Childhood hunger is a multi-layered epidemic that affects approximately 13.4 million children in America, representing roughly 1 in 6 children. Childhood hunger impairs children’s health in significant and long-lasting ways. It results in poorer mental health, impedes growth and development, causes more illnesses including stomachaches, headaches, colds, ear infections, fatigue, weaker immune systems, behavioral issues and countless other lifelong consequences. Hunger also makes children unable to learn and perform academically, impairing cognitive functioning and causing children to experience school absences, tardiness, school suspensions and failing entire school years.

Hunger is not only an epidemic in America, but it is also a pandemic throughout the entire world. There is strength in numbers and together, we have the ability to not only fight but end childhood hunger.

Share Our Strength started Operation No Kid Hungry where they are asking us to join in the national text campaign and food drive to end childhood hunger in America.

You can help end childhood hunger by making a text donation by texting “SHARE” to 20222 on your mobile phone. AT&T will match the first $100,000 in text donations to Share Our Strength.

Hold a food drive. Meet the growing need for food by teaming up with food banks in your area. Check the list of most needed foods and start asking friends, family and neighbors for those foods. If your area does not have a food bank, start a food drive on your own. Start a movement in your area and get the residents of your town interested in helping out.

Lastly, help spread the word about Operation No Kid Hungry. You can spread the word just by using websites and web services you frequent daily. Leave comments or do guest posts for your favorite blogs or post about this movement on your own blog. You can also spread the word through Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and any other web services you frequently use.

You can find out more about this call to action on Share Our Strength’s website and AT&T’s media kit.

I have been watching live inaugural coverage since early this morning and if one thing is apparent, it is the fact that so many Americans, even those who have not exactly felt like Americans have traveled to Washington, DC, viewing parties all over the country and tuning in online to see the 44th president of the United States inaugurated.

This is not only a historic moment for America, but for all of us.

Watch live inaugural coverage brought to you by MSNBC.

After all the victories we’ve seen in the realm of marijuana law reform and the recent election, it is now time to act! According to the NORML blog, “The election of Barack Obama, coupled with Democrat control of both the House and the Senate, presents a unique and critical opportunity for federal marijuana law reform.” A vast majority of you voted to change the laws regarding marijuana arrests; now is the time to make sure your vote doesn’t go unnoticed.

Obama’s transition team has established a website recently with an agenda of things to be addressed once Obama is in office. Looking at the current list, I was upset to see that Marijuana Law Reform is not even mentioned. Thankfully, the website has a page asking for OUR ideas to help solve challenges facing our country.

That means it’s up to us to get Marijuana Law Reform on the list! All you have to do is go to the page linked above to contact Obama and his transition team, and demand change of the current marijuana policy. Thanks to the wonderful people at NORML, you can even include the three suggestions below:

1. President Obama must uphold his campaign promise to cease the federal arrest and prosecution of (state) law-abiding medical cannabis patients and dispensaries by appointing leaders at the US Drug Enforcement Administration, the US Department of Justice, and the US Attorney General’s office who will respect the will of the voters in the thirteen states that have legalized the physician-supervised use of medicinal marijuana.

2. President Obama should use the power of the bully pulpit to reframe the drug policy debate from one of criminal policy to one of public health. Obama can stimulate this change by appointing directors to the Office of National Drug Control Policy who possess professional backgrounds in public health, addiction, and treatment rather than in law enforcement.

3. President Obama should follow up on statements he made earlier in his career in favor of the decriminalization of marijuana by adults by calling for the creation of a bi-partisan Presidential Commission to review the budgetary, social, and health costs associated with federal marijuana prohibition, and to make progressive recommendations for future policy changes.

As if this hasn’t been said enough – This is the time for change! I cannot urge you enough to write this letter to the President Elect and get Marijuana Law Reform on the agenda. You already showed that it’s what you want by voting for it in the election – Now is time to make your voice heard and tell them why and how!

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Ally is a girl from New York who writes Sweet Leaf Tribune, an informational blog about marijuana law reform and cannabis culture, as well as medical marijuana, recipes for ‘baked’ goods, stoner how-to’s, and a lot more.

As part of a marketing campaign for The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, the cast is helping out Habitat for Humanity in New Orleans.

If you’re thinking, what on Earth does a movie about four friends and a magic pair of jeans have to do with Habitat for Humanity you will surely be surprised. Alexis Bledel stated in an interview, “They are recycling jeans and making these tubes for insulation that will help insulate the houses they are building down there.” See, get it? Magic jeans, using jeans for insulation. Yeah!

The sisterhood aren’t the only ones helping out with this amazing project; Cotton Inc., GUESS, and Warner Bros. Pictures are spreading the word about the Habitat project to people who are purchasing GUESS products and if you’re one of those people, you should also be aware of the fact that you also have the opportunity to help with the efforts in New Orleans simply by turning in old pairs of jeans you may have laying in back of your closet gathering dust. Not only that, but if you do turn in a pair (or multiple pairs) of your old jeans, you will receive a discount on your new purchases for every pair of jeans you turn in. Your old jeans will be reclaimed into cotton and turned into energy efficient insulation.

