Blog
Earlier this afternoon here at Friends of the World Food
Program (Friends of WFP), I was able to participate in a United Nations World
Food Program (WFP) Behind the Scenes: Live from Kenya conference call. While we
have all read about hunger in the news and have formed vague ideas about global
hunger issues, two Friends of WFP colleagues and six WFP Committee volunteers have
encountered, firsthand, the serious problems that face over 1 billion people in
the world today.
The call began with staggering statistics: WFP is currently
trying to reach around 4 million people affected by the drought in Kenya; over
42 percent of Kenya’s population lives on less than $1 per day; the Somali
refugee population increases by approximately 6,000 people per month; in one
HIV/AIDS clinic the group visited, there are 7,000 patients, with an
approximated 5 percent increase per year. The numbers are enormous. Yet what
does this all actually look like?
Our friends in the field were able to help paint the
sobering picture in our minds. They visited WFP School Meals programs and saw
how necessary the meals provided by the schools are to the children who receive
them. For many of these children, a school meal is the only meal they receive
each day. While this is a very sad realization, that one meal has helped
improve the children’s qualities of life. It also goes a long way in promoting
education. When meals are guaranteed, parents have more of an incentive to send
their children to school instead of keeping them at home to work. This is
especially true for girls. As we heard from our representatives in the field,
this realization is bittersweet. 
While the call set a serious tone, it was not without its
breakthrough moments. Children at one of the schools the group visited had set
up their own inventive system to wash their hands before meals because the
school could not afford running water. In another area, a water pan project was
created as part of a community initiative. Women from nearby villages dug the
pan to capture rain water. In exchange for their labor, WFP provides these
women with food. This is known as WFP’s Food for Work/Food for Training Program.The
water can now be used for basic daily needs in a time where drought is a main
concern. Our representatives were enthusiastic about the promise that these
projects show for the future.
On the other side of the call, sitting around the conference
room table, each employee of Friends of WFP had a serious look on their face.
The wheels were churning about what the next step might be for us and how we
could do more than what we’re doing right now. It is the real experiences of
our colleagues and volunteers that help fuel the efforts of these programs. It
is the stories they will bring home to share that will empower more people to
take the initiative for change and to become passionate about the issues raised
by global hunger. For me, the next step was writing this post to organize my
thoughts and to encourage people to join in the movement.
To learn even more about the trip to Kenya,
please read the blog posts that precede mine. They are full of amazing stories
that help bring the idea of world hunger closer to home with firsthand accounts
and conversations with WFP recipients. They are truly humbling. - Sara Thomson
Outreach Intern
Friends of WFP
World Food Day takes place on October 16, a mere two days
away! The purpose of World Food Day is to raise awareness and encourage action
to alleviate hunger around the world. This year’s events are of utmost
importance as the number of hungry people has increased to over 1 billion for
the first time in history. If you’ve thought about getting involved but don’t
have the time or don’t know how to start, this is a golden opportunity. Both
the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) and Friends of WFP have a number of
ways for you to get involved that can be as simple as having dinner.
WFP suggests
simple actions. For example, try tweeting hunger facts to friends to raise
awareness or playing the quiz game on FreeRice.com, which gives
10 grains of rice to the hungry for every question answered correctly. You can
even make a meal for $1 with friends to understand what many people around the
world do everyday.
Friends of WFP also has a number of events taking place
around the United States thanks to dedicated supporters and WFP Committee
volunteers. In Houston, Texas, students are being asked to skip lunch and
donate the money they would have spent on their meals to Friends of WFP. The FIGHT campaign, organized by a group of
high school students in Houston, will be distributing information and holding
classroom sessions on hunger.
Additionally, the Melting Pot in Boca Raton, Florida will
donate 15 percent of your bill to Friends of WFP if you mention “World Food Day”
between October 16 and 23. Check
to see if there’s an event near you!
Visit the World Food Day website
See what our President & CEO has to say
Donate online to Friends of WFP
-Sara Thomson
Outreach Intern
Friends of WFP
The Millennium Villages project and the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) have recently announced that they will join forces to alleviate hunger and poverty in Africa. Their plan is to create “undernourishment-free zones” in the 80 Millennium Villages that span 10 different countries. They will focus on important measures such as school meal coverage, health education and assistance for smallholder farmers in increasing both income and productivity. 
