food hunger essay

World Hunger Essay: Causes of World Hunger & How to Solve It

World hunger essay introduction, history of world hunger, statistics of the world hunger, causes of the world hunger, impacts of world hunger, responses to world hunger, recommended solutions, world hunger essay conclusion.

World hunger is one of the best topics to write about. You can discuss its causes, how to solve it, and how we can create a world without hunger. Whether you need to write an entire world hunger essay or just a conclusion or a hook, this sample will inspire you.

Hunger is a term that has been defined differently by different people due to its physiological as well as its socio economic aspects. In most cases, the term hunger has been defined in relation to food insecurity. However, according to Holben (n. d. pp. 1), hunger is usually defined as a condition that is painful or uneasy emanating from lack of food.

In the same studies, hunger has yet been defined as persistent and involuntary inability to access food. Therefore, world hunger refers to a condition characterized by want and scarce food in the whole world. Technically, hunger refers to malnutrition a condition that is marked by lack of some, or all the nutrients that are necessary to maintain health of an individual.

There are two types of malnutrition which include micronutrient deficiency and protein energy malnutrition. It is important to note that world hunger generally refers to protein energy malnutrition which is caused by inadequacy of proteins and energy giving food. According to World Hunger education Service (2010 Para. 4), the recent statistics by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) records that there is a total of about nine hundred and twenty five million people in the whole world who are described as hungry.

It is a serious condition since statistics indicate that the number has been on the increase since the mid twentieth center. With that background in mind, this paper shall focus on the problem of world hunger, history, statistics, impacts as well as solutions to the problem.

The problem of hunger has been persistent since early centuries given that people residing in Europe continent used to suffer from serious shortages of food. The problem intensified in the twentieth century due to increase of wars, plagues and other natural disasters like floods, famines and earth quakes. Consequently, a lot of people succumbed to malnutrition and death.

However, during the mid twentieth century and after the Second World War, food production increased by 69% and therefore, there was enough food to feed the population by (National Research Council (U.S.) Committee on Public Engineering Policy, 1975 pp. vii).

The situation of food adequacy which continued from the year 1954-1972 was as a result of various factors which were inclusive but not limited to better methods of farming, land reclamation, use of fertilizers, use of irrigation, as well as use of machines and other forms of skilled labor.

In 1970s, people thought that they could keep the problem of hunger under control by conserving environment, controlling population growth and technological development. Nevertheless, even with such optimism, studies of National Research Council (U.S.).

Committee on Public Engineering Policy (1975 pp. vii), record that by 1974, the condition had already grown out of hand because there was not only a high population growth rate, but energy was also extremely expensive. To make the matter worse, the same study records that a quarter of the total population in the world were already experiencing hunger.

Therefore, due to hunger, agencies which were dealing with the problem started to request for the intervention of the humanitarian relief as well as trying to solve the problem thorough the use of the green revolution. The problem of hunger contributed greatly to the technological development since by all costs, people had to survive. However, although agriculture continued to expand, the population continued to increase and that is why the problem of hunger has persisted throughout the twentieth century to the twenty first century.

As highlighted in the introductory part, nine million people in the world are malnourished but further studies indicate that the exact number is not known. It is important to note that though the problem of hunger is virtually everywhere in the world, most of the hunger stricken people are found in the developing countries.

Despite the fact that the number has been on the increase since 1995, a decrease was observed in last year. The figures below clearly explain the statistical trend of world hunger from 1968 to 2009 (World Hunger Education Service, 2010 Para. 4).

Figure 1. The Number of Hunger Stricken People from 1969-2010

Source (World Hunger Education Service, 2010)

Figure 2: Distribution of Hungry People in the Whole World by Regions

Source: (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2010 pp. 2)

The above figure clearly illustrates that the problem of hunger is most common in the developing countries and less common in the developed countries. According to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2010 pp. 2), 19 million are found in developed countries, thirty seven million in North East and North Africa, fifty three in Latin and Caribbean America, two hundred and thirty nine million in Sub Saharan Africa and five hundred and seventy eight in Asia and Pacific Region.

