The philosophy behind Feed The Children

Why we do what we do

The mission of Feed The Children is to provide desperately-needed food and other necessities to children and families, often to meet an immediate need. Sometimes, we are asked why we keep feeding children, but don't teach them how to feed themselves. As the cliché says, "Feed a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." At Feed The Children, we understand this idea because we are on the ground with children and families. We actually have many sustainable development programs in countries around the world, designed to teach people how to help themselves. But let's take a minute to think about what happens in the real world after you teach a man to fish.

No fishing pole

Once you teach a man to fish, what happens? What if he has no fishing pole? So, we give him a fishing pole. Then he goes to the lake, but there's a fence around it. So then he finds out who owns the lake and gets permission to fish, but when he gets there, no fish are left somebody has taken all the fish. Now what can he eat? He knows how to fish, but there's nothing to catch!

This is a simple analogy, but it is literally happening all over the world. What happens now to that man who is still hungry?

Children are hungry today

The bottom line is that Feed The Children has feeding programs because children are hungry today. We can teach new farming techniques (we do), we can provide job training (we do), and we can help encourage small business owner ship (we do that, too), but these things do not stop children from being hungry today.

So the question is not really "why do we feed children" but rather, should the little, innocent victims of hunger and poverty be made to starve while the crops grow, while the training happens and while the business develops?

We don't think so.

And simply put, that is why we do what we do at Feed The Children. Will you take action today and take a stand against hunger?

For more information on Feed the Children go to   http://www.feedthechildren.org

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