WFP’s Executive Director Josette Sheeran states, “We must act now to build the partnerships and take the comprehensive steps necessary to win this fight. No one organization can do it alone, and we will leverage a growing collaboration with the Millennium Villages project to deliver powerful solutions to malnutrition.” The Millennium Villages project was formed as a response to the findings of the UN Millennium Project. It is led by the Earth Institute, Millennium Promise and the United Nations Development Program. Focusing on community development and self-empowerment to create a sustainable way of ending poverty, the Millennium Villages project combined with WFP techniques will have a positive impact on food security.
Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and Special Advisor to the UN Secretary General, adds, “The Millennium Villages will carry out the exciting interventions pioneered by WFP, and demonstrate that hunger and under-nutrition can be cut decisively through proven measures in agriculture, school meals, nutritional supplementation, food-for-work programs to build infrastructure, and other powerful WFP tools.”
The global economic crisis has made hunger an enormous concern worldwide, but WFP and the Millennium Villages project are rising to the challenge with a united effort. Read more about the Millennium Villages project. Read more about the partnership on WFP’s website.
-Sara Thomson
Outreach Intern
Friends of WFP
Next week, the top industrialized nations of the world will gather in Pittsburgh, PA to address the pressing issues of our global economy. Collectively, the Group of 20 (G20) represents 85 percent of the world’s economy. Given the severity of the global economic crisis, what these nations discuss on September 24-25 could have an important ripple effect across the globe. As these countries come together, where do we stand on ending global hunger?
“The double whammy of the financial crisis and the still record high food prices around the world is delivering a devastating blow. Throw in a storm, a drought and a conflict and you have a recipe for disaster,” said Josette Sheeran, the Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP).
According to Sheeran, the world has a stake in responding to urgent hunger needs. “We have seen it throughout human history that a hungry world is a dangerous world,” she told UN Radio. “If people don't have enough to eat, only one out of three things happens: they either revolt, they migrate or they die. It is much better to apply targeted help, effective help and efficient help to those people than to allow those consequences to happen."
WFP is not immune to the global economic crisis. In order to operate, WFP is entirely reliant on voluntary donations from governments, individuals, corporations and foundations. As all these sectors have been hard-hit by the global economic crisis, WFP has also been affected. For 2009, WFP budgeted $6.7 billion to reach 108 million people in 74 countries. Taking into account forecasts and money already received, WFP expects to receive contributions totaling only $3.7 billion. This leaves a $3 billion budget shortfall.
In a time when the number of people experiencing hunger rises every day, it is difficult for WFP to make decisions about ration sizes or program cuts. By the end of 2009, the number of hungry people worldwide will exceed 1 billion – an unprecedented, record-breaking development. That means nearly one in every six people do not get enough food to be healthy and lead an active life. Hunger and undernutrition are the No. 1 risk to health worldwide – greater than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.
A chart released this week by WFP shows how many people are hungry, how much money has been given for food assistance through the years and how many people WFP is able to feed as result of these contributions. The visual is clear: at current funding levels, WFP will not be able to provide the full assistance needed globally.
Just this week, Sheeran appeared on CNN, asking the international community to remember that the financial crisis is affecting the poorest around the world, many of whom live on less than $1 per day.
“The financial crisis is hitting hard in the poorest places in the world and they are not seeing the green shoots of hope yet,” Sheeran said.
-Jessica Alatorre
Outreach Associate
Friends of WFP
Fifty years ago, almost to the day, President Eisenhower and British Prime Minister Macmillan were discussing peace. Ike shared his thoughts on the question of the underdeveloped nations and their struggle against hunger and want. Listen to Eisenhower and Macmillan here:
http://lamberspublications.com/media/ikemacmillan.wma
Eisenhower called for the Soviet Union and the U.S. to cooperate in the fight against hunger and poverty. While this would prove difficult during the Cold War, why not have this kind of cooperation now as called for in the Global Security Priorities Resolution introduced by Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts and Daniel E. Lungren of California?
Global Security Priorities Resolution:
Recognizing the paramount need to address the threat of international terrorism and protect the international security of the United States by reducing the number of and accessibility to nuclear weapons and preventing their proliferation, and directing a portion of the resulting savings towards child survival, hunger and universal education, and calling on the president to take action to achieve these goals.
Read the full text at http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=hr111-278 -
- William Lambers
Volunteer
 World food prices have finally stabilized since the 2008 global food crisis, which caused the price of food to rise dramatically. There is no sign of prices falling to pre-2008 levels.
