Food, Not So Glorious Food

We all know the song, "Food, Glorious Food" – well most of us, at least. For some reason, I have this image of me singing it in school when I was between the ages of 8 and 12, but this would seem unlikely for two reasons. First, my memory is bad, and most of those childish, slightly religious, songs we sang do sound quite similar – Can anyone really tell the difference between “He’s got the whole world in his hands”, and “this little light of mine”? - so similar in fact that when you replay one in you head it merges into this amazing medley containing lyrics from every one you ever sang. Secondly, Food, Glorious Food is most famous for being contained in Oliver Twist, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdqrGJybsCQ) so why would I have sang it at school? Anyhow, the basic principle of the song is that food is, well, glorious. From a TV programme, I was going to find out that this may be true, but only for those who need it - for the rest of us it is as plentiful as air, therefore taken without thought.
The thing is, I’m don’t actually watch TV that often, but after 3 years living in Finland, with just BBC Prime, BBC World, and Sky News in English, I was slightly excited about the prospect of BBC One. The first thing I turned to though, was some programme on BBC1 or CBBC (This was 6 months ago now) called Best of Friends.

It was on the BBC and well, it was pretty awful, but what I found hard to accept was that one the activities was to find a ping-pong ball in a baked bean and, then a rice pudding bath. Now, this may seem a little petty to some people, but to me, it's wrong. In a world that, according to the World Food Programme, contains 854 million persons classified as hungry, and where a child dies from hunger every 5 seconds, I’m not sure this is the right message to be sending kids. I'm sure the same things were on TV when I was 9, in fact I'm sure there were such programmes and I probably enjoyed them too, but now I'm more aware of the world around me, and it doesn't seem right
People always argue with me about things like this – a prime example being when someone takes too much food from a buffet and does not eat it, and remarks “Well, they can’t send this to Africa, can they?”, therefore finding their own behavior acceptable – but most miss the point. No, they cannot send half eaten cooked food to Africa, or anywhere else for that matter. And no, they cannot send the bath either. But the fact is, it is not required to take too much or to have the bath - the unneeded waste - in the first place. Furthermore, it is not really the right way to go and eradicate things such as poverty, if British children are brought up thinking that jumping in a tub full of food is perfectly okay, whilst half the world starves. Most of all, I just would like some guilt, some awareness, just that we in the West feel lucky for everything for what we have, and never take it for granted.
This, in reality, is too much to ask. We live in a life of luxury, and whilst millions die in LEDCs around the world, we don't know them, there is no personal link and they are not famous, thus it is just a statistic, with no story. However, I would like to think that the BBC, of all people, could at least not show so much waste and selfishness. And once the world is hunger- and famine-free, I promise I will be the first to call for the return of Baked Bean baths.