Acting locally to cure world hunger

The headache of hunger

Have you ever been hungry? I mean, really hungry with no hope for food? The closest I can come to that experience are memories of headaches I had as a child after a busy day of playing in the neighborhood.

I’d come home close to dinner, complaining to my Mama about a headache. Her response: “You’re just hungry. Set the table, and dinner will be on before you know it.” Mama was right, and the distraction of helping to hurry dinner always worked. But what if there wasn’t food? 

I’ve never known that want, but the glimpses I got as a child of being ravenously hungry have made me acutely aware of how difficult that must be. 

The group named End World Hunger 2030, which I told you about in my last column, is one of those rare groups that uses 100 percent of its donations to help others. (FISH, the Friends In Sonoma Helping who provide food for hungry folks in our Valley, is another.) Donations to End World Hunger 2030 are sent to organizations of proven ability to help feed the hungry in East Africa and support farmers there. 

Two local volunteers, Ann Bauer and her co-founder Todd Evans, formed this group observing the United Nations target date of 2030 to end world hunger. 

I applaud any group that uses all of its funds to do good. It’s rare in our Valley, and even more rare in this world. While I don’t know Ann Bauer as well, I’m not surprised Todd Evans is involved. Lots of neighbors and friends know him as the fellow who founded Seeds of Learning. 

Find more good news about Ann and Todd’s efforts on their website: endworldhunger2030.org. Today I just wanted to remind you about their restaurant campaign on Wednesday, April 29. As of this writing, the only restaurant signed up in our village is Olive and Vine. Many thanks to Catherine Venturini and John Burdick, who run that romantic Glen Ellen restaurant. Bob Rice, whose roots (heart and soul) are in Glen Ellen, is also one of the participants in Sonoma at his Breakaway Cafe. Both restaurants have the best meals and the best wait staff in town, so don’t miss this opportunity to help end world hunger while helping to ease your own. A percentage of the price of your meal will be donated to Sonoma’s End World Hunger 2030. 

No peace without food, no food without peace

The UN wants to end world hunger, a noble goal. I also hope they’re continuing to work on an end to war, the most noble goal of all, which I suppose is a lot easier to achieve if you’ve got a full belly. Since I was a little girl, I admired the UN and felt it was the best route to world peace. Growing up in a family that idolized Roosevelt, mostly for his social programs during the Depression, it was easy for me to love the organization that he envisioned could bring about peace on earth.

I’m not sure how Mr. Roosevelt would view the UN’s efforts at world peace today … I’m not even sure how I do. Mostly I just “get through the night,” (as we are wont to say of dark thoughts) by humming a few bars of St. Francis’s hymn, “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.” It certainly calms my weary mind as I count laps in the pool, or steps on the trail, with ever that hope leading me on.  

UN hears fish people

I salute the efforts of the UN to feed the world, and also to protect the world’s environment. Good news in that latter realm arrived recently. Glen Ellen neighbor Lance Morgan, president of the Marine Conservation Institute, spoke at the UN this March. 

The picture that accompanies this column certainly portrays the excitement our hometown fellow felt hanging at the UN. More significant than Lance’s glowing countenance is the message he carried: we must protect more ocean habitats by establishing marine sanctuaries. Currently, only 0.94 percent of the ocean is protected. Lance and his fellow marine biologists would like to see at least 2.21 percent, and soon, or we risk catastrophic losses of marine species we depend on.

Whence the Eucs?

My sincere thanks to reader, JoAnn Craig, who lives in the old Glen Ellen schoolhouse near the center of town and appreciates eucalyptus: “I love the heady scent of their leaves, especially wet, after a good rain storm,” she shared. 

JoAnn recalled a quaint tale of a failed entrepreneur that she learned from her eminent professor Virginia Havel, back in the 1960s. Havel, an expert in ecology, environmental studies, and more, spoke of the first eucalyptus plants to arrive in the United States, back in the early 1860s. Their intended use? To provide fast-growing and hardy wood for railroad ties on the transcontinental railroad. Unfortunately, the species that arrived was wrong; instead of hardy, it was fragile. It split and cracked easily, making it entirely unsuitable for railroad ties. Hence, that multitude of original plants were sold cheaply to Californians for use as wind-breaks. 

JoAnn’s tale pre-dates the story of Jack London first bringing eucalyptus to California, so we’re left with the mystery of how the eucs got here. 

Playing at plowing

Speaking of Jack’s Farm, on Sunday, May 3, the public is invited to the 32nd annual Plowing Play Day at the JL State Historic Park. It’s a family event featuring Neil Shepard and his fellow draft horse owners, plus plenty of other folks. They promise historic farming demonstrations, wagon rides, sheep shearing, and more. The Gypsy Time Travelers will return with their mobile castle and exciting storytelling, punctuated with live anvil accompaniment. Check out the Park’s website.   

In a column soon I’ll share news about a new Glen Ellen Eagle Scout, plus descriptions of the work of two amazing artists with roots in our village. Collin Kemp, Patrick McMurtry, and Tasha Drengson, will be among the featured folks in my next column.

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The Folks in Glen Ellen column also appears online. Look for my column on the Index-Tribune website sonomanews.com under the category Lifestyle. Click on Sylvia Crawford for current and old columns. Want to see your own name in the news? Call or write me at 707 996-5995 or P.O. Box 518, GE 95442. Or email me at Creekbottom@earthlink.net. Glen Ellen chatter rarely requires timeliness; however, if your news does, please be sure to contact me at least three weeks before your desired publication date.