I interviewed to Catherine Drennan Lynn who works at Food Bank on March 1st.
She told us that the situation of hunger was getting worse. I asked her three questions about hunger that were actions that she did in her private life, how much were individuals’ efforts effective, and how did the actions that we can do in our private life bring food to people who suffered from starvation. First, she told me not only actions that I could learn on the internet before, such as reducing food waste, volunteering, and donating money or food, but also some new helpful actions. She suggested researching about the issue, for instance, what organizations do to help solve it and electing better politicians that can lead to change policy about the issue. Second, about the effectiveness of individuals’ efforts, she described that the actions that should be taken by each person, which looks like a small effect, can create a significant impact if many people do them, so individuals’ efforts are effective. I believe that knowing how much our actions are helpful can make the people feel like acting, so telling people about it is also very essential. I asked the last question because people including me didn’t understand that how were actions for reducing food waste and distributing food well such as not making leftovers, purchasing only necessary amount of food, and preserving foods cleverly effective. Some people think that these efforts can only save foods at supermarkets or homes. However, according to her, some businesses such as supermarkets contribute to donate food, so if individuals act to save food at those businesses, they could possess more food to donate. As a result, more amount food will be distributed to more people.
I didn’t know how much my actions is helpful for hunger, but she told me that doing small actions with many people is essential, and knowing it made me feel like keeping doing helpful actions for people who need help, so it was interesting for me.
This research mission was totally related to my research topic. As I mentioned above, some people don’t understand that how individuals’ actions for hunger is helpful for distributing foods to hunger, so information from this interview made our poster board and research paper more convincing.
I could ask her all my questions, so I don’t have any questions after this research mission.
I recommend this research mission to anyone who wants to get specific information about hunger.
Yuika Sugawara