Almost 100 people representing 44 organizations and four universities participated in our first-ever Global Hunger Challenge. Thank you to everyone who participated. We hope you gained valuable lessons through your determination and willpower during the challenge week. Please contact Katie Delaney at kdelaney@interaction.org for details on the 2010 first annual Global Hunger Challenge.
In an expression of solidarity with people throughout the world who struggle with food insecurity, participants lived on a food budget of $34.33* during the week of Sept 17-24. This amount— equivalent to the average weekly amount a local Haitian is able to spend on food—required some sacrifice.
Our community came together in this challenge to in a small way show our commitment to those whom we work to help every day.
Click here to view participants' photos and journal entries. Learn more about how the challenge changed their views on global hunger and food insecurity, and
InterAction invited all who successfully completed the week to an event during InterAction’s 3rd annual Progress Against Poverty Week, October 12-15, commemorating experiences of the first Challenge. A drawing was held and $100 donated to the winning participant’s charity of choice.
We appreciate and hope you reflect upon the fact that we live in a wealthy society with inherent comforts that shelter us from truly experiencing the day-to-day trials of living in poverty. InterAction’s goal with this effort is to draw attention to the continued existence of global poverty. We hope to provide a reality check to those in U.S. foreign policy circles regarding the immediate need to reform U.S. foreign assistance.
* We reached this number by multiplying $1.25 per day (the majority of Haitians live on this amount or less per day) by the number of Haitian gourdes required to buy an equivalent amount of goods or services in the United States (purchasing power parity), which the World Bank calculated as 24.9 in 2008. The average American spends 15.757% of their income on groceries (this number was unavailable for Haiti), which gave us our final number.
