I found an interesting post as I was surfing the interweb. They took pictures and captions from the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio. In the post, they show the cost of eating for various families around the world, then show pictures of what that amount buys.
Some figures:
- Germany – $500 a week for food
- North Carolina, USA – $341.98 a week for food
- Great Britain – $253 a week for food
- Kuwait – $221.45 a week for food
- Poland – $151 a week for food
- Ecuador – $31.55 a week for food
- Breidjing Camp – $1.23 a week for food!!! {Sudanese refugees in Chad}
(Go check out the pictures)
Some things I noticed at the original post:
The further down the list you go, it seems the folks in the photos get happier and happier. Lots of smiles in Chad (in the photo, anyway).
The comments people left are sad, not showing the best side of human nature. I won’t repeat them, go read the post for yourself.
The higher up the list you go, the more packaged food you see on the tables.
The lower you go, the simpler the food gets.
Probably some lessons there.
It costs me about $25 a week at the grocery store and another $30 a week eating out, but most of the eating out is somewhat work related, being as I will grab a cup of coffee while writing in the coffee shop, or meet with a pastor or something over a cup of coffee. Once a week, I treat myself to a sitdown dinner, with silverware and everything, at restaurant; that usually runs about $10-$12 (That is included in the $30 eating out).
A few weeks ago, we fed approximately 150 folks, including seconds for many, for less than $50. Now, true, some of that was donated, but it still would have cost far less than $1 per person, even had we had to pay full price.
Looking at these numbers above, it is obvious that we really could feed the whole world if we had the will to do so. Obviously, we have the money.
via: Simply Thrifty