Experimentation With World Hunger

I've been trying all day to put a video of an interview with the main man at Breedlove all day and can't get my computer to recognize my video camera. So... I'm going to go ahead with explaining this project and hopefully before too much time goes by I'll be able to figure out how to upload video.

What is this so called experiment with world hunger?

I don't know what I can do alone for justice and poverty in the global south but this crazy idea began to develop in October of this past year. I was at a feast or famine meal at World Missions Workshop and ended up in the group eating lentil soup. I was eating the soup and really enjoying it. Then the organizer of the event made an announcement that anyone desiring to could buy a box of soup and also donate one over seas. This is called buy a box, share a box. Sounds good to me. So I mulled over the idea for a couple more months until going back to Lubbock. I decided to eat almost nothing but soup three times a day 6 and a half days a week for the whole spring semester.

What is this soup?


USA-ID is the main purchaser of the soup. They purchase it to ship all over the world to schools, hospitals, and communities. The interview will go into further detail as to who gets this food. Victims of Katrina were also sent Breedlove soup. The soup is dehydrated potatoes and lentils and nutrient enriched vegetable mix. It contains everything necessary to sustain life. It's not high in fat or calories so I will loose weight (not intentional just seeing how well the stuff really sustains).

What do I really expect to accomplish?

I know that I will gain personal experience with a small part of life that few Americans ever really know. We live in a food culture. Next time you watch a TV show count how many food commercials you see. Food commercials are about half of all commercials. It is ridiculous how much food our culture consumes and how little is available for peoples of the global South. Mr. Finch in the interview says that something like half of the world's population lives on less than one US dollar a day and like 85% live on less then $2. So sure what I'm doing is simulated with exceptions but it's already really opening my eyes to our over consumption and I'm learning how little it really takes to survive and also a little bit about what it feels like to really be hungry and how that affects concentration, sleep, learning, health, etc....

I also hope this project will have a ripple effect on some of the people around me. I hope some people step forward and ask for a bag of soup and commit a week, 2, month or something to similarly participate. I also hope that some opportunities will open to have either feast or famine hunger banquets at churches, classes, organizations and stuff. I want to interview some other people maybe with organizations like Heifer or the One Campaign. Mostly I would just love for people to begin thinking about the needs around the world and get creative in finding ways to share or redistribute wealth globally and make the world a better place for everyone. That really makes me sound idealistic but I'm going to dream big.

So that's kinda what's going on. I began eating the soup last Tuesday 2 January. So far so good. Classes start back tomorrow morning and we'll see how the energy and concentration go. I'm already down 6lbs and other than that I'm still trucking on and excited about the project.

If you have any suggestions on more things I can do, video, people to talk with, etc... leave comments and help me out. Or if you want to get involved somehow, leave a comment.
Thanks!