Children are starving right under our noses. This can’t be happening in America, but it is, right here and right now. What a travesty.

Dr. Barton Goldsmith
I can’t feel good about my life when I know that kids are suffering because of neglect, and it’s not that their parents want to feed them more, but they have nothing more to give. However, this is where I feel communities need to step in.
I live in an affluent neighborhood, the kind that people make jokes about. Less than two miles from my guard-gated entrance is a food bank that a number of people I know use to help feed their families. I have “adopted†a cancer patient and a fatherless high school senior and help to feed them both. I don’t do this to be a nice guy. I do it because it helps me sleep at night. Maybe I have what could be termed as “prosperity guilt,†but when someone comes into my path who can’t even buy food, and I have more than I need, I have to help feed them.
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The irony here is that I hardly eat at all myself. But if I’m in line at a takeout restaurant and the person behind me is looking and acting like they’re making choices because they don’t have enough cash, I will sometimes pay for the meal and leave before they find out. This action helps heal my heartache. If each of us can do what we can to make the world a better place, one person at a time, we will.
If you can’t afford to do things like that when you’re out, you can always make a little extra food at home and give it to someone in need. I know that not every homeless person holding up a sign for help is really asking for food, but they all need it. I’d rather give someone a burger in a bag than a dollar bill.
I don’t know the actual numbers — and this is a total guess — but I bet that the money spent on advertising alone for the next major sporting event would be enough to feed the vast majority of hungry children for a year. OK, so maybe you would need to combine a couple of events and throw in a concert or whatever to foot the bill. I know Bill Gates is giving away his billions, as is Warren Buffett, and they are great men, but what about all those other famous people, like Elon? And what about the rest of us?
They are now saying that Kim Kardashian is the most powerful woman in television (it used to be Oprah). What if she were to do what some executives are doing, taking a dollar-a-year salary and donating the rest? I’ve seen her do some bits for charity, but what we need are big bites. Have any of the foodie networks ever done a show on hungry kids in America? The food network stars should get together and create something. They may have more power in this area than the government. We need to work harder as individuals and as teams to solve this, because the officials are just not getting the job done.
I know this isn’t my usual subject, but whenever I hear about or see a hungry or neglected child, it breaks my heart. So I’m using this column to ask you to forgo buying any of my books and instead give the 20 bucks to a food bank or to a hungry kid. Honestly, if I could end the problem myself, I would, but I’m just a therapist, not an organization, so I have to leave this in your hands and hearts. The kids need your help.