QUIT COFFEE FOR A CAUSE.

I love food.

I love to play around with it. Experiment with recipes. It's both an art form and a pleasure to me. But it is also a privilege, a fact that was uncomfortably washing over me as I watched tonight's news.

A woman was being interviewed and the first thing that caught my eye was the beautiful, hand stitched fabrics behind her as she spoke. Then it was the baby huddled earnestly in her lap. Intrigued, I turned off my hissing pot of mushrooms and stepped closer.

This mother to four children is a refugee from Syria, and she was detailing the food shortages plaguing their interim camp. Her children, she said with a stoicism that made my eyes moisten with unshed tears, are often lethargic from not having eaten enough.

As I looked at the scraps of eye fillet my own children had thrown over the side of their plates in a sort of post-dinner game, my tummy rolled with guilt. 

I think about my children's nutrition a lot. Particularly my littlest one, who is considered undersized (if she were a fish, you'd throw her back to sea). But they're both active, happy, and hitting their milestones. 

And as I turned my attention back to this woman on the tv in the middle of my chaotic and comfortably first-world lounge room, I stared into her eyes and felt our connection. Our bond. She's a mum, I'm a mum, and I could see her desperation, how she was trying to stay calm for her children despite the turmoil in her eyes. 

What can I do to help this woman, and so many like her across the world, struggling to get their children the basic nutrients they need on a daily basis?

Well, like a lot of people in our culture, I have a coffee a day habit. Woops. Let me clarify. I have a Bought Coffee per day habit. My in-home consumption doesn't bear discussion. So that's $4.50 that I spend without really thinking about it. Every day. That's $135.00 in a month. 

What if I were to give up bought coffees for a month, and instead put that money aside to donate at the end of my thirty days? I'm going to call it Quit Coffee for a Cause. You know that old expression about Misery Loving Company? That's definitely applicable here. I want you to join me. You can still cheat like me and have your home brew! Just think what this tiny period of self-deprivation could mean to someone struggling to obtain the basics in life. 

Care.org is a charity with many pledges of support and according to their website, $66 can feed a whole family for two weeks. So by simply not buying myself a coffee for the next month, I can help that woman with the tormented eyes and brave smile. Or another like her. I could feed their families for a month. Come on. Who's with me?

https://www.care.org.au/syria-donate