No More Crackers Please

Yesterday I roamed the aisles of the local grocery store searching for the few remaining items we wanted to include in the Holiday Hampers for the local woman’s shelter.  I wandered up one aisle with shelves overflowing with pop and down the next brimming with potato chips.  Over one row was an entire aisle of cereal followed by another one stocked half way full of crackers.

Every time I see this overwhelming selection in a single product category images of the Lost Boys of Sudan documentary come flooding back.  One part in the documentary follows a couple of these Sudanese young men – who travelled great distances on foot to reach a refugee camp in Kenya – walking into a grocery store for the first time in the United States.  Not only were they overwhelmed by the amount of food all in one place, they were most surprised at the amount and variety of … pet food.

When I see a new cereal, snack food or cracker being advertised I wonder why we need a new “cracker” and what does it really have to offer.  If the resources, skills and intelligence exist to create another cracker I’m absolutely confident those same resources, skills and intelligence can be applied towards solving hunger – both locally and globally.

I’m also confident we don’t need even smaller cell phone with more gadgets.  We can apply that knowledge, capacity and effort towards connecting more people together and reducing barriers.

I can’t help but make sense of reducing the quantity of choices for increasing the quality of fewer choices for all.  The world doesn’t need another cracker.