The World Food Programme is hoping a billion people online will help the billion hungry. CNN reports:

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Hunger is spreading while the number of homeless families is increasing as a result of the recession and other factors, according to a report on Tuesday.

U.S.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors said cities reported a 26 percent jump in demand for hunger assistance over the past year, the largest average increase since 1991.

Middle-class families as well as the uninsured, elderly, working poor and homeless increasingly looked for help with hunger, which was mainly fueled by unemployment, high housing costs and low wages.

The 2009 report is based on a survey of 27 cities, including Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia and San Francisco, that comprise the group’s task force on hunger and homelessness.

Looking ahead to 2010, cities said they expect it will be difficult to meet increased demands for food due to the impact of state and local budget cuts, a decrease in grocery store donations and higher food costs.

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(Reporting by Karen Pierog; Editing by James Dalgleish)

Today, Alyssa Milano retweeted the Fed Up With Hunger contest that was announced on knowledge junkie blog MentalFloss.com to her 298,000 followers! Check out the post:
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/38686

Or sign up for the event on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=159918248519

It’s Blog Action Day 2009, a day when the bloggers unite online for a cause.  It’s sort of like USA for Africa’s “We are the World,” except with 50% less singing, 100% more typing, and 23% more Hall and Oates (at least in my case).  This year, the cause is climate change, which makes Blog Action Day sort of like “blogosphere for the atmosphere.”

The topic got me thinking to 2003 when the Pentagon was asked what they thought was the biggest threat to national security. The Pentagon didn’t say terrorism.  They didn’t say banking, national health care or reality shows

They said climate change.

That’s right.  The Pentagon, still recovering after 9/11, in a time when the correct answer to any question was global terrorism, said the greatest risk to U.S. national security was climate change.

Not because we would get a little hot, or that Al Gore would win the Nobel Peace Prize, but because climate change would lead to world-wide hunger, food insecurity and famine, which would foment political instability and war.

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[ed. note: Author David Lee is a Fed-staffer, and works in our Community Relations department. We're extremely fortunate to have someone on staff who is so knowledgeable and passionate about the hunger problem the city is facing.]

It’s been a few days since Ted Kennedy passed away and I can’t stop thinking about Jorge Muñoz.

The two men couldn’t be any more different. Kennedy was privileged beyond belief, an heir to not only one of the wealthiest family fortunes in America, but also to a political dynasty. Muñoz is a Colombian immigrant who came to the United States in the ‘80s after his father died in an accident.

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