10 Reasons Starving Kids Around the World Don't Care About My Broccoli

We’ve seen the images on television and heard the touching and dramatic speeches. We know that there are children starving in Africa. We’ve been reminded by our parents for as long as we can remember. “Eat your vegetables. There are children starving in Africa.” We didn’t much care whether someone else wanted our broccoli. We only were concerned with the fact that we were finished with it. It turns out that starving kids don’t care much about my broccoli either, and here are ten reasons why:

1. Kids around the world are starving, but my broccoli isn’t the answer to their problems. A side order of vegetables won’t feed their family, or guarantee them a tomorrow. Therefore they don’t care about my broccoli.
2. The conditions that lead to starvation in places around the world need much more than care packages to fix them. Conditions that won’t go away with a donation of something I’d just as soon throw away. They need my involvement, not my broccoli.
3. Starving kids around the world are clinging to their lives. They haven’t got broccoli on their minds, they’re wondering what happened to their parents, what’s going to happen to their brothers and sisters. They’re wondering what will become of them. They don’t care about my broccoli.
4. Kids around the world deserve the opportunity to turn their noses up at their own broccoli. They deserve to live lives that allow them to be finicky about what they have for dinner, or for snacks. Their parents deserve the chance to provide those things. They don’t care about my broccoli.
5. There are kids who are dying of malnutrition, cholera, and all manner of disease that my broccoli just can’t cure. They need medical care and sanitary conditions. They don’t care about my broccoli.
6. The homes these children are starving in are huts swarming with disease-carrying insects that wouldn’t allow these young ones to eat even if they did have my broccoli. They need clean homes complete with plumbing and running water. They don’t need my broccoli.
7. The starvation of some children isn’t about a lack of food, but a lack of freedom, a drought of love, and a dearth of people who care. For them the answer won’t come in the form of green vegetables. They don’t care about my broccoli.
8. Many of those who hunger throughout the world are born into poverty, and know nothing but starvation and disease. They know they hunger before they learn to speak. They feel hunger before they can spell it. They don’t even know about my broccoli.
9. All around the world, kids are starving for more than just food. They are famished for love, and they are starving for the care of others. They hunger for the touch of God. They want to be fed the milk of human kindness. They don’t care about my broccoli.
10. If I clean my plate and polish off that broccoli, I will have filled my belly, satisfied my obligation and pleased my parents. Yet somewhere there are children who are just as hungry as when I sat down to eat.

Taken From Au Pair