WFP Helps Gaza Strip during Conflict

An exchange of airstrikes began last week between Israel and Hamas of the Palestinian territory, Gaza Strip.  This has deepened the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.  As this conflict has continued we have seen the number of people in need of food assistance increase.  It has been reported that there are hundreds of people who have died and hundreds more have been injured.  On Friday, the World Food Program along with the Red Cross sent in 80 trucks to deal with the crisis.  They were halted on Saturday and were aloud to resume their work on Sunday by Israeli authorities. 

Currently WFP’s operations in the Palestinian territories include providing food assistance to 700,000 of the most vulnerable non-refugee populations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, 300,000 of those people are in the Gaza Strip.  As we wait for a cease-fire, WFP will be on the front lines helping those affected most by this conflict.                

Brian J. Ward
Outreach Associate
Friends of WFP

Menu for Hope campaign EXTENDED!

There are still a few more days to donate to Menu for Hope!  Since the campaign was doing so well right before Christmas, Pim decided to extend it until midnight on December 31st. Check it out!

Silently Hoping

Hello All--

My 4th and latest CD, "Silently Hoping" was officially released on December 18, 2008! I wrote the title track after returning from our trip in Nicaragua. The CD is available for purchase at http://www.musicformankind.net/audio/audio.htm and at the following online music stores:

iTunes
Rhapsody
Napster
eMusic
Groupie Tunes
Amazon MP3
Lala
Shockhound
Amie Street

Proceeds will be contributed to FWFP and other humanitarian orgs.

I also produced a music video of "Silently Hoping". You can view it at http://www.musicformankind.net/videos/videos.htm and also on YouTube.

More news about the CD to follow soon. Please spread the word. Thanks!

Best to all!

 

Kelly

Support Menu for Hope!

Menu for Hope ends on December 25, so there’s only one more day to donate and try your luck at winning some amazing prizes! Don’t wait, check out the master prize list and then go donate!

Here are some of the reasons people got involved with Menu for Hope in the first place!

Veron: I got involved with Menu for Hope the third year it was running. I think I just started my blog then and thought it was a fabulous idea!

Matt: I first learned about Menu for Hope from Pim a few years back, and I wanted to help in any way possible!

nikkiitaly: I was actually referred [to Menu for Hope] by a fellow blogger who knows I love food! I think it’s a great program!

Kristainlondon: [I have] been following Menu for Hope since Pim started it. [It’s] hard to blog during the holidays, so I take 2nd half of December off. Menu for Hope is a great filler!

Andrea: I think Menu for Hope is a great charity event, and I'm hosting a prize this year, too.

Breadchick: I've been involved with Menu for Hope since the very first one and have participated every year. The first year, I simply bid on the offerings from my fellow food bloggers. While I didn't win anything, knowing that I was supporting the World Food Program made it worthwhile. The next year I offered one prize and since then I've been offering at least two prizes. I love the idea that I'm helping feed people less fortunate than I am. I know that every night I will go to bed with a full belly, but there are so many people worldwide that often go to bed several days in a row without eating. I also love how supportive my readers are of the campaign every year. Last year, I found out that the day of bread making raised over $1,000! All day while I was helping the winner and his family make bread, I thought about the people we were feeding and how honored I was to have been involved with Menu for Hope.

Amy: Early in my career I worked at a homeless shelter and served meals to the hungry. It was a powerful experience and I saw how feeding people could be a blessing and a true act of love. Since then, food has taken more and more of a central role in my career and my life. In recent years, I have been a food writer, restaurant reviewer and recipe developer, focusing on the pleasure of food more than the political and humanitarian issues. But every year I try to do something to help raise awareness and funds for hunger relief, on a local and international level. I volunteer with a local food bank and I also lived on $21 for a week for food and blogged about the experience. On an international level, participating in Menu for Hope has also been very gratifying, giving so many people a way to get involved and learn about hunger around the world.

Why are you involved with Menu for Hope?

 

Zimbabwe in Need of More Assistance

In Zimbabwe there have been 12,545 cases of Cholera reported and as a result up to 550 people have been killed.  Cholera is a disease that occurs when people drink contaminated water.  A United Nations survey concluded that 7 in 10 people have nothing or a single meal the previous day.  Since October the World Food Program (WFP) found that the proportion of people who have eaten nothing the previous day has risen from zero percent to 12 percent and those who have only one meal the day before has increased from 13 percent to 60 percent.    

Until recently non-governmental organizations, including WFP, have been banned from doing work in Zimbabwe.  Now that WFP is allowed in they are providing much needed life-saving food assistance. 

Currently the United States and WFP are feeding almost half of the population this month.  WFP spokesperson, Richard Lee said that it looks like WFP will be short of nearly half the food needed for January. 

As we are in the season of giving, we should all take note of those less fortunate in Zimbabwe and all over the world.  Please help support WFP to continue their life-saving global food assistance and development programs.  Donate Now.

Read More

Brian J. Ward
Outreach Associate
Friends of WFP        

Series of Natural Disasters Strike Colombia

Flooding, avalanches, and a volcano eruption have displaced thousands of people in Colombia. WFP has already launched an emergency operation, which will feed 30,000 disaster victims.

“Although the Government of Colombia’s response to the various disasters has been effective and timely, the number of victims has surpassed our expectations,” said Praveen Agrawal, WFP Representative in Colombia.