"The world food system has adjusted even though stocks are at a 20-year low ... the market refined its level to one that it can sustain," said World Food Program (WFP) Deputy Executive Director Sheila Sisulu.
The price of wheat, maize and rice has come down after steeply increasing during 2008. As prices for food around the world are stabilizing, prices are still very high in Africa.
Read more.
-Brian J. Ward
Outreach Associate
Friends of WFP
 As this year’s financial crisis ripples across the globe, the number of people suffering from hunger is expected to rise dramatically, finally reaching a record high of over 1 billion hungry people.
This alarming figure ensured that the issue of global hunger was high on the agenda of the three-day G8 Summit in L’Aquila, Italy, and sure enough, important discussions were held on topics such as food security and the impact of the economic crisis on Africa.
On Wednesday, Obama enlisted his fellow G8 leaders to pledge $15 billion over three years to fund agricultural development in struggling countries. The New York Times reported that if this money came through, it would be “the largest international effort in decades to combat hunger by investing in the fundamentals of an agricultural economy, including seed, fertilizer, grain storage and research into new plant varieties.” Today, the Washington Post reported that G8 leaders surpassed that pledge, agreeing to $20 billion for agricultural development, which they agreed would contribute to “sustainable growth” in world food production, with a focus on small farmers, as well as traditional food aid.
The G8 leaders outlined their thoughts on food security in a statement released today: “We, Heads of State, Government and International and Regional Organizations convened in L'Aquila, remain deeply concerned about global food security, the impact of the global financial and economic crisis and last year's spike in food prices on the countries least able to respond to increased hunger and poverty.”
Many experts applauded the decision, agreeing that agricultural development has been neglected for too long. However, Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), warned that there must be a two-track approach to food security and hunger.
“WFP is the safety net for the most vulnerable people in the world,” said Sheeran. “It’s a false logic for the world to say that we will either invest in tomorrow’s agriculture or today’s urgent food needs. There is no question that we must do both.”
WFP’s perspective is clear: we need resources for both long-term agricultural development and resources for immediate assistance. Through WFP’s own Purchase for Progress initiative, the agency supports local agriculture, yet emergency needs remain. The Obama initiative is only the beginning of a comprehensive strategy needed to address global hunger.
Other G8 discussions included climate change, development aid, foreign affairs and the financial crisis.
-Jessica Alatorre
Outreach Associate
Friends of WFP
For the first time in history, the number of hungry in the world has surpassed 1 billion, according to a report released today by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The combination of high food prices and the financial crisis has had a devastating effect on families around the world. Compared to last year, there are 100 million more people who are hungry. Jessica Lennon Web Associate Friends of WFP
New York Times columnist Nick Kristof has written several pieces on hunger and the impact of international food assistance programs. He has traveled extensively across Africa and seen how hunger and poverty rip through developing countries, destroying livelihoods. Nancy Roman, WFP's Director of Public Policy, Communications and Private Partnerships, recently spoke with Kristof to get his thoughts on the importance of child nutrition, school meals, girls' education, and his firsthand experiences with hunger in Africa.
Read the interview.
Maria Reppas
Media Relations Manager
Friends of WFP
In Ghana, the World Food Program (WFP) partners with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to address the short and long term needs of food insecure individuals. The partnership has been well-organized in the Buduburam region close to Accra, the capital city of Ghana, so well in fact that WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran and FAO Director General Jacques Diouf recently visited the region to experience first-hand the success of the partnership.
WFP and FAO in cooperation with other United Nations agencies address short-term needs by providing nutritional safety nets, and through programs that give individuals a way to generate income. Food insecure individuals are taught to build nutritional sustainability by creating small scale gardens and water systems for irrigation. Ghana is the only country in sub-Saharan Africa to have met the hunger reduction objective set by the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. For example, statistics released by the FAO indicate that the estimated number of undernourished people in Ghana dropped from 5.4 million people in 1990-1992 to 1.9 million people in 2003-2005.
However, all of the progress that has been made thus far could be negatively affected by the global financial crisis which is why Sheeran and Diouf have both said that “they are stepping up support to keep Ghana on course in its fight against hunger and poverty”. Hopefully the two-pronged food aid approach used in Ghana can be used as a model for countries affected by food insecurity because the approach aims to build nutritional sustainability and stability for the future.
Read the full report released by the WFP and FAO.
-Devinne Mack
Outreach Intern
Friends of WFP
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