Tag Archives: The World Food Programme

Kudos to the Non-profit Organizations and Volunteers Who Fight the Fight… to alleviate hunger, poverty and homelessness

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Earth fragile future

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”

― Anne Frank

 

I have always viewed volunteer workers and non-profit organizations – such as (but not limited to) The World Food Programme, Feeding America and Action Against Hunger/Action Contre La Faim – with deep and profound respect.

It is a difficult and thankless job.

Ahhh, but many of these dedicated men and women don’t view it as a “job”…  nor do they expect a pat on the back, let alone an actual “Thank You.”

Imagine, for a moment, what it must feel like to see hardship, hunger, poverty and sickness… day in and day out. Yet, these volunteers press on… hoping, no, praying that they are somehow making a difference, making a dent in this world epidemic that is Hunger.

Imagine what it must feel like to try to recruit people to help… to contribute their time and yes, their money, to a problem that – like it or not – affects us all.  So many people (too many) prefer to turn a blind eye.  Until it happens to them. And for those raising their eyebrow: it can happen to them. And to you. And to me.  It is never wise to be complacent. As we’ve seen with disasters like Hurricanes Sandy and Katrina, it can happen in a flash.  Here today, gone tomorrow.

So today marks the last day of my 3½-week Help Fight Hunger book promotion.

To say that I am “disappointed” is a huge understatement, but it will not deter me from continuing to contribute my time and writing to helping others, to raise awareness on important issues that ultimately affect us all, and to hope that someone – anyone – will listen and perhaps even join the effort to help those who need our help.

I’d like to take a moment to thank the family members, friends, and colleagues who have been kindly “spreading the word” on behalf of my Help Fight Hunger campaign. Most importantly, I’d like to express my deep love and gratitude to my husband for putting up with all the intensity. 

I hope that I’ve provided you with some informative, thought-provoking blogs on a subject that is discomfiting, but nevertheless very current and critical. 

Thanks for reading.

― Heather

HFH2

Image (t the very top) via erikarachel.com.

Food insecurity around the world

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“Those who wish for a more peaceful, just and sustainable world are helping to make ending world hunger a major priority… Together we can end hunger.”

— Robert Alan Silverstein

That we, as a global community, could end world hunger is not a naïve notion. No, it is not as far-fetched as it seems, despite the daunting numbers and the amount of time, effort and resources needed to accomplish such a gargantuan task.  As with any challenge of great magnitude, the reasonable approach is (and has been) to compartmentalize the problem into smaller, more manageable components. Since the whole is equal to (not lesser than or greater than ) the sum of its parts,  each “part” (and, by extension, each of the subparts, and sub-subparts) can be (and have been) uniquely addressed.  In this instance, the “parts” refer, of course, to the continents;  the “subparts” are the countries, and “sub-subparts” are the cities, counties or communities.  If it sounds simple enough, experience has taught  us that the real bottleneck lies in the allocation and acquisition of the “time, effort and resources” required to eradicate the problem.  Just how big a problem is it?

The Numbers:

According to The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization:

  • In 2010-2012, estimated that nearly 870 million people throughout the world (that’s one in eight people) suffer from chronic undernourishment and food insecurity.
  • an estimated 852 million live in developing countries; 16 million live in developed countries.
  • Asia and Pacific region: saw a 30% decrease (from 739M to 563M) in the number of undernourished people – due to socio-economic progress. <heatherfromthegrove: I believe that these numbers may increase by next year, as the recession makes its hasty way to Asia>
  • Latin America and the Caribbean:  also saw a decrease, from 65M (1990-92) to 49M hungry (2010-2012).
  • Africa: by sharp contrast, saw a huge increase, from 175M to 239M hungry (one in four people are hungry).
  • In developed countries, the number increased from 13M (2004-6) to 16M (2010-12).

The Causes:

According to The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, there are five (5) principle causes of hunger:

  1. Poverty.
  2. Harmful/unstable economic and political systems.
  3. Conflict (the influx of refugees from unstable, conflict-ridden regimes/countries).
  4. Hunger (hunger causes physical and mental health issues which, in turn, bring on poverty – due to the inability to work or function properly; and this creates greater hunger).
  5. Climate Change (drought, flooding, erratic  climate patterns).

The Solutions:

According to Josette Sheeran, formerly the Executive Director (until her term ended in 2012) of the UN World Food Programme and now the Vice Chairman of the World Economic Forum, there are ten new approaches to eradicating world hunger:

  1. Humanitarian action.
  2. Provide free school meals.
  3. Safety nets (for when disaster strikes or a food crisis occurs).
  4. Connect farmers to markets.
  5. Special focus on providing children under two years old with proper nutrition, to help them develop properly and give them  fighting chance.
  6. Empower women.
  7. Technology is a powerful tool.
  8. Building resiliency… against national disasters.
  9. People power (individuals, partners, organizations, communities)
  10. Accountability (countries’ political leaders make it their mission to ensure that no child (in their country) will die from hunger.

For a more comprehensive understanding of world hunger, please refer to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s report, The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2012.

Ending world hunger… an impossible dream, or an attainable reality?

You know where I stand. 

HFH2

From Aug 14-Sept 7, purchase a copy of  Casualties of the (Recession) Depression, and for every $20 book purchased directly from my website, I will be donating $5 from the proceeds of each book sale to either: Feeding America (US), Action Against Hunger (Canada), or The World Food Programme (Global). The purchaser chooses one of the three.

Image via blog.igt.com.

The economics of fighting hunger

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Hunger

“Investment in the eradication of hunger today is a good business decision. If we fail to make this investment, it is
doubtful that we can sustain healthy economic growth. Without this investment, our nation may disintegrate into a
country sharply divided between those who have enough to eat and those who do not.”
— Alan G. Hassenfeld, Chair & CEO of Hasbro, Inc.

If the humanitarian reasons for fighting hunger are not convincing enough, let me put an economic spin on it, by breaking the issue down to dollars and cents.

According to a recent Hunger in America report prepared by the Center for American Progress and Brandeis University,  “Hunger costs our nation at least $167.5 billion due to the combination of lost economic productivity per year, more expensive public education because of the rising costs of poor education outcomes, avoidable health care costs, and the cost of charity to keep families fed.”

The hunger bill directly affects every American citizen and resident.  Oh, it’s not a bill per se.   The costs are embedded in our taxes and in the contributions we pay to charities.  Our nation’s economy is heavily weighed down by the cost of hunger, spending upwards of $94 billion dollars a year, in federal food assistance programs like SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as  “food stamps”).

As the middle-class progressively disappears below the poverty line, the drain on our economy worsens. 

Hunger adversely affects our bottom line. 

Yet, even big corporate executives realize that the eradication of hunger is not simply an issue of economics, but  a more fundamental problem of justice, equality, and humanity.

“America is the richest country in the world. And yet tonight, thousands of your neighbors will go to bed hungry.
It may be your child’s schoolmate who is undernourished and has difficulty learning on an empty stomach.
Or it could be a co-worker, a working mother whose low-wage job doesn’t make ends meet.
Perhaps it’s an elderly neighbor who has to make a decision whether to delay filling a prescription or buying groceries.
The faces of hunger are as broad as the faces of America.”
— David Nasby, retired vice president of General Mills  (one of the world’s largest food companies)

Image (at very top) via Emmaushouse.org.