“The most vulnerable groups are our greatest concern because they suffer the most from natural disasters. Thousands have lost everything, but WFP has the logistical capability to help people even in the least accessible parts of the country to rebuild their lives and their communities,” said Agrawal.

Learn more.

Maria Reppas
Media Relations Manager
Friends of WFP

New Year's Resolution: Volunteer with a WFP Committee

It has been almost a year since the WFP Committee program launched, and what a year it has been!  Since January 2008, Friends of the World Food Program has successfully recruited hundreds of volunteers in more than 20 states, all working together to end global hunger.

 

The WFP Committees have worked throughout the year to get organized and make themselves known in their communities.  The committee coordinators who run the WFP Committees are dedicated volunteers who make time outside of work and home to raise awareness about global hunger.  No one is for hunger, but what can we do to end it?  Over the past year, committee coordinators organized a variety of events in an effort to talk about the important work of the World Food Program (WFP.)

 

In Miami, volunteers organized a citywide scavenger hunt.  In Connecticut, there were wine tastings on a docked ship.  In Washington, D.C., after work happy hours were popular.  Other places held art auctions, photo exhibits, and educational presentations.  Volunteers across the country met with their Members of Congress and wrote letters to their local papers to say that one hungry child is one child too many.  This was year one, but there is still a lot of work to be done to engage the U.S. public on the issue of global hunger. The WFP Committees are leading that effort.    

 

Hunger is solvable. With the political will to drive change, we can make efforts to alleviate and end global hunger.  This is what the WFP committees do; this is what drives Friends of WFP volunteers.

 

As you think about your New Year’s resolutions this year, consider adding volunteering with your local WFP Committee to your list of actions to help end hunger. 

 

-Jessica Alatorre
Outreach Associate
Friends of WFP

Why do you care about hunger?

Over the last few weeks, I have been asking Friends of WFP supporters why hunger is an important issue to them. Thoughts continue to trickle in, but here are some of the responses I’ve received so far.

sondernagle: Hunger is the most basic of needs and therefore should be the most basic of rights. 

GlobalPolEcon: Hunger forces people to engage aggressive survival skills, which could be detrimental to the peace process. 

hungerthon: An entire world lives in each of us, and to think of all those worlds lost every day for lack of access is heart-breaking. 

Jgraziani: We have the capability to feed everyone -- no one has to go hungry. But we don't do that. And that needs to change.

Val: If even one child goes to bed hungry in this world, that is one too many.

Why do you care about hunger?

-Jessica Lennon
Communications Assistant
Friends of the World Food Program

5th Annual Menu for Hope, December 15-24th

Yesterday kicked off the 5^th annual Menu for Hope, as every year bloggers come together to raise money for the United Nations World Food Program (WFP).  Last year they raised $90,000 and hope to meet and exceed that number this year.  Your donations will specifically go to WFP’s school meals programs in Lesotho, Africa and WFP’s initiative to buy from local farmers. 

Currently WFP feeds two meals a day (morning porridge and lunch) to 80,483 students in 478 primary schools throughout the country.  As 42 percent of children under the age of five suffer from chronic malnutrition, this is an extremely important program to break the cycle of hunger in Lesotho.  Your help in this campaign will only make this effort stronger.   

For every $10 you donate you are entered into a virtual rafflein which you could win a food related prize.   This campaign will run from December 15-24^th.  The holiday season is a perfect time to help those who are less fortunate.  Please participatein this campaign to help feed the children of Lesotho.  Remember it only cost $0.25 a day or $50 a year to feed a child through WFP’s school meals program.      

Brian J. Ward
Outreach Associate
Friends of WFP     

Food for Education Fights Hunger and Poverty in Pakistan

by William Lambers

In Pakistan, "almost 85 percent of the population live on a marginal income of less than US$ 2 per day," according to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). Food for Education is a key strategy for helping the impoverished in this nation of over 140 million people, most living in rural areas.

Food for Education programs provide school feeding and also take-home rations for children. This is critical to ending hunger and poverty in any country. Let's take a closer look at school feeding with Wolfgang Herbinger, the country director for WFP in Pakistan.

How many children benefit from the WFP school feeding programs within the country?

In Pakistan, WFP has been in operation since 1968. Among the many programs WFP implements, the most important is school feeding to primary and pre-primary schoolchildren in the most food-insecure districts across Pakistan. Providing food as an incentive not only helps students meet their daily food requirements, but negates the opportunity costs of sending children to school, especially girls. In this way, it encourages poverty-stricken parents to break down cultural and economic barriers placed on the acquisition of education by their children.

by William Lambers

In Pakistan, "almost 85 percent of the population live on a marginal income of less than US$ 2 per day," according to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). Food for Education is a key strategy for helping the impoverished in this nation of over 140 million people, most living in rural areas.

Food for Education programs provide school feeding and also take-home rations for children. This is critical to ending hunger and poverty in any country. Let's take a closer look at school feeding with Wolfgang Herbinger, the country director for WFP in Pakistan.

How many children benefit from the WFP school feeding programs within the country?

In Pakistan, WFP has been in operation since 1968. Among the many programs WFP implements, the most important is school feeding to primary and pre-primary schoolchildren in the most food-insecure districts across Pakistan. Providing food as an incentive not only helps students meet their daily food requirements, but negates the opportunity costs of sending children to school, especially girls. In this way, it encourages poverty-stricken parents to break down cultural and economic barriers placed on the acquisition of education by their children.