Hunger + Malnutrition
With thousands of children dying daily from hunger-related causes and millions pushed into poverty due to the global economic recession, alleviating hunger has emerged as one of the critical struggles of our time. The World Food Programme estimates that one in seven people do not get enough food to be healthy and lead an active life, making hunger and malnutrition the number one risk to health worldwide—greater than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.
Acute hunger or starvation is often highlighted by media stories showing hungry children with enlarged stomachs holding empty cups or helicopters airlifting rations to earthquake and flood victims, but a less visible epidemic is that of daily undernourishment. Long-term effects can be devastating. An undernourished body compensates for lack of nutrients by slowing down mentally and physically, leading to reduced concentration and a basic desire to participate in daily activities. Hunger also weakens the immune system. Many people, especially children, do not actually die of hunger but one of its many consequences like measles and diarrhea.
Action Against Hunger // ACF International, a global humanitarian organization committed to ending world hunger, works to save the lives of malnourished children while providing communities with access to safe water and sustainable solutions to hunger.
Bread for the World // Bread for the World is a collective Christian voice urging our nation's decision makers to end hunger at home and abroad.
Enough Food for Everyone IF // IF is telling our leaders that they need to take action to fix the broken food system so that 2013 can mark the beginning of the end for global hunger.
Freedom from Hunger // Freedom from Hunger provides women with microcredit loans and health education. Its Credit with Education program helps impoverished women purchase higher-quality food and have more control over their families’ health.
Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves // The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves is a public-private initiative to save lives, improve livelihoods, empower women, and combat climate change by creating a thriving global market for clean and efficient household cooking solutions.
The Global Food Banking Network // The Global FoodBanking Network (GFN) is a global non-profit organization committed to creating, supplying, and strengthening food banks and food bank networks throughout the world, in countries outside the US. GFN currently supports existing and developing food banks and national food bank networks in more than 25 countries, home to more than one-third of the world’s undernourished people.
Mary's Meals // Mary’s Meals is an international movement to set up school feeding projects in communities where poverty and hunger prevent children from gaining an education. Mary’s Meals provides daily meals in school for over 500,000 children in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe.
United Nations World Food Programme // WFP is the food aid arm of the United Nations system. Food aid is one of the many instruments that can help to promote food security, which is defined as access of all people at all times to the food needed for an active and healthy life. The policies governing the use of World Food Programme food aid must be oriented towards the objective of eradicating hunger and poverty. The ultimate objective of food aid should be the elimination of the need for food aid.