However, it is important to mention that the Food and Agriculture Organization arrives at the above figures by considering the total income of people and the income distribution. Therefore, the figures given are just estimates and that is the main reason why it has become increasingly difficult to get the actual number of hungry people in the whole world.

There are many causes of world hunger but poverty is the main and the same is caused by lack of enough resources as well as unequal distribution of recourses among the populations especially in the developing countries.

According to World Hunger Education Service (2010 Para 10. ), World Bank estimates that there are a bout one million, three hundred and forty five million people who are poor in the whole world since their daily expenditure is 1.25 dollars or even less. Similarly, Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that about one billion people in the whole world are under nourished.

As expected, the problem of poverty affects mostly the developing countries although there have been a lot of campaigns which have been launched with an aim of poverty reduction. Consequently in some parts Asia and China, the campaigns have been successful because the number has reduced by 19% (World Hunger Education Service, 2010 para. 12). Conversely, in some parts like the sub-Saharan Africa, the number of poor people has gone up.

Since the study has indicated that poverty is the main cause of hunger, it is important to look at the underlying cause of poverty. According to World Hunger Education Service (2010), the current economic as well as political systems in the world contribute greatly to the problem of hunger and poverty.

The main reason is due to the fact that more often than not, resources are controlled by the economic and political institutions which are controlled by the minority. Therefore, policies which emanate from poor economic systems are contributory factor to poverty and hunger.

Conflict and war is an important cause of not only poverty but also hunger. The main reason is due to the fact that conflicts lead to displacement of people and destruction of property and other resources that can be helpful in alleviating hunger. Towards the end of 2005, the number of refugees was lower compared to the current number influenced by violence and conflicts which have been taking place in Iraq as well as in Somali.

The same study clearly indicates that towards the end of the year 2008, UNHCR had recorded more than ten million refugees. A year after, internally displaced persons in the whole world had reached a total of twenty six million (World Hunger Education Service 2010 par 13). However, although it is difficult to provide the total number of internally displaced people due to conflicts, the truth is, refugees mostly suffer from poverty which exposes them to extreme hunger.

Over the last century, climate has been changing in most parts of the world, a condition which has been caused by global warming. It is a real phenomena and the effects of the same are observed in most parts of the world which are inclusive but not limited to draughts, floods, changing weather and climatic patterns as well as hurricanes (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Economic and Social Dept, 2005).

Such effects of globalization contribute greatly to hunger because they destroy the already cultivated food leading to food shortages.

Changing weather and climate patterns require a change to certain crops which is not only expensive but it also takes long to be implemented. In addition, some plants and animals have become extinct and the same contributes greatly to food shortages and hunger in general. Nonetheless, the most serious consequences of global warming are floods draughts and famines since they lead to poverty which ends up increasing people’s susceptibility to hunger. ( Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2010)

High food prices in both domestic and international markets are also a contributory factor to world hunger. Although the level of poverty is increasing because the level of income has reduced, the price of various food commodities has also gone up and therefore, it has become increasingly difficult for people to afford adequate food for their needs.

According to the studies of Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2008 pp. 24), between the year 2002 to 2007, prices of cereals such as wheat maize as well as rice increased by about fifty percent in the world market.

Nonetheless, although the world market food prices were increasing, the rate was different with domestic prices, a condition caused by the depreciating value of the US dollar while compared to other currencies in the world. However, in the year 2007 and 2008, domestic food prices in most countries also ended up increasing.

High prices in the domestic market are caused by high prices for agricultural inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides. As highlighted earlier, the need for use of advanced agricultural inputs results from the effects of global warming which is also a chief cause of world hunger and food insecurity.

