Richmond - The Editor, It's that month again where kids are excited to carve the orange circular vegetable and put it outside their doorway as a decoration. The pumpkin patch will be a hit, and thousands of people will be out there having fun.
Richmond - The Editor, It's that month again where kids are excited to carve the orange circular vegetable and put it outside their doorway as a decoration. The pumpkin patch will be a hit, and thousands of people will be out there having fun.Now how about this: 842 million people around the world are hungry. Poor nutrition causes nearly 45 per cent of deaths in children under five, that is approximately 3.1 million each year. One in six children in a developing country is underweight. Fifteen million children die every year.The United Nations World Food Program claims it would cost US$3.2 billion per year to reach all 66 million hungry schoolage children. Meanwhile, Americans will spend more than twice that (US$6.9 billion) on Halloween costumes, treats, festivities and pets this year alone, according to ReadingEagle, an online business magazine.Back to pumpkins, in just six states the pumpkin industry is worth $113 million a year. In Canada, it's $15 million.Now if you imagine your every purchase of a pumpkin could help save a child's life, what would you do? I am not saying we should stop carving pumpkins at Halloween, because that is just cruel and kids, including myself, love it! Instead, I want to show that, if we can spend this much to make a decoration, why can't we also spend this much to save a life?Erika Bawar,Richmond Richmond
