# Where were "people starving" when you were a kid? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 13, 2019, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432 "2019-02-13T00:47:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Orville\_mogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/aeb1de/32.png) [@Orville\_mogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orville_mogul)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2019, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432/62 "2019-02-14T18:10:27Z")
Ethiopia for me too. And the first time I found myself in Ethiopia for work (circa 1997) I was eating Ethiopian food in the hotel restaurant (I love Ethiopian food) and they gave me waaay too much injera. Not possible to finish it. And all I could think of was my mom telling me there are people starving in Ethiopia. I actually begged the hotel to save the leftover food so that I could eat it the next meal. They fed it to stray dogs ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2019, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432/63 "2019-02-14T18:13:33Z")
Adding insult to injera…? ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2019, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432/64 "2019-02-14T18:22:55Z")
At other people’s houses, China. At my own, there was no guilt tripping about not eating everything. If you didn’t, a parent would finish it because we were on a tight budget and the servings were small. No cookie if you didn’t eat most of it, though. ---
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2019, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432/65 "2019-02-14T19:32:45Z")
Cambodia, early/mid 70s. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2019, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432/66 "2019-02-14T20:24:53Z")
A generic ‘Africa’, but I only remember hearing it at school, not from parents. ---
**Author:** ![Orville\_mogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/aeb1de/32.png) [@Orville\_mogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orville_mogul)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2019, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432/67 "2019-02-15T10:21:15Z")
> [@Sangahyando](#): > > Adding insult to injera…? Well-played sir 😃 ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2019, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432/68 "2019-02-15T10:59:12Z")
> [@Sangahyando](#): > > Adding insult to injera…? Will you marry me? ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2019, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432/69 "2019-02-15T11:32:04Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > Will you marry me? Taking it that you’re male – unfortunately, I don’t think same-sex marriage is allowed in Ethiopia… ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2019, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432/70 "2019-02-15T16:25:33Z")
China, in the 1950s. ---
**Author:** ![Bayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bayaker/32/3454_2.png) [@Bayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2019, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432/71 "2019-02-15T16:40:30Z")
My parents used both China and India, presumably because at least some people were always starving in those places. I once asked something like “What about the kids in Biafra?” in a smart-alecky way. My mom didn’t skip a beat and said “Yes, it’s getting worse - clean your plate”. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2019, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432/72 "2019-02-16T11:08:36Z")
Yes, people were starving in Africa when I was a kid. But then again, my grandmother (who mostly raised me) had been born in 1899 the daughter of a poor sharecropper, my mother remembered not so fondly wartime food restrictions, and my father had been deported to a concentration camp, so you can guess that none of them would have looked too fondly on food wasting, even in the absence of starving Africans. My grandmother in particular would never throw away anything edible (or that had been edible). If it couldn’t be eaten by her, it could feed a stray cat or be brought to a nearby farm for the chickens or pigs. Throwing it away wasn’t an option. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2019, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432/73 "2019-02-16T19:19:35Z")
Another one for Biafra. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2019, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432/74 "2019-02-16T20:15:03Z")
It was China in the 50s around my home. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2019, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432/75 "2019-02-16T21:28:31Z")
When I was a kid, we were stationed in India, so it really wouldn’t have worked. I could have marched out the door and said “Starving people of India! Please help yourself to my string beans!” ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2019, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432/76 "2019-02-16T21:39:57Z")
To be clear, I was answering in terms of the meme as it existed at the time of my childhood: I don’t think that my mom ever actually used it. It probably would have been redundant, anyway, since for a year or so of my childhood we had actual refugees living with us (and Mom still managed to pinch pennies so tight that we _still_ all ate enough). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432.md?page=3)