Hunger Games movie

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The feast is on: "The Hunger Games" has taken in $68.25 million domestically in its first day, a record for a non-sequel.

The Friday total for Lionsgate's "The Hunger Games" was the fifth-best opening day ever and puts the movie on track for the best debut weekend ever in March. That record is held by "Alice in Wonderland" with $116.1 million.

The big start should translate into an opening weekend of as much as $140 million domestically, according to Paul Dergarabedian, analyst for box-office tracker Hollywood.com.

"The Hunger Games" stars Jennifer Lawrence as a teen forced to compete in a televised death match against other youths in a future North American society where a privileged capital city oppresses the people of 12 outlying worker districts. The film is based on the first book in a best-selling trilogy by author Suzanne Collins.

These books are ginormously popular. The holds list at the library (people who are waiting to get a copy) is over 850 names. You don't have to read the books or see the movie, though, to realize that hunger even in America is not a problem for a post-apocalyptic future.

According to Feeding America,

Hunger Study 2010

Hunger in America 2010 is the largest study of domestic hunger, providing comprehensive and statistically-valid data on our emergency food distribution system and the people Feeding America serves. Hunger in America 2010 is extremely detailed, drawing on data from more than 61,000 interviews with clients and surveys of 37,000 feeding agencies.
The report shows that hunger is increasing at an alarming rate in the United States, and our network is expanding its reach in response:

Feeding America is annually providing food to 37 million Americans, including 14 million children. This is an increase of 46 percent over 2006, when we were feeding 25 million Americans, including 9 million children, each year.
That means one in eight Americans now rely on Feeding America for food and groceries.
Feeding America's nationwide network of food banks is feeding 1 million more Americans each week than we did in 2006.
Thirty-six percent of the households we serve have at least one person working.
More than one-third of client households report having to choose between food and other basic necessities, such as rent, utilities and medical care.
The number of children the Feeding America network serves has increased by 50 percent since 2006. [Emphasis added: Michael]

I know we sometimes wonder about financial appeals from large groups. So I am not suggesting you send money to Feeding America, unless that appeals to you after you look at their website. I do suggest, however, that we all take the opportunity to donate something to our local food pantry or other local organization that reaches out to the hungry in our area.

SomeOne once said something along the lines of "I was hungry and you gave me something to eat."