Taylor Swift performs onstage during NSAI 2022 Nashville Songwriter Awards at Ryman Auditorium on Sept. 20, 2022 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Terry Wyatt, Getty Images)
Pop star Taylor Swift’s donations to food banks along her concert tour sets a great example in bringing attention to the hunger crisis. Her actions encourage everyone to get involved fighting hunger. That is the pathway toward a solution to hunger.
Swift, a Berks County native, opened her concert tour in March donating to the Arizona Food Bank Network and the Three Square Food Bank of Las Vegas.
Both food banks posted news of her donation on Instagram. The Arizona Food Bank Network said, “We are incredibly grateful to Taylor for this gift, and for caring about people who are struggling to put food on the table.”
Swift has donated to more food banks as the tour has continued including the Tarrant Area Food Bank in Texas. Feeding Tampa Bay also received a donation from the singer-songwriter and posted on Instagram: “Thank you @taylorswift for being a HERO and supporting Feeding Tampa Bay’s mission to end hunger by 2025! Your generosity will place over 125,000 meals on tables!”
Swift has a history of donating to food banks even prior to this tour, including a large gift to the Houston Food Bank in 2017. She made another in this tour.
Taking action to feed the hungry shows that you care, just like Swift does. This can encourage others to get involved in feeding the hungry.
The crisis of hunger is often a silent one and does not get much attention in the media. Donations by celebrities such as Swift help put the spotlight on hunger and how food banks need our help. Food banks in America are struggling to provide for those in need, especially with high food prices and the expiration of pandemic benefits like expanded SNAP (foods stamps).
It’s also vital that global hunger get attention with many nations at risk of famine. Global hunger relief programs are short on funding.
The UN World Food Program warns, “The scale of the current global hunger and malnutrition crisis is enormous, with an expected 345.2 million people projected to be food insecure — more than double the number in 2020.”
Drought caused by climate change has plunged Somalia into severe food shortages. People there walk for days hoping to find any little bit of food and water. Ethiopia and Kenya are other nations in the Horn of Africa reeling from the prolonged drought.
In war-torn Yemen there are 17 million people suffering in hunger. In the Democratic Republic of Congo there are 26 million people needing food aid, with around 10 million in the most severe levels of hunger. In Syria and Turkey the recent earthquakes has increased hunger for those already impacted by conflict. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has escalated hunger worldwide increasing food prices and threatening a major source of food. Sudan is seeing worsening hunger because of violence.
What the hungry everywhere need are advocates. You can follow Swift’s example by donating to feed the hungry, hosting a fundraiser at your school or holding a letter writing session to ask members of Congress to support food aid.
Your potential impact is even greater than you realize. For every time attention is given to the hunger crisis, it makes more people aware of what is happening and that can generate action.
Keep in mind that if just eight to 12 people write a letter to their elected officials in Congress, that can make an issue like hunger a priority.
Get involved like Taylor Swift does, and we can defeat hunger.
William Lambers is an author who partnered with the UN World Food Program on the book “Ending World Hunger.”
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