I love this quote (that of course I’ve changed a bit), “Because you’re good at math should you work in a bank, be an accountant, or an economist?  Not necessarily. Instead, decide what it is you most want to do. If you like standing up all day, begin by looking at the options that are available; you could be a train conductor, an orchestra conductor or a waiter. If you are good with your hands, you could be a pianist, a pickpocket or a cake decorator. If you prefer to lie down on the job, you be an auto mechanic, an astronaut, a hypochondriac — or a thinker, food writer or consultant.”

Columbia University’s Nation Center for Children in Poverty reports:  Nearly 15 million children in the United States – 21% of all children – live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level – $22,050 a year for a family of four. Research shows that, on average, families need an income of about twice that level to cover basic expenses. Using this standard, 42% of children live in low-income families. http://www.nccp.org/topics/childpoverty.html

Bill Shore, in his compelling book, Revolution of the Heart wrote:  No one wears ribbons on behalf of the children who live in poverty. The child trapped in a well for a week could count on Dan Rather telling the world about her condition each evening. Rescue workers and experts would be flown in from around the country. Neighbors could be relied up to nurture and sustain the family. Journalists would do special reports on how children get trapped in wells and what can be done to prevent these accidents. Banks, hospitals, local businesses, and other community institutions would respond with funds and equipment. The necessary financial support would be found even though it was not budgeted for in advance.

‘If that child could be saved, she would be saved — because our country has both the resources and the will to save her. But a child trapped in poverty — not for a week, but for a lifetime —enjoys no such outcome. Even if she were the same child that had been stuck in the well. Thirty feed underground, that child is the most visible child in the United States. In plain view on a front stoop in Harlem, that child is invisible. Our nation has the resources necessary to save her. But it does not have the will.

Share Our Strength^® is a national nonprofit that is ending childhood hunger in America founded by Bill Shore.

Who Cares?

It is almost impossible to attempt to change a firmly held opinion or belief, and essentially a waste of time and energy to try. Strident advocacy can be compared with an untended garden hose that produces a torrent without much sense of direction.

It is good to talk to yourself by speaking to those who agree with you.  Such dialog produces a satisfying sense of righteousness.

The most rewarding constituency is one who doesn’t care one way or another about …whatever. So you won’t persuade a vegan to eat a lamb chop or talk a meat lover into salivating over the prospect of a tofu sandwich, but you may be able to issue forth a clarion call for action if your argument is presented calmly, rationally, unemotionally and backed up with statistics and quotes from reliable sources. The sequence of the theseis involves stating the problem, descibing what will happen if nothing is done, persuasively suggesting a solution and listing specific actions to take…now.

The Man Who Changed the Way We Eat: Craig Claiborne and the American Food Renaissance by Thomas McNamee was published yesterday. I had preordered it for my Kindle. I dropped everything the moment it arrived and devoured it until way past my bedtime.

I’m loving it.

It is fascinating to remember so many names from the near past: Maude Chez Elle, Jim Nassikas from the Stanford Court Hotel in San Francisco, Ann Seranne the food editor from Gourmet and so many other who gather together in our collective memory.

How fortunate I am. I will be meeting the for lunch today. He is coming to the CIA to give a talk at 3 P.M. I and the students from my Professional Food Writing Class have reserved seats as a big crowd is expected.

I’ll let you know how it goes.