Did you know that $40 can feed a family in a country such as
Ethiopia for a month?
Last weekend my husband and his youth group at church did
the World Vision 40 hour famine. The group that did it went really well and raised lots of
money for World Vision to go to those in poorer counties who often
don’t know when their next meal is coming from. My poor husband had forgotten that we were meeting friends for a buffet breakfast at the Novatel in Canberra and had to survive watching us eat all sorts of yummy breakfast foods while he famined.
After seeing what the group did and watching some of the
promotional videos for the 40 hour famine I have been moved to do something to
raise money for World Vision myself.
Seeing my husband stop eating for 40 hours
without any real difficulty made me think about how much of the food we eat is unnecessary.
So many times I reach for a snack when I am not hungry and I treat myself with
food that I really don’t need. We are
always talking about how bad eating junk food is for our waistlines but this
has also got me thinking that it is such a terrible waste of our money.
I had a little think about how much money I would spend per
week on this like chips and chocolate. I don’t actually buy it every week but I
am likely to spend about $2 a week on average on snacks to treat myself. I
mostly enjoy eating these things but I am never hungry when I am eating them
and I often just keep eating because they are there, sometimes making myself
feel sick. I know lots of us do it, but when you think about it in light of
people who are starving to death it makes you realise what a luxury it is for
us to be able to gorge ourselves until we are sick on food we don’t need.
| I love it...I'm willing to give it up to feed a hungry family |
As kids we would always laugh at our mums when they said there
were starving people in Africa when we wouldn’t finish our dinner. “Just send
this over to them” we would joke. Of course this is not possible, but what if
we sent the money we didn’t spend on food we didn’t need?
I have decided that instead of wasting my money on pouring empty
calories into my body I am going to stop buying chips and chocolates and
instead put $2 a week into a jar. I know that $2 a week really isn’t much but
it is a start.
So starting from this week I am going to try to do it for a
year and donate the money I collect to the 40 hour famine next year.
Do you ever feel like problem is too big? Try doing something small.
 |
| Linking up with Jess from Diary of a SAHM for #IBOT |