There are many impacts of world hunger because food is a basic need for everyone in the society. Although impacts of hunger affect people across all the age brackets, young children are usually the worst victims. In science, the condition caused by hunger and starvation is known as under nutrition. It increases the disease burden such that in one year; under nourished children suffer from illnesses for at least five months as the condition lowers their immunity.

In most cases, undernourishment is the underlying cause of various diseases that affect children like malaria, measles, diarrhea and pneumonia. Studies of World Hunger Education Service (2010 par. 10) indicate that malnutrition is the underlying cause of more than half of all the cases of malaria diarrhea and pneumonia in young children. In measles, the same studies indicate that forty five percent of all the cases result from malnutrition.

As the problem of hunger, malnutrition is unequally distributed in the world because about thirty two percent of the stunted children live in the developing countries. Seventy percent of the total number of the malnourished children is found in Asia while Africa hosts 26% and the remaining four percent are from Caribbean and Latin America (World Hunger Education Service, 2010 par 11).

The study points out that the problem starts even before birth because in most cases, pregnant mothers are also usually undernourished. Due to this problem, in every six infants, one is usually undernourished. Apart from death, under nourishment resulting from hunger also causes blindness, difficulties in learning, stunted growth, retardation and poor health, to name just a few.

Apart from disease, poverty is also a resultant factor of hunger. In reference to the definition of hunger as an uncomfortable condition resulting from lack of food, hungry people are usually incapacitated. Since food is an important source of energy, people suffering from hunger are usually not in a position to take part in useful economic activities and a result, they are usually poor.

In addition, hunger is one of the reasons that cause people to migrate from one place to another there by causing economic constraints to the host countries. Conflicts also emanate from the same as people compete for scarce resources. A lot of humanitarian agencies use most of their funds in proving food to the people suffering from hunger either in refugee camps or in other places.

As a result, governments spend a lot of money in providing humanitarian support while the same amount of money could have been used in development projects. Impacts of hunger are mostly felt in the developing countries, Asia and Sub Saharan Africa because in most cases, the problem of hunger in such regions is usually an international problem because regional governments cannot be able to deal with it single handedly ( World Vision, 2010).

Hunger being a serious problem requires no emphasis and therefore, there are some responses which are meant to mitigate the problem. Various policies have therefore been established in all related areas. For example, there are various policies that that have been established to regulate high food prices. Such measures are inclusive but not limited to tax on imports, restricting export to maintain adequate food in the country, measures to control prices of food as well as to enhance food affordability, and stabilizing prices.

Improving and increasing agricultural produce is an important measure that has been taking place especially in the developing countries meant to increase supply and eventually curb the problem of hunger. At this point, is important to note that the number of response which have be taken to reduce or eliminate the problem of hunger vary from one region to another.

In addition, every region implements the policies that can be useful in that particular region. According to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2010 pp.32 ), a survey conducted in the year 2007 and 2008 indicated that about 50% of all the countries reduced the tax of imports on cereals and more than fifty percent adopted measures like consumer subsidies with an aim of lowering domestic food prices.

Twenty five percent of the countries imposed restrictions on exports to minimize the outflow of food and the remaining 16% had done nothing to solve the problem of high domestic food prices. It is quite unfortunate that the regions that are mostly affected by hunger like Sub Saharan Africa; Caribbean as well Latin America has established the lowest number of policies.

Although such policies are of great help locally, they have negative impacts in the international markets. For example, due to restriction on exports, the supply of food at the international markets is usually low and as a result, the prices end up increasing. Apart from that, subsidies on imports increase government expenditure thereby straining the budget.

Therefore, it is clear that some measures of price do not control neither they end up mitigating the problem since they affect other people like farmers and traders. The main cause of the problem is due to the fact that most governments are unable to protect their economy from external influences.

While looking for the solutions to the problem, it is important to note that the demand of food will continue to increase due to various factors like urban growth and development as well as the high level of income. In that case, there is a great need for increasing food production.

