The Urgency of ending hunger A changemaker experience
[The following is a script to be read to your team, as part of Step 1 of the Start of Year VCA Process. Before you begin, hand out a silver BB to everyone on the room. A packet of BBs was included in your Start-‐of-‐Year VCA package.] We should all have in our hand a BB. Take a moment to look at your BB, and as an exercise in imagination, think of it as representing not a BB, but one human life. Not just any human life, but the life of a person who has really made a difference to you…it could be a parent, a friend, a teacher…maybe it’s even someone famous, who you feel a connection to because of what they did, and the impact it had upon the world… Let the BB in your hand represent that person…think about the influence they’ve had on you…and then imagine how that influence has rippled out…all the other people besides yourself who were influenced and changed by that one person you are thinking of…and those people in turn have influenced others… As you do this, you begin to see just how powerful a single human life can be. But there’s another dimension to this human life…you know, it took about 15 billion years for the universe to create each one of us. Think about it…15 billion years of learning and energy and creativity packed into each and every one of us…each one of us unique…each one of us with a particular gift no one else can give…and each one of us a walking miracle with capacities we are just beginning to understand. So when a life is lost to hunger…thrown away, really…can we get ahold of what REALLY is being thrown away? Do we understand what is happening? Do we really have “throw-‐away people”? We do. We throw people away at an unimaginable rate, and at an unimaginable cost. A million people every year. Thrown away. 25,000 people every day. Thrown away. One child, every 5 seconds. Thrown away. What is the potential that is being lost with every life? What is the possibility, the impact, the difference that could have been made but that will never be, because that one person never had the chance?
As I said, the potential represented by not one but by 25,000 human beings is being lost every day. But big numbers can be hard to connect with. So we are going to have an experience of what 25,000 people, thrown away in a single day…sounds like. [play video] TRANSITION This is the reality that we are responding to. A human species that tolerates that reality, creates that reality, is not a viable species. This is why our work is so incredibly important. And why we are here today. Because this is not a reality that we are going to let stand. [At this point, ask people to respond…to share their thoughts, feelings, and reactions to the entire experience. Once everyone has spoken, say…] Ending hunger is urgent. But the good news is, people like us are responding, and we are making a difference. And making a difference is what the next three steps of this process are all about. So let’s get going!