Steve-It is true that the song is a bit on the heavy side--it is, after all, a Harry Chapin song, and he was not a subtle songwriter. He was, however, a really influential activist on hunger related issues, and in addition founding Why Hunger/The World Hunger Year, and donating much of the money he earned to address hunger issues, he petitioned President Jimmy Carter to establish The Presidential Commission on World Hunger(he was one of the original members).

He worked as a filmmaker for a number of years, and was profoundly moved by things he had seen while working in Africa. It is quite likely that the song was written about something that he actually saw, because that was true of most of his songs.