Tag Archives: hunger with children

The Real Art of Giving- Is it Doable?

chakulla

Every once in a while you meet people who inspire you to the point of taking action and doing something to solve or alleviate a problem or issue. Someone who inspires you to forget about the “non-essential” things in your life and focus some quality time and effort into making a difference in the world or even your backyard. I was very fortunate this past summer to meet such an individual who inspired me to do more to help others-will you join me?

This person is Chakulla, yes Chakulla! This guy is as cool as his name. As a board member of Project Arts of Plymouth, a non-profit 501-3C we are responsible for bringing together some of the area’s best musical talent for our free music series on the Plymouth waterfront. I met Chakulla on Saturday July 18th at our annual Roots & Folk festival with over 10 bands over 2 days with music, crafts, food and fun.   [[Photo of Hunger Bus]]

As I began looking into Chakulla and his mission, I came across some powerful stats that made me think, to take action regarding hunger and food insecurity:

In the United States today, 16 million children face hunger. Consequently, one in five kids are facing greater obstacles to reaching their fullest potential. The future of America lies in our children. When hunger threatens the future of a child, it threatens the future of our nation as well.

  • 84 percent of client households with children report purchasing the cheapest food available, even if they knew it weren’t the healthiest option, in an effort to provide enough food for their household.
  • Among Feeding America client households with children, nearly 9 in 10 households (89 percent) are food insecure.

As a leading charity organization, Feeding America is dedicated to helping solve the child hunger problem. Our network of community food banks serves 12 million children.

[This following I have taken from The Hunger Bus website www.thehungerbus.com]

Chakulla (affectionately known as Grandfather Chakulla) is an individual, expressing his music with an organic grove of worldly rhythm’s, unique guitar cords, catchy and memorable melodies. He sings out with an acoustic guitar using a loop pedal enabling leads, harmonica, marimba, conga’s, percussion, and vocal percussion lines to manifest on the spot and live .

He is best described as the Folk/World/Jazz/Americana artist, and in his 4 decades of writing and playing music Chakulla has shared his music at concert venues seating 60,000 people, and in Clubs, at House concerts, Festivals, TV and radio appearances, and singing out in the streets.

He has shared the stage with Richie Havens, Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, Buddy Miles, Aztec Two step, etc. Chakulla has a profound effect on audiences connecting, including, inspiring, and inviting them to participate and to sing along leaving them with a smile.

At every concert event and venue Chakulla will be “Singing out for Food” asking and reminding us to remember those less fortunate and give to your local Food Bank, Pantry, soup kitchen, etc… to HELP FEED HUNGRY CHILDREN PEOPLE!!!!!!!!

So what are you doing to help the cause of hunger? Not many of us have the deep passion and commitment that Chukulla has. But I feel that we have to do something, even if it’s just a little. Maybe volunteer at a soup kitchen with your children to give them awareness of hunger in America or look for local non-profits addressing hunger in your area and invest some personal time or money to help out. So what is this blogger going to do? For all my upcoming music performances I am going to ask those coming to bring non-perishable canned goods so I can donate them to my local food bank. We all have to do something since it’s right in our backyard, or it could even be your neighbor. So I hope after you go onto the www.thehungerbus.org website you’ll be inspired to get involved.http://www.thehungerbus.org