Sometimes it's awfully hard to see that we're making a difference -- or that the world is changing at all. Is poverty getting better? Is hunger decreasing? Do any of our efforts matter?

So, I was thrilled when our family's good friend, John Coonrod, pulled together this list of the Top 10 Trends of 2011 for Ending Hunger and Poverty. John (or J-Coon as our kids dubbed him when they decided he needed a hip-hop name) has been working in the poverty-solutions arena for 35 years, all with The Hunger Project.

Read and recognize again what we all know -- that we're part of a big, broad, sometimes sloppy set of solutions of people ending their own hunger and poverty.