I Know What Hunger Smells Like

PERSONAL ESSAY I Know What Hunger Smells Like One in three Americans is skipping meals in 2026. I grew up being that person. Here is what they need the people in power to understand. By Donnie Harold Harris Army veteran. 50 years in construction. Unity Party of America. Indianapolis, Indiana. April 19, 2026 — There is a smell to hunger that people who have never been truly hungry do not know. It lives in the back of a house with no heat in January, somewhere between wet plaster and the absence of anything cooking. I grew up in that smell. I was the seventh child of a teenage mother in Indianapolis, Indiana. We moved more than a hundred times before I was old enough to count. I attended twenty-one different schools. We did not talk about poverty the way academics talk about it now — with data sets and policy papers and charts. We just lived it. Every day was a calculation: which bill do you let go, which meal do you cut in half, which child gets the coat. So when a new survey from Ms. Magazine and the Century Foundation tells me that one in three Americans is skipping meals today — in 2026, in the richest country in the history of the world — I do not read that as a statistic. I read it as a letter from a house I used to live in. “Policy made by people who have never missed a meal will always miss the point.” What One in Three Actually Means The survey found that 33 percent of Americans are skipping meals to pay their bills. Twenty-nine percent are delaying medical care they know they need. Half are draining their savings just to cover routine monthly expenses. The finding that hit me hardest: working-class people — the ones who build the buildings, lay the pipes, drive the trucks, stock the shelves — are twice as likely as college-educated Americans to skip food or medication. Twice. The people doing the work that keeps this country running are the same people going without. I spent fifty years in construction. I know those people. I was those people. And what the survey cannot capture — what no survey ever can — is the specific geography of that sacrifice. It is not an abstract budget line. It is a parent staring into a refrigerator at 11 o'clock at night deciding which child's lunch to cut shorter tomorrow. It is a veteran choosing between insulin and the electric bill. It is a calculation made so many times it stops feeling like a choice and starts feeling like the weather. — The Education of a Hungry Kid in Indianapolis I did not learn poverty from a book. I learned it from the specific texture of going to school after a night with nothing in the kitchen. The way your head goes light around 10 in the morning. The way you learn to position yourself so the teacher cannot tell you have not eaten. The particular shame of free lunch — not because it was wrong to receive it, but because at eleven years old you have already absorbed the message that needing help is something to hide. What no one told me then, and what I have spent a lifetime working out, is that this was not the result of failure. It was the result of a system designed without us in mind. My mother was not careless. She was overwhelmed, young, and without a single structural support that could have changed our trajectory. The decisions that shaped my childhood were made by people in rooms she would never be invited into. That is still true today. The decisions being made right now about wages, about healthcare costs, about what counts as a living and what does not — they are being made by people who have not been in that kitchen. Who have not done that calculation. Who have not smelled what I smelled. “No one who works an honest forty hours should have to work forty more just to stand still.” The Side-Hustle Trap The same week this survey dropped, a separate report found that more than half of Americans are now working multiple jobs just to survive. Not to get ahead. To survive. We have built an entire cultural mythology around this — the hustle, the grind, the bootstrap — as though the need to work two jobs is a character trait rather than an indictment of a wage structure that has not kept pace with the cost of living for a generation. We celebrate resilience while manufacturing the conditions that require it. I worked fifty years in construction. I believe in honest labor with everything I am. But honest labor is supposed to be enough. When it stops being enough — when a full-time working person still has to count meals at the end of the month — the problem is not the worker. The problem is the deal that was made on their behalf without them in the room. — What I Want the People in Power to Understand I am not writing this to be pitied. I have never wanted pity. I am writing it because I am running for office, and I believe the only honest thing a candidate can do is tell you exactly where they come from and exactly what that means for how they will govern. Here is what it means for me: I will not romanticize poverty. It is not character-building. It is a waste of human potential on a scale that should embarrass every one of us. Every child who goes hungry is a contribution this country will never receive, a problem that will compound for generations, a cost paid by everyone whether we acknowledge it or not. I will not accept the premise that this is inevitable. The same country that can spend what it spends on its military, that can protect the accumulation of wealth at the top with every instrument of law and tax policy — that country can feed its people. The will is the question, not the capacity. And I will not stop talking about this until the people in that room have heard from someone who grew up on the other side of the door. “The American people are not broken. They are tired of waiting for permission to matter.” The Question That Changed Everything In the summer of 1969, I was fifteen years old and broke and alone in Los Angeles. I had fifty-three cents in my pocket. I did not know what the next day would bring. And somewhere in that uncertainty, a question came to me that I have carried ever since: What if you become president of the United States and change all this? I was a kid from Indianapolis with nothing. I had no reason to take that question seriously. But I have spent the fifty-seven years since then building toward an answer — through the Army, through fifty years of construction, through raising a family, through running for office, through reading and studying and refusing to let the experience of poverty become just a memory instead of a mandate. One in three Americans is skipping meals. I know what that house feels like. I know what that calculation costs. And I am asking, with everything I have, for the chance to be in the room when the next decision is made. Because I will not forget what hunger smells like. — About the Author Donnie Harold Harris is an Army veteran, retired construction worker, philosopher, and political candidate from Indianapolis, Indiana. He was the Unity Party of America's 2024 vice-presidential nominee and is a candidate for president. He can be reached at bigdonnie57@gmail.com or through his website at www.donnieharoldharris.com. Media inquiries: bigdonnie57@gmail.com 5 of 5

My old friend, Colonel Eli Lilly

 My old friend, Colonel Eli Lilly, was an early mentor to my mind. I met him when I was 9 or 10. He had been passed for a few years when we first met in an Ally west of Ky. Ave and Miller Street. In Indianapolis, Indiana. Even from the grave, he was working to help humankind. We talked over the years as I was brought up to speed on his most exceptional work, and I called his Grandest Postulate: The Placebo Effect. He was hung up on its effects and wondered if it passed into Religion and caused the “God Effect.” This unknowable effect was affecting me. made me think about how belief, whether in medicine or in faith, can deeply influence our lives. I hope sharing this sparks your own reflections on the spiritual side of healing and belief.