In addition, the intervention should aim at not only solving the current problem but also solving any shortage that may emerge in future. Therefore, all regions and especially the sub-Saharan Africa ought to focus on increasing agricultural production. Moreover, it is necessary to come up with appropriate policies to ensure that the increase in food production will solve the problem of food insecurity (National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on Public Engineering Policy, 1975).

One of the problems that have been causing hunger especially in developing countries is inaccessibility to adequate food. As a result, the concerned stakeholders should look for ways and means of increasing food accessibility. For instance; it would be more helpful if the production of small scale farmers could increase because the problem cannot only help in lowering food prices in the global market but also in alleviating poverty and hunger in the rural areas.

Although incentives and agricultural inputs are important in increasing agricultural production in the rural areas, some other measures can still be used in the same areas. For instance, in a region like Africa, more areas can be irrigated and by so doing, agricultural production can increase as well ( Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2010).

World hunger is a real and a serious problem not only due to its grave impacts but also due to the complexity of the whole issue. A lot of people in the whole world are exposed to hunger. A critical analysis of the problem illustrates that it not only results from low food production but it is also affected by other factors such as inaccessibility of food, high food prices and some policies established by the government.

For example, the research has indicated that some polices that control the prices of food in local markets end up increasing food prices in the global market. In the view of the fact that hunger is the underlying cause of poverty, disease and eventually death, it is important for the concerned stake holders to address the issue accordingly.

As the studies of Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, (2008, p. 2) indicate, the over nine million hunger stricken people can be saved only if the stake holders that are inclusive of the government, United Nations, civil societies, donors and humanitarian agencies, general public and the private sector can join hands in combating the problem.

In order to come up with lasting solutions, their efforts should be aimed at improving the agricultural sector and establishing safety nets to protect the vulnerable population. Finally, in every challenge, there is an opportunity and in that case, the high prices of food can be used as an opportunity by small scale producers to increase their produce and get more returns and thereby reduce problems like poverty which contribute to hunger. Therefore, even though the problem is complicated, viable solutions still exist.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2010). Global hunger declining, but still unacceptably high . Web.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2008). The State of Food Insecurity in the World . Web.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Economic and Social Dept. (2005). The state of food insecurity in the world, 2005: eradicating world hunger – key to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. New York: Food & Agriculture Org.

Holben, D. H. (n. d.). The Concept and Definition of Hunger and Its Relationship to Food Insecurity . Web.

National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on Public Engineering Policy. ( 1975). World hunger: approaches to engineering actions : report of a seminar. Washington: National Academies.

World Hunger Education Service . (2010). World Hunger and Poverty Facts and Statistics 2010 . Web.

World Vision. (2010). The Global Food Crisis . Web.

Young, L. (1997). World hunger. London: Routledge.

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A global food crisis

Conflict, economic shocks, climate extremes and soaring fertilizer prices are combining to create a food crisis of unprecedented proportions. As many as 783 million people are facing chronic hunger. We have a choice: act now to save lives and invest in solutions that secure food security, stability and peace for all, or see people around the world facing rising hunger. 

2023: Another year of extreme jeopardy for those struggling to feed their families

The scale of the current global hunger and malnutrition crisis is enormous. WFP estimates – from 78 of the countries where it works (and where data is available) – that more than 333 million people are facing acute levels of food insecurity in 2023, and do not know where their next meal is coming from.  This constitutes a staggering rise of almost 200 million people compared to pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels. 

At least 129,000 people are expected to experience famine in Burkina Faso, Mali, Somalia and South Sudan. Furthermore, any fragile progress already made in reducing numbers risks being lost, due to funding gaps and resulting cuts in assistance.  The global community must not fail on its promise to end hunger and malnutrition by 2030.   

WFP is facing multiple challenges – the number of acutely hungry people continues to increase at a pace that funding is unlikely to match , while the  cost of delivering food assistance is at an all-time high  because food and fuel prices have increased.  

