world hunger

As much as we love to cook and eat, we can't ignore the stark reality of what's going on around us: each day, millions upon millions of people struggle to secure their next meal. (Ironically, even food writers have been known to live off of food stamps.) To bring more awareness to the cause, Food Network's brought together some of the country's top food outlets for a virtual roundtable to discuss the fight against hunger. Find out how you can help beyond just donating money, and see what the rest of our friends are doing to raise awareness of poverty and food scarcity.

FN Dish: 4 Ways to Take Action Against Childhood Hunger Today
EatingWell: 6 Inspiring People Who Are Fighting Hunger
BlogHer Food: Poor Girl on SNAP: Using EBT at the Farmers Market
Food52: A Day in the Life at Share Our Strength
GMA.com: Fight Hunger With These 5 Charities
Cooking Channel: Join the Great American Bake Sale
Food Republic: Joining Bloggers to Take on Hunger
Eatocracy: Focus on Hunger

Join in on the conversation over at Twitter by checking out #pullupachair.

Between Easter feasts and Passover Seders, Spring is high time for eating aplenty. That doesn't mean, however, that we should ignore the surge in world hunger that's increased over the past decade and a half.

Food scarcity is a concern that touches more than 925 million people — or one in seven individuals — around the world. Despite America's wealth, this statistic is even more stark stateside: more than one in five children in the United States face food insecurity.

Donating money is an obvious way to help fight hunger, but there are some additional ways to make a difference. Here are five of our favorites.

1. Help serve a meal at a community dining room. Make instant, personal connections with others by volunteering your time at a local homeless shelter.
2. Exercise your brain. Got a restless mind and time to kill? Keep yourself on your toes by playing the United Nations World Food Programme's multiple-choice online game Free Rice, which donates rice for every question you've answered correctly.

For three more ideas, keep reading.

Yesterday, the United Nations revealed a shocking statistic: that 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted every year — roughly a third of all the planet's food that's produced for human consumption. The findings come from a report commissioned by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, and are designed to address the causes behind rising prices, declining food production, and world hunger, among other issues.

Wasted food, or excess or unwanted food being tossed away, amounts to 222 million tons of refuse a year. It doesn't just apply to home cooks and finicky diners; according to the report, retailers in developed countries are as much to blame for throwing out food simply for its appearance. Then there's the issue of food loss: deficits that occur as a result of inefficient food production and processing, particularly in developing nations. Are you shocked by these numbers?

Source: Flickr User jbloom

You may have heard of the miracle berry, the flavor-tripping fruit that changes the tongue's taste bud molecules, allowing foods that are sour or bitter to taste deceptively sweet. Well, one prominent chef's hoping to give the fruit a purpose that supersedes its trippy reputation: alleviating world hunger.

At the TED2011 conference, chef Homaro Cantu (who is known for pushing boundaries in molecular cuisine at his Chicago restaurant, Moto), suggested the berry could help broaden the world's dwindling food supply by making items like tree branches and edible grasses more palatable.

"This miracle berry tricks your tongue into thinking all these [edible] bitter and disgusting things taste great. We've eliminated all food miles, all herbicides, pesticides, fungicides; we've made food more healthy," Cantu explained. What do you think? Could you foresee this being a viable solution to the world food crisis that we're facing today?