Day 2 Fast

Called a "third meal fast" as I'm not eating after my lunch meal.  I'm trying to pay attention to hunger and thoughts of food (constant, not just during the fast!)...that little bit of panic and little bit of sad and little bit of desperate feeling all together.  Then I think of children who have this feeling.

Today Chris forwarded this great post on Huffpo:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-affleck/map-the-meal-gap-its-time_b_842873.html

And you can go to Map the Gap to see how hunger is affecting the whole country - this data released today: http://feedingamerica.org/our-network/the-studies/map-the-gap.aspx

Drinking licorice tea...unbelievably delicious.

Why I'm fasting

This morning I read Mark Bittman's editorial in the NYT (http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/29/why-were-fasting/?hp).  I love Mark Bittman and so glad he's moved into editorial columns - he's challenging us about food.  He, along with good folks including Jim Wallis, Women Thrive Worldwide (www.womenthrive.org) and many others, are fasting to "call attention to Congressional budget proposals that would make huge cuts in programs for the poor and hungry."  Basically it's an outrage. GE, with 14 billion in profits this year, will not pay ONE PENNY in taxes.  But Congress is targeting cuts at programs that have compassion in them.  That's the only way I can think to describe their criteria when it means programs like WIC, foodstamps, international food and health aid. 

For some reason,  I said yes, I can do this too. Why fast? I'm not so naive to think that fasting is going to change minds in Congress - no light seems to be able to enter there.  I'm fasting to wake myself up to what is happening right here right now.  What does it feel like to be hungry?  What if I brought my mind back to hunger over and over for one week, feeling it, thinking about it?  I'm fasting to join with others who are willing to think about this for one week.  I'm fasting to focus on this one situation, to stay with it, not glide over it as I can do so easily on line, get the gist of it and move on.  I won't move on from this one this week.

I went to hungerfast.org and signed up.  I am not going on a complete fast.  I am skipping just one meal each day. I will be not eating after my lunch meal each day for a week.  Not too radical, not too bad.  Its hardly the commitment others are making.

It is now 5:00pm on day one and I am very hungry.  Hunger makes me antsy and all I can think about is what is right there in my cabinets to eat.  This is my privilege, I can eat anytime I want to.  Meanwhile 50 million people in the US are hungry right now, 17 million of them children.

I am ambivalent about blogging about this.  It feels private and I don't want to make a trip out of it. Yet I do want to raise awareness about hunger, mostly my own awareness.  This is one way that I can do that.