Unmet needs heighten the risk of hunger and malnutrition. Unless the necessary resources are made available,  lost lives and the reversal of hard-earned development gains  will be the price to pay. 

The causes of hunger and famine

But why is the world  hungrier than ever? 

This seismic hunger crisis has been caused by a deadly combination of factors. 

Conflict is still the biggest driver of hunger, with 70 percent of the world's hungry people living in areas afflicted by war  and violence. Events in Ukraine are further proof of how conflict feeds hunger – forcing people out of their homes, wiping out their sources of income and wrecking countries’ economies. 

The climate crisis is one of the leading causes of the steep rise in global hunger.  Climate shocks destroy lives, crops and livelihoods, and undermine people’s ability to feed themselves.  Hunger will spiral out of control if the world fails to take immediate climate action. 

Global fertilizer prices have climbed even faster than food prices, which remain at a ten-year high themselves. The effects of the war in Ukraine, including higher natural gas prices, have further disrupted global fertilizer production and exports – reducing supplies, raising prices and threatening to reduce harvests.  High fertilizer prices could turn the current food affordability crisis into a food availability crisis, with production of maize, rice, soybean and wheat all falling in 2022. 

On top of increased operational costs , WFP is facing a major drop in funding in 2023 compared to the previous year, reflecting the new and more challenging financial landscape that the entire humanitarian sector is navigating. As a result, assistance levels are well below those of 2022. Almost half of WFP country operations have already been forced to cut the size and scope of food, cash and nutrition assistance by up to 50 percent.

WFP Annual Review 2022

Publication | 23 June 2023

WFP and FAO sound the alarm as global food crisis tightens its grip on hunger hotspots

Story | 21 September 2022

WFP scales up support to most vulnerable in global food crisis

Publication | 14 July 2022

Hunger hotspots

From the Central American Dry Corridor and Haiti, through the Sahel, Central African Republic, South Sudan and then eastwards to the Horn of Africa, Syria, Yemen and all the way to Afghanistan,  conflict and climate shocks are driving millions of people to the brink of starvation. 

Last year, the world rallied extraordinary resources – a record-breaking US$14.1 billion for WFP alone – to tackle the unprecedented global food crisis. In countries like Somalia, which has been  teetering on the brink of famine,  the international community came together and managed to pull people back. But it is not sufficient to only keep people alive. We need to go further, and  this can only be achieved by addressing the underlying causes of hunger. 

The consequences of not investing in resilience activities will reverberate across borders. If communities are not empowered to withstand shocks and stresses, this could result in  increased migration and possible destabilization and conflict.  Recent history has shown us this: when WFP ran out of funds to feed Syrian refugees in 2015, they had no choice but to leave the camps and seek help elsewhere, causing one of the  greatest refugee crises in recent European history.  

Let's stop hunger now

WFP’s changing lives work helps to build human capital, support governments in strengthening social protection programmes, stabilize communities in particularly precarious places, and help them to better survive sudden shocks without losing all their assets. 

In just four years of the  Sahel Resilience Scale-up, WFP and local communities turned 158,000 hectares of barren fields in the Sahel region of five African countries into farm and grazing land.  Over 2.5 million people benefited from integrated activities.  Evidence shows that people are better equipped to withstand seasonal shocks and have improved access to vital natural resources like land they can work.  Families and their homes, belongings and fields are better protected against climate hazards.  Support serves as a buffer to instability by bringing people together, creating social safety nets, keeping lands productive and offering job opportunities – all of which help to break the cycle of hunger. 

As a further example, WFP’s flagship microinsurance programme – the R4 Rural Resilience initiative –  protects around 360,000 farming and pastoralist families from climate hazards that threaten crops and livelihoods  in 14 countries including Bangladesh, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Fiji, Guatemala, Kenya, Madagascar and Zimbabwe. 

