Feed me!

I ate one meal today.  And that meal was sushi.  Two hours worth of sushi.

Delicious mango-topped yam rolls

Banana tempura with chocolate coating

I find food insecurity very alarming.  I've never really had to deal with it.  Even growing up relatively poor, we always managed an adequate food supply.  Even now as a poor student, I eat very well.  I even eat out sometimes.  I can even afford to spend more for some items to cater to ideology and philosophy: some vegan alternatives aren't cheap.

I got to live in Vancouver for a year, though, and there I got to see homeless people everywhere.  Some may collect enough money to secure themselves, but others obviously could not.  There were those who you'd find sleeping on church steps and were too out of it to try to collect from you.  Some are too consumed by drug addiction to properly care for themselves.  The problem is very visible in Vancouver, more so than in Toronto or any other city I've lived.  I was slightly relieved that I didn't have the constant visual reminder when I moved to Dunedin, New Zealand, but I've never forgotten. 

It's not that much, but one activity I enjoy that helps in theory is Meal Exchange's Trick or Eat programme.  I shared a photo from Halloween night where I was Trick or Eating with friends.  It's a lovely programme where typically University students maraud around town in groups, terrorising poor residents until they cough up all the non-perishable foods they can reasonably surrender before we proceed to our next victims.  (We have a time frame for our looting, you know.)  Guelph consistently raises the most donations in the country, which always makes me a little proud of my University community, and we even had by far the most participants.

The collected food goes to the local food bank.  I'm really grateful for community services like food banks.   I fear that they may not run optimally, with the people who need them not having the greatest access to them.  I often hear about services relevant to me very late.  I wonder how people in more pitiable situations fare?

I'd also like to think that lowering dependence on meat in diets might help food security, as given a kilogram of meat, you could alternatively produce several more kilograms of plant matter, but I can't really say.  Meatless diets have their own complexity for maintaining health, but I've been faring well (hooray for my personal physiology).  Anyway, I know I'm quite fortunate to be able to enjoy sushi with friends, and I hope serious suffering from hunger can be eliminated within the next few generations.  Cheerio!

I'm on an edamame boat!