This is my friend Joseph and his wife, Robinah. They live in Northern Uganda, where not only are they helping people resettle after living in IDP camps after the Kony resistance, they are also helping farmers learn how to adapt to changing weather, or climate change. They are making a real difference in the fight against hunger. In the photo above, we are visiting Lake Michigan – it was Robinah’s first time to the U.S.
When people like Joseph and Robinah come to the U.S. to visit with donors, they stay at a duplex that a donor has graciously given to the organization for which I work. We try to keep it stocked with items they might need like soaps, towels, etc. When I heard about Unilever’s Making Life Better initiative, I was inspired to do a little shopping of my own in order to purchase some Unilever brand shelf-stable foods that could be used by workers visiting the duplex, in case they didn’t have time to shop or found themselves hungry in the middle of the night, which can sometimes happen after traveling several time zones!
I mentioned this campaign in a blog post last week, Making the Connection Between Sustainability and Hunger. I love how Unilever promotes sustainability, which according to them includes improving health and well-being, reducing environmental impact, and enhancing livelihoods. They are not as far along as a company on the sustainability spectrum as some of the other companies out there, but I appreciate that they are making the effort. Just as every one of us is on a spectrum. Not everyone can afford to grow their own food or eat only grassfed beef. In fact, when I went on the shopping spree, I was shocked at the low prices.
I decided to budget $50 to spend on items for the duplex, but only ended up spending $35. And I got this entire bag full of pasta, pasta sauce, soup, and rice/noodle side dishes.
Because of my work, I tend to focus on international hunger and don’t really think about domestic hunger. But this exercise in shopping made it seem more real. It reminded me of a time when Cup a Soup was all I could afford for dinner. It reminded me of when I used to volunteer at a food pantry, and this was exactly the kind of thing that we stocked on our shelves. Which is why I’m glad the company that makes a lot of these products is partnering with Feeding America to Cross Off Hunger.
I’ve been inspired to think more about local hunger, and to get involved with the organizations in my community that are making a difference.
Of course, if you think about it, living more sustainably here does help international hunger too – anything we can do to help climate change from getting worse will help the farmers overseas. And in that spirit, I took the “leftover” money that I had planned to spend on food and purchased a stove for a woman in Senegal through the World Renew gift guide.
I think Unilever would approve 🙂
Disclosure: I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Unilever #CBias #SocialFabric. All opinions are my own.
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