So get out there, buy some new pairs of fabulous jeans, bring in the old jeans you never wear anyway and get a discount on said fabulous jeans. It’s as simple as that!

Oh, and if your Gilmore Girls antennae goes up at the mention of Alexis Bledel and you’re like me and so many other Gilmore Girls fans, Alexis was also asked in the interview about a Gilmore Girls movie coming out to which she replied with she didn’t know and hadn’t heard anything. Come on Gilmore Girls cast, crew and writers, we want a real ending! Give us a movie and shut us up, please.

When you think of homeless shelters, most people’s first thoughts leap to movies and what they’ve seen showcased on their television screens–Bland, cold, run down. Sadly, what people have seen for so many years on movies and television shows aren’t far from the truth in the least.

Terry Grahl visited a homeless shelter for women dealing with drug addictions and domestic violence, Grace Centers of Hope in Pontiac, MI. The women who live at Grace Centers of Hope have already had some very traumatic and life-shattering experiences and this shelter provides these women with shelter for them and their children for up to one year. Because of the experiences these women have already had, shelters such as Grace Centers of Hope and so many others across the country are there to lend these women a hand, to assure these women that their lives are not over and to relieve these women of their pasts and teach them to look forward towards a hopeful and promising future. While the mission of these shelters is amazing, the interior most often resembles the emotional deterioration of the women themselves; which is exactly what Terry Grahl thought when she visited Grace Centers of Hope.

As soon as Terry had seen the prison-like beds that these women slept in, the walls and carpets that looked as if they were part of an abandoned building that fell prey to a handful of high school kids wanting a place to party, she knew she had found a project to dedicate her time and talent to. Terry believed that these women deserved so much more, especially considering that Grace Centers of Hope is the “in between” place for these women to start to get on their own two feet and start to make sense of their lives. How were they to make sense of their lives while living in a space that lacked to inspire.

Luckily, not only Terry felt this way, but so did the women who ran this shelter as well as the people who had donated money to be used to revamp the center as well as those who had donated various items such as ceiling fans, air conditioners, washers and dryers, baby cribs, curtains, beauty products, homemade art and so much more. The community surrounding Grace Centers of Hope came together with Terry, the women who run this shelter and the women who find themselves in a shelter that once reminded them of how lost they were, but can now remind them to always have hope, to not look upon themselves as victims and to provide the best life they possibly can to their own children. The women of Grace Centers of Hope can now feel inspired, motivated and hopeful and their surroundings can now uplift them and hopefully, they will never feel the sorrow, loneliness, or feel victimized in any way for the rest of their lives.

To see what Terry and the women of Grace Centers of Hope and the people of Pontiac, MI did to transform this space for the women who live there, click the images below and you can also visit Terry’s website, Terry’s Enchanted Cottage, where she has dedicated a page to The Hopeful Haven Project.

See before and after pictures of Terry’s work at Grace Centers of Hope below:

America came one step closer to achieving equal rights for all people when California declared that refusing gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people the right to marry was unconstitutional. Since this remarkable day in LGBT history, many couples have been married and have shared in the experience of vowing to love and to cherish each other in front of their friends and families and for the first time in California, their marriage will be legal in the eyes of the law.

With every day that we celebrate this victory for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered couples, anti-LGBT have been working to deny benefits to LGBT couples on both state and federal levels. In order to make sure that ignorance and hate doesn’t win this battle over true equality for all Americans, the Human Rights Campaign has set up a petition with the hope of getting over 1 million names from people who believe in marriage equality for everyone.

The petition states:

“I do support the right of every American to marry, including gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender couples. I believe that marriage and other civil rights protections are essential to making all families safer and more secure.

By signing this petition, I agree to support efforts to make marriage equality a reality in our country, and to oppose any attempts to discriminate against LGBT couples and individuals.”

With 988,902 signatures so far, HRC needs more people to stand up for marriage equality. Sign the petition here.

This Saturday is a big day for helping the Earth out a little bit in your every day life. March 29, 2008 is Earth Hour, an event created by the World Wildlife Fund and is a day where for one hour (8PM to 9PM–your local time) you will join other people across the world in turning your lights off to raise awareness about global warming.

Last year, Earth Hour was an event in Sydney, Australia and had over 2 million participants and had over 2,000 businesses power down their light sources. This year, Earth Hour is making this a global event–No matter where you are located, turn your lights off from 8PM-9PM and help to fight climate change.

“Join people all around the world in showing that you care about our planet and want to play a part in helping to fight climate change. Don’t forget to sign up and let us know you want to join Earth Hour.“

But what will you do for a whole hour without your lights? Crunchy Domestic Goddess has some ideas, including talking with your kids about why all of the lights are turned out and educating them about the Earth and global warming.

What will you be doing with no lights during Earth Hour?

Here are some other ways that you can help the Earth after March 29th:

• Turn off lights when you leave a room.
• Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs.
• Turn off appliances when not in use.
• Unplug your electronics when they are not in use.
• Use less hot water.
• Switch to green power.

What are you doing in your every day life to help fight global warming?