An Ongoing Response to the Food Crisis in Our Community and Around the World
Text Box: For the past two years, rising food prices have exacerbated hunger in communities around the country and across the globe. Though food prices have stabilized since their historic spike in 2008, starvation and malnutrition continue to pervade the earth’s poorest communities. In June 2009, the United Nations announced that the number of chronically hungry people worldwide passed one billion for the first time, which equates roughly to about every one in six people. The Silent Tsunami Campaign is a grassroots effort to raise awareness and encourage people to make contributions of food, money, and time to local and international efforts to alleviate hunger.    This effort began with a drive among tenants of an office building in Washington, D.C. in 2008. Led by the Law Offices of Stewart and Stewart, individuals raised $20,801 and gathered 3,000 pounds of food items for the Capital Area Food Bank and the Friends of the World Food Program over a six-week period that ended July 1, 2008.   This year, as the number of people who are without sufficient food and nutrition continues to grow, Stewart and Stewart will continue to support ongoing responses to the food crisis. This summer, volunteers from the law firm will spend time preparing and serving meals at So Others Might Eat (SOME), an organization in Washington, D.C. that provides food, clothing and basic healthcare to help the city’s poor and homeless meet their daily needs. In addition, the firm is leading a building-wide food drive to support the Capital Area Food Bank and plans a leadership role in the Food Bank’s second annual “Outlaw Hunger” initiative, which rallies the city’s legal community in combating hunger. Every contribution to hunger relief – no matter how big or small – makes a significant and life-saving difference. With each individual’s effort to educate others, to volunteer his or her time to organizations like SOME or the Capital Area Food Bank, or to donate funds or food to similar organizations provides a part for a larger and larger whole. If similar efforts are perpetuated all over the country, we can save lives.   The Silent Tsunami Campaign is not an incorporated entity and accepts no contributions. This Web site is intended simply to serve as a catalyst for similar efforts to raise awareness about the food crisis, and encourage a broader search for a solution – whether long- or short-term – across the country.

“The food crisis will not be solved overnight. As we work toward systemic solutions, individuals can help meet the short-term needs of others. We thank The Silent Tsunami Campaign for their contribution to this effort.”

                 — Josette Sheeran, director of the United Nations World Food Programme