BUCKHUNGER means Food For Kids in Need, which is the legal name of our Cambodian NGO Registration. As I saw kids digging through trash piles in search of anything edible, I searched for any existing Phnom Pehn program, government or private based, that dealt with this tragedy. Prior to my first visit to Cambodia in 2006, I’d spent a time in Thailand, France, Russia, Vietnam, Mexico and Baja and I’d never seen anything like these deplorable and heartbreaking conditions. Nothing was being done on a state level and I found only one foreign operation NGO that bragged on its website that they were addressing the hunger problem in Cambodia by providing needed food in poor villages. As a volunteer, I joined on multiple delivery days.
They made “once a month” deliveries from a truck. I met early one morning at the rendezvous point where several of us bagged 2 kilo sacks of rice, fish sauce, sugar, salt, fry oil, MSG, cheap dried fish, local crackers and candy. It was a parcel that could not have cost more than a couple of dollars and contained no protein, no vegetable, no fruit. We drove in the wild for an hour and delivered 100 or so sacks in a very poor village to thankful Kymers. This was in no way addressing the child hunger problem.
This was in no way addressing the child hunger problem.
One buck could satisfy the hunger of one child
Hot Meals
Buckhunger was my original thought… that with one buck, the hunger of one child could be satisfied.
And so we started, just over 10 years ago, providing one meal a day to any and all that came. Mostly kids from 4 to about 12 would line up early before our doors opened, file in to first wash their hands at wash sinks and sit at stainless steel tables in plastic chairs.
They were served the meal of the day, basic Kymer foods with piles of rice and fish sauce and loads of fresh water. With time, our staff got their buying and preparation costs down to about $.40 per meal and was giving a nutritious meal to often as many as 300 kids a day. Unfortunately, today’s requirements are far more expensive as the cost of bottled water and to-go containers are as much as the food, seriously straining our budget.
Buckhunger currently provides about 100 meals a day, almost totally to young children.
Bottled Water
In Cambodia as most other developing countries, water quality is always questionable and it makes good sense to only use some form of distilled or ultra-filtered water. When Buckhunger opened in 2010, our daily average of bottled water was ten 50 liter bottles, a costly amount over time. Fortunately, there was a specialty water company near us that became a big believer in Buckhunger and donated a wall mounted filtration machine that could be adjusted for the water’s PH levels, increasing water quality. It is still in use today and provides an ample supply of quality water to our kids.
For street kids living in slums, clean water access presents another daily problem. It’s not uncommon for a begging street child to ask for your half-filled water bottle.
What a great opportunity for a corporate or individual sponsor to provide BUCKHUNGER with REFILLABLE bottles that the child could return for filling, something that these kids need and would use. Water for thirsty kids.
Flip Flop Shoes
Some 30% of the kids that arrive at Buckhunger are shoeless. They didn’t forget their flip flops, they don’t have them. Phnom Penh, as well as much of Cambodia, is a rough dirty place to walk if you are poor. The streets are not swept, are littered with glass and obstacles, unsanitary and often unpaved. It is a perfect environment for cuts and scrapes and infections. These kids have enough problems fighting hunger and potential malnutrition, and then this.
In our early days when I was funding the biggest part of our budget needs we addressed this by initiating a FLIP-FLOP program. We found a reseller at our market that sold us cheap imported flip-flops at $1 a pair that we bought by the 100’s. It wasn’t long before you could look at the feet of these kids and see that a large part of the pack was wearing Buckhunger Flip-Flops.
Unfortunately the need grew dramatically and soon Buckhunger was spending far too much on footwear and the program had to be discontinued.
Free Flip-Flops need to be part of our programs and what an ideal vehicle for a corporate sponsorship. A company or individual that could source a local or foreign manufacturer that would produce, even label if they like, BUCKHUNGER FOOTWEAR FOR KIDS. Saving delicate children’s feet from the many dangers of the street. What could be more satisfying?
Education
Over the years BUCKHUNGER has been criticized for not offering these kids a way out of poverty and hunger. Naturally, it would make sense to solve the problems of these disadvantaged kids that have little or no support, but when kids are hungry they can’t think of anything else but food and water.
These kids don’t go to school and there is no form of free public education. Even the public schools require cash payments to the teachers, and they don’t have food programs. A family from Singapore made a special donation to help Buckhunger in this area enabling us to set up a free English curriculum that was given each day following our meal. Speaking English is a way out of poverty and the program was very popular and effective but the financial strain was too great for the family as the pandemic arrived and this program had to be discontinued. We are hopeful that donations will rise that will allow Buckhunger to reinstate this very important addition.
Baby Formula
Not often do we see infants in Buckhunger but early on I met a young woman that had received a very young baby from its sick mother who was no longer able to care for it. This heartbreaking event is far more common than you may think and was my first experience with the feeding needs of a hungry infant. I soon realized that poor working mothers have other options to “feed” their babies than naturally or with store bought formulas.
This baby, as with hundreds, even thousands more, was being raised on a mix of rice, sugar and water that had been blended or pulverized until it was fine enough to flow thru a rubber nipple and could be bottle fed.
At that time, and I expect it is worse now, commercial baby formulas primarily from China were over $10 a canister. An infant could easily go through an entire canister in a week. This is an enormous and unmanageable sum for a construction working mom making $3-$4 a day and therefore unable to feed the baby herself.
This is an important feeding project that BUCKHUNGER needs to address, securely providing reputable BABY FORMULA to needy poor moms.
What a most gratifying gift! Would you like to help an infant at its most important time?
Special Projects
The needs of Cambodian poor are many, not just food and water and safe shoes but help in getting a life together. BUCKHUNGER’S facility and staff are there to assist with other life changing ideas. Our space and talent are currently used for only a small part of every day and are anxious to expand our positive position in the community. Schooling and training programs are in great need whether it’s learning to use a sewing machine, how to sanitize a kitchen floor or being taught some other trade or employable skill.
Buckhunger is excited to hear about your thoughts on how to help this part of a forgotten society.
It only takes Dreams and Donations. Let us hear your ideas!