How many times have you come home, ravenously hungry, opened the refrigerator door, did a quick once over, saw only a fridge full of food that need to be cooked and declared to yourself, “There is nothing to eat!” Now, imagine that scene again, but this time there is little to no food to be eaten and with hunched shoulders, you sighed, “There is nothing to eat.”

Millions go hungry every day - Photo by Lyric Fields

In a world where there are more than 1,000 billionaires with a net worth of $3.6 trillion, up from $2.4 trillion in 2009, (Forbes, 2010), there is an estimated total of 925 million people undernourished according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. There are number of factors that contribute to food scarcity globally, poverty being the leading cause.

In the Miami Valley many families come home to empty refrigerators every day. Unable to feed their children, they turn to local food pantries and social service agencies for support. Sometimes a teen or youth is left to fend for themselves. When that happens, they go to Daybreak, Dayton’s only homeless shelter for youth.

This week the Dayton Urban League Young Professionals (DULYP) in partnership with the Dayton Urban League Guild, the National Urban League (www.nul.org), and National Urban League partner, YUM! Brands is hosting a National Day of Empowerment to collect various non-perishable items for the youth served at Daybreak. At this event, the DULYP will report on its weeklong efforts to address world hunger by supporting this very worthy local agency. Donations of non-perishable food items (i.e. soup, Ramen noodles, tuna and Poptarts) along with gift cards to WalMart and Krogers will be accepted at this event.