Help Fight Hunger in the US

The child who has no certainty of a healthy lunch.

The working poor who cannot afford groceries.

The senior citizen who must choose between food and medicine.

Per www.dosomething.org, 1 in 6 people in the United States struggles with hunger and 49 million Americans struggle to put food on the table. Chances are, someone your child goes to school with or someone you know, struggles to get enough to eat every day. In the US, hunger isn’t caused by a lack of food, but rather the continued prevalence of poverty. 40% of food is thrown out in the US every year, or about $165 billion worth. All this uneaten food could feed 25 million Americans! Hunger does not discriminate. It exists everywhere. And it only exists because we allow it.

What can we do?

Collect food outside your supermarket for a local food bank or food pantry.

A food bank is an organization that takes nonperishable food donations and distributes them to agencies or individuals in need of food. With over 925 million people in the world going without proper amounts of food, the need for food banks and donations is at an all-time high. Every community has citizens in need of help when it comes to providing food for themselves and their families. You can help fight hunger by starting a food bank of your own.

A food pantry program is a community-based program that collects and stores food and household products for free distribution to needy people.

A food bank and/or food pantry can be an incredible way to contribute to the community and help those in the area who have fallen on hard times. Consider starting one in your community!

This is my wish; I would like Girl Talk Marlton to start a food pantry. I have already been doing this for the past few years on a smaller scale whenever I can but I would like to kick it up a notch. *Fingers crossed*

Get educated and get involved!

Teach your kids the importance of giving back to their local community and those in need. They can donate their birthday or other special events by asking friends and family to make donations in lieu of buying presents.

Volunteer as a family! Get involved in a community group helping others. My group organizes a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich making night every month and invites all those in the community willing to help. All sandwiches made go to feed the hungry in the local communities. There are many organizations helping the hungry that you can volunteer as a family to help as fits your schedule. It is important to explain to your children that not everyone is as lucky as they are, and those hungry may be their neighbors and friends.

Just as hunger knows no age, neither does fighting it. We all have a role to play in solving hunger. Together we can strive to fight hunger and feed hope! JUST DO SOMETHING!

Mary Beth Iannarella

Girl Talk Marlton/The Wishwall

http://www.girltalkmarlton.org

 

“When a poor person dies of hunger it has not happened because God did not take care of him or her. It has happened because neither you nor I wanted to give that person what he or she needed.”

― Mother Teresa

REMEMBER THOSE WHO FOUGHT FOR WOMEN RIGHT TO VOTE

http://thewishwall.org/desideri/who-fought-for-women-right-to-vote/

Alice Paul, born on January 11, 1885 to Quaker parents in Mt. Laurel, NJ, was an American suffragist, feminist, and women’s rights activist, and the main leader and strategist of the 1910’s campaign for the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which prohibits sex discrimination in the right to vote. Along with Lucy Burns and others, Paul strategized the events, such as the Woman Suffrage Procession and the Silent Sentinels, which led the successful campaign that resulted in its passage in 1920.

Driven to change laws that affected women, she earned a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1912. At first, Paul was a member of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and served as the chair of its congressional committee. Out of frustration with NAWSA’s policies, however, Paul left to form the more militant Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage with Lucy Burns. The group was later renamed the National Woman’s Party (NWP) with the goal of implementing change on a federal level.

Known for using provocative visual media to make their point, NWP members known as the “Silent Sentinels” picketed the White House under the Woodrow Wilson administration in 1917, making them the first group to take such action. Paul was jailed in October and November of that year because of the protests.

The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was introduced in every session of Congress from 1923 until it passed in 1972. During the 1940s, both the Republicans and Democrats added the ERA to their party platforms. In 1943, the ERA was rewritten and dubbed the “Alice Paul Amendment.” The new amendment read, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”

After women won the right to vote with the 19th Amendment in 1920, Paul devoted herself to working on additional empowerment measures. In 1923, she introduced the first Equal Rights Amendment in Congress and in later decades worked on a civil rights bill and fair employment practices. Although she did not live to see the ERA added to the U.S. Constitution (to date it remains unratified), she did get an equal rights affirmation included in the preamble to the United Nations charter.

Until she was debilitated by a stroke in 1974, Alice Paul continued her fight for women’s rights. She died on July 9, 1977, in Moorestown, NJ. Her life demonstrates that one person can make a difference! Alice Paul dedicated her life to the single cause of securing equal rights for all women. Her legacy lives on, bearing witness to the significance of her life and inspiring others who struggle for social justice.

                                             

The Alice Paul Institute was founded in 1985 and is dedicated to creating a heritage and leadership development center at Paulsdale, NJ. The Institute works to educate and encourage women and girls to take leadership roles in their communities and to continue the long struggle for women’s equality. In her name, API works to fulfill its mission to honor her legacy, preserve her home, and develop future leaders.

On April 20, 2016 Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew announced that several denominations of United States currency would be redesigned prior to 2020, the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment. The newly designed $10 bill, which will include images which pay homage to the women’s suffrage movement, will feature the images of Alice Paul, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Lucretia Mott, along with an image of the 1913 Women’s Suffrage Procession that Paul organized.

Women fought hard to win the right to vote. And voting is still the best way for women to ensure that our elected leaders support policies that will expand opportunity, help women and their families through hard times, and strengthen the economy.

MY WISH is that we, as women, do NOT forget those who fought so hard for so long for us to have the right to vote. Alice Paul dedicated her life for us to have this right, honor her by voting in this election.

Please also visit the Alice Paul Institute located in Paulsboro NJ or her website for more information. http://www.alicepaul.org

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Mary Beth Iannarella
Girl Talk Marlton for The Wishwall
http://www.girltalkmarlton.org

A WOMAN FOR PRESIDENT

http://thewishwall.org/desideri/a-woman-for-president/

A WOMAN FOR PRESIDENT

The Democratic National Convention was in Philadelphia July 25-28^th and regardless of my party affiliation just the thought of a woman running for President of the United States of America excites me. We have two women running; Hillary Clinton and Dr. Jill Stein.

It has been proven that woman in politics prioritize issues affecting women’s rights, families and children on their legislative agendas. These women have also voted in favor of environmental protections and policies more consistently than men have over the past 25 years in both House and Senate. So put aside your elephant or donkey, your Hillary or Donald, what would it be like to have a woman President? As we said remember that we have also Dr. Jill Stein running as a woman for president with the Green Party, so they are two “against” one, this is history made

. Let’s wish…. Women are strong leaders. It is sad that we still need to work harder than men to prove ourselves, but we do. Some believe we are still the weakest gender but this is not true. A woman as our president would just help be a step in the right direction for equal rights for woman.Women have heart. Maybe there would be less war with a woman as our president. More compassion, peaceful resolutions and taking time to listen to problems, these are qualities I envision when thinking of a woman president. Just imagine how inspiring it would be for little girls to look up to a woman president. Having a woman in the Oval Office would send the message loud and clear to our girls that they can be absolutely anything – or even the leader of the free world. What are your thoughts on a woman as president? What would you envision or wish? ~Mary Beth Iannarella GirlTalk Marlton/Wishwall adm