One, two,
three, four, five, six!
Someone’s hungry in the mix.
One in six has an empty plate.
One in six has a belly ache.
One in six cannot concentrate
Due to inadequate food intake.
Hunger in America is reality,
Not confined to pockets of society
And not quarantined in certain neighborhoods.
Multitudes have limited access to food goods,
Not just the homeless and those out of work,
But in every strata of society, hunger lurks.
Because of food insecurity,
Meals are eaten with great irregularity.
Hard-working adults, children, and seniors who simply cannot make ends meet
Are forced to go without food for several meals, days, or even weeks.
Some elderly lack access to food due to no transportation,
While others can’t prepare food because of physical limitation.
Still others are so frail they need help to be fed,
And they hope that by compassion someone would be led
To come meet their need,
That someone would have the heart to feed
The hungry,
And that the cause of the famished would take priority in this country.
The hungry lack money, means or resource to acquire food.
This leaves hungry as their constant mood.
And their bodies feel the uneasy and painful sensation hunger brings,
That, along with so many other detrimental things.
The immune response of the hungry is adversely affected.
They are among those most commonly infected
With all manner of bacteria, virus, and disease,
Making an open door to infect the general population with ease.
In children, hunger limits cognitive and behavioral development.
Hunger steals a child’s future mental health and academic achievement.
Hunger inhibits a child’s ability to grow and learn
And restrains what they, even as adults, can earn.
Hunger eats away a child’s future economic productivity,
Which becomes a drain to our national prosperity.
Hunger causes fatigue and irritability.
Hunger is known to be a culprit behind despondency.
Hunger gives a rise in criminality,
Which brings hurt, harm, and danger to every community.
In the elder population, hunger promotes senility.
Hunger eats away their strength and usurps their vitality.
Poor nutrition leads to increased vulnerability,
Which becomes more critical for those with disability.
In addition to children and elderly, there are so many more
In need of food among the desperately poor.
The number of people abound who are in abject poverty,
As the culture of America is one of inequality.
Between the haves and have not is a great divide.
The gap between the wealthy and the forgotten increasingly opens wide.
The working class, for their labor, receives so little pay.
The little money they may have is quickly taken away.
The minimum wage level is not gauged to inflation
And is used by businesses as a form of oppression.
The top echelon of business has the power to allocate the profits of enterprise.
And yet they allocated these profits to themselves -- to others’ demise.
Corporations and the rich lobby Congress and establish their priorities,
Including tax breaks, bailouts, and even subsidies,
While not generating enough jobs to employ everyone.
Sending American jobs overseas is what they’ve typically done.
They let hunger grow in America even more
While turning a blind eye to America’s burgeoning poor.
Work-support services, including flexible and affordable child care
And public transportation are less available everywhere.
So the few jobs offered become harder to keep.
One job lost means many won’t eat:
Making it hard for me to understand how the full can go to sleep.
The health and medical needs of the hungry are compromised.
The hungry, as a group, are the new disenfranchised.
Hunger in America today is nothing but a pawn in Washington power politics.
Those with food fail to realize that hunger in America makes each one of us sick.
The poor are always with us, that is just the truth.
But is that reason not to take hold of Poverty and pull out hunger as its tooth?
Hunger is like an uncontrolled cancer that will eventually kill its host.
Knowing we could have cured ourselves is what hurts the most.
We produce more than enough food in America to feed every man, woman, and child.
Yet half of it is thrown away, and that is putting it mild.
We must lobby Congress to address poverty and its consequences no matter how futile that may seem.
And bring hunger relief to the forefront of the political scene.
But if we can’t count on Congress to do the right thing,
Then we as a people need to be the ones to bring
About hunger relief.
We as a people, working together, can eradicate hunger is my firm belief.
Hunger is my problem, and it’s your problem too.
There is something each and every one of us can do.
We must engage communities in helping care for one another.
We need to see each and every hungry person as our brother
And as our individual responsibility.
For each of us, this means advocacy
And coalition
To bring about hunger abolition.
It means by word of mouth telling others what hunger is about.
It means engaging the media to get the word out.
It means not letting a crumb go to waste.
It means getting food to the hungry in haste.
It means inviting the poor to our table.
It means volunteering our time, effort and money where able.
It means each and every one of us must get involved
Until the whole matter of hunger is resolved.
Let compassion demonstrate our humanity,
Then we can shout with joviality,
“One, two, three, four, five, six,
Hunger among us has been fixed!”
