Kindnessgirl

Maria! Oh, don’t you adore her… and Mwanaidi the farmer?! …because we are mothers…because every mother should be able to offer her children nutritious food. Today, we bring you a love of sweet potatoes from the ONE campaign and in celebration of World Food Day.

ONE  is a grassroots advocacy and campaigning organization that fights extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa, by raising public awareness and pressuring political leaders to support smart and effective policies. It was cofounded by Bono and other campaigners, ONE is nonpartisan and works closely with African activists and policy makers.

But here is why today and sweet potatoes are special:

There is a great power in the sweet potato, it is a nutritionally dense food that is helping kids gets the vitamins they need so they don’t get stunted. One of the challenges of feeding the world is making sure that bellies are not only full, but full of nutritious foods.

A billion people suffer from chronic malnutrition and more than 2.4 million children will die this year as a result.   Despite major progress in other areas, nutrition is an issue widely overlooked on the development agenda.  Stunting rates have stagnated in Africa over the past two decades at an unacceptably high level of 40%.

Here’s what we need to do to spread the word to help families:

1. We will be tweeting a message at noon TODAY on World Food Day, Oct. 16^th that we will encourage others to tweet-

Put nutrition on your political agenda @ONEcampaign #recipe4change

AND

.@StateDept #SecClinton Create a #Recipe4Change. Put global nutrition on the agenda. 25M kids are counting on it: http://bit.ly/QC9zBs

2. We’re also asking folks to sign our petition.

3. Go to http://act.one.org/go/800?t=3&akid=3450.5976426.sTHvZu

• Write your own short message (we’ll be delivering them to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton); or tweet ONE’s ready-made malnutrition message

The kids and I were trying to think of ways to help spread the word so other kids and families can join in on helping. Here are their ideas:

1. Tell kids to “Watch the video!”

2. Let the sweet potatoes speak for themselves. We made these guys this morning…you can too if you need a little fun fall activity.

If you decide to make some talking sweet potatoes, share them on the ONE Facebook page.

Hope you can join us on this really important day! Our voices (and sweet potatoes) MATTER!