This Thanksgiving, we must feed the hungry at home and abroad | Opinion

It was President Harry Truman who said that the real spirit of Thanksgiving “is in the sharing of the harvest, and in a feeling of warm friendship and goodwill for others less fortunate.”

This Thanksgiving — perhaps now more than ever — we need to share food with the hungry at home and abroad. Hunger is everywhere. Food prices are high in America, and our food banks are overwhelmed with demand.

The Sacramento Food Bank says it is seeing much higher levels of demand even compared to pre-pandemic numbers. The recent government shutdown only added to the crisis of hunger, and made food aid programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program less available. Overseas, people are starving to death due to ongoing conflicts in places like Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gaza, Yemen, Mali, South Sudan and Haiti. Yet, amidst widespread famine and hunger, it is tragic to see American food aid programs cut by the Trump administration.

More wealth goes into weapons than feeding the hungry. There is plenty of food available in the world, and no one should starve to death. It’s clear this Thanksgiving that the American people need to unite against hunger. Anyone can do so by carrying on the Thanksgiving tradition of share whatever food they can with a local food bank. Consider starting or joining a food drive in your community or school.

Charities fighting hunger overseas like the World Food Program, Save the Children, CARE, Catholic Relief Services, Mary’s Meals, United Nations Children’s Fund, Edesia, Action Against Hunger, Mercy Corps and many others need donations.

The World Food Program, the world’s largest hunger-fighting organization, is so low on funding that rations have been reduced in certain countries.

“We are on the brink of a completely preventable hunger catastrophe that threatens widespread starvation in multiple countries,” said the program’s executive director, Cindy McCain. “Mothers are skipping meals so their children can eat, and families are exhausting what little they have left as they struggle to survive. We urgently need new funding and unimpeded access — a failure to act now will only drive further instability, migration and conflict.”

Think how tragic it is for someone displaced by a war — someone who has lost everything — and they cannot even get a meal at a refugee camp because food funding has run out. We don’t want to see desperation and starvation take place in countries impacted by war and severe drought.

Without food, nations cannot recover from war. Thus, it becomes an endless cycle of hunger and chaos, leading to more conflict for scarce resources. Even though you may be far away from those suffering from hunger, you can do something to help them this Thanksgiving.

It’s important that Americans take action against hunger because it sets a good example for our elected officials in government. If hunger is an important issue for you, it should be for them, too. It is our elected officials who can stop the funding cuts to food aid programs.

Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt once spoke of a great way to celebrate Thanksgiving: By making a donation to feed hungry people, as if they were the “silent guests” at your holiday meal.

Roosevelt wrote in 1947: “They are asking that each one of us who can afford to do so entertain a ‘silent guest’ at our table on Thanksgiving Day. It might ... be a good idea to set that extra place so that it would remind us of our great good fortune in being able not only to eat ourselves, but to share what we have with others.”

The silent guest at the Thanksgivings of 1947 and 1948 led to many thousands of CARE food packages being sent to starving families in war-torn Europe. That generosity of feeding these silent guests preceded and may have helped lead to the famous Marshall Plan that ultimately rebuilt Europe.

A silent guest at your Thanksgiving this year could do a lot of good to help feed the hungry, everywhere. By sharing food with the hungry this Thanksgiving season, we can live the true spirit of the holiday and be part of a powerful force to change the world.

William Lambers is an author who partnered with the UN World Food Program on the book Ending World Hunger. His writings have been published by the Washington Post, Newsweek, History News Network and many other news outlets. Lambers volunteered to write the Hunger Heroes section of WFP’s online fundraising trivia game FreeRice.

This story was originally published November 23, 2025 at 5:00 AM.