Someone’s hungry in the mix.
One in six has an empty plate.
One in six has a belly ache.
One in six cannot concentrate
Due to inadequate food intake.
Hunger in America is reality,
Not confined to pockets of society
And not quarantined in certain neighborhoods.
Multitudes have limited access to food goods,
Not just the homeless and those out of work,
But in every strata of society, hunger lurks.
Because of food insecurity,
Meals are eaten with great irregularity.
Hard-working adults, children, and seniors who simply cannot make ends meet
Are forced to go without food for several meals, days, or even weeks.
Some elderly lack access to food due to no transportation,
While others can’t prepare food because of physical limitation.
Still others are so frail they need help to be fed,
And they hope that by compassion someone would be led
To come meet their need,
That someone would have the heart to feed
The hungry,
And that the cause of the famished would take priority in this country.
The hungry lack money, means or resource to acquire food.
This leaves hungry as their constant mood.
And their bodies feel the uneasy and painful sensation hunger brings,
That, along with so many other detrimental things.
The immune response of the hungry is adversely affected.
They are among those most commonly infected
With all manner of bacteria, virus, and disease,
Making an open door to infect the general population with ease.
In children, hunger limits cognitive and behavioral development.
Hunger steals a child’s future mental health and academic achievement.
Hunger inhibits a child’s ability to grow and learn
And restrains what they, even as adults, can earn.
Hunger eats away a child’s future economic productivity,
Which becomes a drain to our national prosperity.
Hunger causes fatigue and irritability.
Hunger is known to be a culprit behind despondency.
Hunger gives a rise in criminality,
Which brings hurt, harm, and danger to every community.
In the elder population, hunger promotes senility.
Hunger eats away their strength and usurps their vitality.
Poor nutrition leads to increased vulnerability,
Which becomes more critical for those with disability.
In addition to children and elderly, there are so many more
In need of food among the desperately poor.
The number of people abound who are in abject poverty,
As the culture of America is one of inequality.
Between the haves and have not is a great divide.
The gap between the wealthy and the forgotten increasingly opens wide.
The working class, for their labor, receives so little pay.
The little money they may have is quickly taken away.
The minimum wage level is not gauged to inflation
And is used by businesses as a form of oppression.
The top echelon of business has the power to allocate the profits of enterprise.
And yet they allocated these profits to themselves -- to others’ demise.
Corporations and the rich lobby Congress and establish their priorities,
Including tax breaks, bailouts, and even subsidies,
While not generating enough jobs to employ everyone.
Sending American jobs overseas is what they’ve typically done.
They let hunger grow in America even more
While turning a blind eye to America’s burgeoning poor.
Work-support services, including flexible and affordable child care
And public transportation are less available everywhere.
So the few jobs offered become harder to keep.
One job lost means many won’t eat:
Making it hard for me to understand how the full can go to sleep.
The health and medical needs of the hungry are compromised.
The hungry, as a group, are the new disenfranchised.
Hunger in America today is nothing but a pawn in Washington power politics.
Those with food fail to realize that hunger in America makes each one of us sick.
The poor are always with us, that is just the truth.
But is that reason not to take hold of Poverty and pull out hunger as its tooth?
Hunger is like an uncontrolled cancer that will eventually kill its host.
Knowing we could have cured ourselves is what hurts the most.
We produce more than enough food in America to feed every man, woman, and child.
Yet half of it is thrown away, and that is putting it mild.
We must lobby Congress to address poverty and its consequences no matter how futile that may seem.
And bring hunger relief to the forefront of the political scene.
But if we can’t count on Congress to do the right thing,
Then we as a people need to be the ones to bring
About hunger relief.
We as a people, working together, can eradicate hunger is my firm belief.
Hunger is my problem, and it’s your problem too.
There is something each and every one of us can do.
We must engage communities in helping care for one another.
We need to see each and every hungry person as our brother
And as our individual responsibility.
For each of us, this means advocacy
And coalition
To bring about hunger abolition.
It means by word of mouth telling others what hunger is about.
It means engaging the media to get the word out.
It means not letting a crumb go to waste.
It means getting food to the hungry in haste.
It means inviting the poor to our table.
It means volunteering our time, effort and money where able.
It means each and every one of us must get involved
Until the whole matter of hunger is resolved.
Let compassion demonstrate our humanity,
Then we can shout with joviality,
“One, two, three, four, five, six,
Hunger among us has been fixed!”
