For those of you who follow this blog, you know that on Fridays we like to post Food Friday blogs. It's a chance for Red Crossers to have a little fun and talk about something many of us love – food. This week, we had three posts in mind: one about emergency chocolate, another about a pancake breakfast at the Calgary Stampede and a community BBQ in New Glasgow.
But given the mounting crisis in the Horn of Africa, our team decided it would be insensitive to post light stories about food when more 
than 11 million are at risk of starvation right now.
This week the Canadian Red Cross began accepting funds to help families across the Horn of Africa who have been affected by droughts. It's difficult to imagine just how severe the impact of drought can be on a continent where food is scarce and families depend on good weather to grow crops for survival.
Many of us will remember the famine in Ethiopia in the 80s – rock stars rallied and created the popular song We are the World bringing much-needed attention to the emergency. Experts are saying this current crisis is on par with that famine and this is the worst drought that has occurred in the region in 60 years.
Starvation is a very different kind of emergency – it’s not like when the earthquake struck Haiti and we watched on TV as a nation was reduced to rubble within minutes. It's not like when the tsunami swept through Japan and we watched as water swept up homes and livelihoods.
The crisis in the Horn of Africa is like a silent emergency, one that has been creeping slow and steady, but stands to destroy even more lives.
The Canadian Red Cross is trying to raise the red flag on the crisis in the Horn of Africa. It's difficult to do because news of this emergency doesn't have the same impact as watching loss of lives in a matter of seconds. 
We need your help. There are three easy ways you can support us: educate yourself on the crisis, talk about it with your networks and make a donation.
Just as we have forgone our Food Friday, maybe you will consider forgoing your Friday night dinner plans and use those funds to support aid workers feverishly working to support those in the Horn of Africa right now.