I saw no scar mentioned. The injury I saw was on the left side of the stomach. The civil war vet asked if I would like to see the location where it came out. I said yes, so he pulled down his pants and showed me the exit point, his asshole. I was somewhat shocked but Intrigued That this older man in the alley claimed to be Colonial Eli Lilly. Of course, I did not know who he was then. He explained that wounds suffered during the civil war had after effects far worse than their original wound or later disease. His losses were crippling for a small, battered, beat-up boy like me at that time. He went into detail about some crazy Ideas that something called the Placebo Effect was the most potent excuse for the power of a higher power, or A God, if you will. It would take some convincing for me to get my head around this concept. I realized that “The Placebo Effect” was what was responsible for my life and my ability to transform Hate into Love. Even at 66, it is hard to do. He was a believer in as you believe, so shall it be. At thirteen, I would get a bad and only cause of any sexual dis-ease he claps. I went to see an ancient Doctor on East Washington Street for Penicillin. While there in terror, The Doctor told me I was fortunate to get this Clap. He was privy to a new, spectacular drug that not only would cure this but would stop me from ever getting any other type of sexually transmitted disease.

For the rest of my life, I am sure I got the standard dose of Penicillin, now. Yet the Doctor’s smooth and kind voice assured me I was safe. I attest that I would become, by the push of the local Catholic Priest at the time, a high-priced preteen escort from 1965 to 1972. I joined the Army in Jan 72. I am missing the AIDS epidemic. Several of my clients died from AIDS. I was OK. Thanks, Colonel Eli Lilly. He was overly convinced that God was a larger form of the placebo-an idea that suggests our faith in a higher power can have real effects on our health and life outcomes. This effect makes me wonder how much our beliefs, whether in medicine or Spirituality, shape our experiences and perceptions of reality, blurring the lines between faith and placebo influence.

There is no place like Home;

 There is no place like Home; There is no other place like home. Toto, there is no place like home. There are no homeless people. Only Houseless people without a home address. The USA needs to open up its

lands for people.

Religion by Science. Need to work it out.

  We would laugh if mental health told the world it was healthy and safety was the Harm.  Religion is a placebo for science. Based on your Blogger posts, Zoroastrianism and related themes, such as Ahura Mazda, appear frequently in your writing, often intertwined with discussions of God, politics, and your personal philosophy.

Here are the specific mentions from your recent posts:

• Donnie Harold Harris, a politician (Published Feb 23): This post is explicitly tagged with #Zoroastrianism and #Ahura Mazda, connecting the faith to your political identity and the Public Unity Party.

• Last night, during my yearly meeting with Dad (Published Feb 24): This post includes tags for #Zoroastrianism and #Ahura Mazda alongside tags for the USA and the public party of Indiana.

• "cheating through winning" (Published Feb 4): Mentions #Zoroastrianism and #Ahura Mazda in a post exploring legal vs. moral victories.

• The universe begins with a singularity (Published Feb 25): Uses the #Ahura Mazda tag in a discussion about origins and divinity.

• The Next Coordinate: The "Barber Shop" and the "Haircut" (Published Feb 2): You have two versions of this post, both of which utilize the #Ahura Mazda tag to frame the narrative.

In your work, Zoroastrianism seems to serve as a spiritual framework for your "Public Unity" concepts, frequently appearing alongside tags for #God and various Indiana-based political movements.

Zoroastrianism and related themes, such as Ahura Mazda, appear frequently in your writing, often intertwined with discussions of God, politics, and your personal philosophy.

 Based on your Blogger posts, Zoroastrianism and related themes, such as Ahura Mazda, appear frequently in your writing, often intertwined with discussions of God, politics, and your personal philosophy.

Here are the specific mentions from your recent posts:

• Donnie Harold Harris, a politician (Published Feb 23): This post is explicitly tagged with #Zoroastrianism and #Ahura Mazda, connecting the faith to your political identity and the Public Unity Party.

• Last night, during my yearly meeting with Dad (Published Feb 24): This post includes tags for #Zoroastrianism and #Ahura Mazda alongside tags for the USA and the public party of Indiana.

• "cheating through winning" (Published Feb 4): Mentions #Zoroastrianism and #Ahura Mazda in a post exploring legal vs. moral victories.

• The universe begins with a singularity (Published Feb 25): Uses the #Ahura Mazda tag in a discussion about origins and divinity.

• The Next Coordinate: The "Barber Shop" and the "Haircut" (Published Feb 2): You have two versions of this post, both of which utilize the #Ahura Mazda tag to frame the narrative.

In your work, Zoroastrianism seems to serve as a spiritual framework for your "Public Unity" concepts, frequently appearing alongside tags for #God and various Indiana-based political movements.