Coalition, The Center for Food Safety, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, The Land Institute, Organic Farming Research Foundation, Organic Valley, Organic Consumers Association, the Cornacopia Institute, Pesticide Action Network, Roots of Change, Slow Food, Food, Inc., Food Fight, King Corn, Big River, and all the family farmers and sustainable food advocates we’ve met along the way.

Sources:

1. 1 in 7 Americans Went Hungry in 2008, CBS News, Nov. 16, 2009
http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/83?akid=46.18844.F285wT&t=1

2. Gillibrand Introduces Legislation To Improve Nutrition For Young Children, Press Release Senator Gillibrand, Nov. 11, 2009
http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/84?akid=46.18844.F285wT&t=1

3. USDA: Number of Americans going hungry increases, Associated Press, Nov. 16, 2009
http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/85?akid=46.18844.F285wT&t=1

Enjoy the rest of your holiday!