By Jennifer Eder
Rice, soy, dried vegetables and vitamin powder.
These four things might seem simple at first glance, but they’re essential for fighting hunger.
About 600 GW students, faculty and staff from the School of Medicine and Health Sciences learned about the severity of malnutrition Friday as part of the school’s Community Service Day, where they stuffed 60,000 bags of food to be sent to victims of the famine in Somalia.
“Giving people food is important, but giving people the right food is even more important,” said Lakhmir Chawla, associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine.
Dr. Chawla, who works in GW Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit, co-founded the District’s chapter of Kids Against Hunger in 2009. GW chose to work with the nonprofit for the ninth annual service day to get a global perspective.
Jeffrey Akman, interim vice provost for health affairs and SMHS dean, said this year’s service project was also significant because of the upcoming 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11th attacks.
“Today we remember all those who lost their lives on 9/11 and those who responded in the name of service to their country,” he said.
According to the United Nations, more than 12 million people in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti need aid, after a devastating drought swept across the region. The famine is Somalia's worst humanitarian crisis in two decades. Tens of thousands of people – mostly children – have already died, according to the UN. The agency warns that as many as 750,000 people could die in the next four months if aid efforts are not stepped up. Furthering the problem, the militant Islamist group al-Shabab has prevented food aid from reaching certain parts of Somalia. Tens of thousands of Somalis have fled their homes for refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia.
One of the many challenges to fighting a famine is to feed the victims slowly enough and with the proper micronutrients for their bodies to sustain the influx of calories. Too much food after malnourishment could be fatal.
Each ingredient in the Kids Against Hunger food bags has a specific purpose. Rice is the most common starch in the world and must be cooked with boiling water, which will kill any bacteria. Soy is a vegetable protein, which is easier to absorb than animal protein. Dried vegetables provide needed nutrients. And the vitamin powder helps to replenish micronutrients including Vitamin A and B.
GW students assembled, weighed, sealed and packed 60,000 food bags on Friday. Each bag contains six meals, and each meal only costs 23 cents. GW SMHS students and alumni raised the funds for Friday’s service project.
The Kids Against Hunger D.C. chapter, whose mission is “feeding families around the world and around the corner,” has packaged 112,338 meals since 2009, and the SMHS service project Friday was the organization’s largest event yet. About two-thirds of the food bags will be sent to Dadaab Refugee Camp in Kenya where more than 400,000 displaced people reside. The other third will be sent to Miriam’s Kitchen, a soup kitchen near GW’s Foggy Bottom Campus.
Funding for these meals was provided by the White Coat Initiative, an SMHS alumni-supported fund that provides first-year medical students with their white coats at the start of each school year.
Jonathan Keenan, a second-year medical student who helped coordinate the service day, said the most important lesson he’ll take away from the experience is “small things add up to make a difference.”
“The people who have in this world have a responsibility to serve those who don’t have,” said Mr. Keenan, who hopes to eventually do medical mission work.
According to Dr. Chawla, about 925 million people worldwide – including one in four children – do not have enough to eat. That’s more than the population of the U.S., Canada and the European Union combined.
“Millions of people in Africa will die this year from famine. We’re not going to cure hunger today. It’s merely a drop in the bucket,” said Dr. Chawla. “But it’s helping one human at a time.”