At the same time, WFP is working with governments in 83 countries to boost or build  national safety nets and nutrition-sensitive social protection, allowing us to reach more people than we can with emergency food assistance.  

Humanitarian assistance alone is not enough though. A  coordinated effort across governments, financial institutions, the private sector and partners is the only way to mitigate an even more severe crisis in 2023.  Good governance is a golden thread that holds society together, allowing human capital to grow, economies to develop and people to thrive.  

The world also needs deeper political engagement to reach zero hunger.  Only political will can end conflict in places like Yemen, Ethiopia and South Sudan, and without a firm political commitment to contain global warming as stipulated in the  Paris Agreement , the main drivers of hunger will continue unabated. 

In 2023, hunger levels are higher than ever before

Help families facing unprecedented hunger

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Six brilliant student essays on the power of food to spark social change.

Read winning essays from our fall 2018 “Feeding Ourselves, Feeding Our Revolutions,” student writing contest.

For the Fall 2018 student writing competition, “Feeding Ourselves, Feeding Our Revolutions,” we invited students to read the YES! Magazine article, “Cooking Stirs the Pot for Social Change,”   by Korsha Wilson and respond to this writing prompt: If you were to host a potluck or dinner to discuss a challenge facing your community or country, what food would you cook? Whom would you invite? On what issue would you deliberate? 

The Winners

From the hundreds of essays written, these six—on anti-Semitism, cultural identity, death row prisoners, coming out as transgender, climate change, and addiction—were chosen as essay winners.  Be sure to read the literary gems and catchy titles that caught our eye.

Middle School Winner: India Brown High School Winner: Grace Williams University Winner: Lillia Borodkin Powerful Voice Winner: Paisley Regester Powerful Voice Winner: Emma Lingo Powerful Voice Winner: Hayden Wilson

Literary Gems Clever Titles

Middle School Winner: India Brown  

A Feast for the Future

Close your eyes and imagine the not too distant future: The Statue of Liberty is up to her knees in water, the streets of lower Manhattan resemble the canals of Venice, and hurricanes arrive in the fall and stay until summer. Now, open your eyes and see the beautiful planet that we will destroy if we do not do something. Now is the time for change. Our future is in our control if we take actions, ranging from small steps, such as not using plastic straws, to large ones, such as reducing fossil fuel consumption and electing leaders who take the problem seriously.

 Hosting a dinner party is an extraordinary way to publicize what is at stake. At my potluck, I would serve linguini with clams. The clams would be sautéed in white wine sauce. The pasta tossed with a light coat of butter and topped with freshly shredded parmesan. I choose this meal because it cannot be made if global warming’s patterns persist. Soon enough, the ocean will be too warm to cultivate clams, vineyards will be too sweltering to grow grapes, and wheat fields will dry out, leaving us without pasta.

I think that giving my guests a delicious meal and then breaking the news to them that its ingredients would be unattainable if Earth continues to get hotter is a creative strategy to initiate action. Plus, on the off chance the conversation gets drastically tense, pasta is a relatively difficult food to throw.

In YES! Magazine’s article, “Cooking Stirs the Pot for Social Change,” Korsha Wilson says “…beyond the narrow definition of what cooking is, you can see that cooking is and has always been an act of resistance.” I hope that my dish inspires people to be aware of what’s at stake with increasing greenhouse gas emissions and work toward creating a clean energy future.

 My guest list for the potluck would include two groups of people: local farmers, who are directly and personally affected by rising temperatures, increased carbon dioxide, drought, and flooding, and people who either do not believe in human-caused climate change or don’t think it affects anyone. I would invite the farmers or farm owners because their jobs and crops are dependent on the weather. I hope that after hearing a farmer’s perspective, climate-deniers would be awakened by the truth and more receptive to the effort to reverse these catastrophic trends.

Earth is a beautiful planet that provides everything we’ll ever need, but because of our pattern of living—wasteful consumption, fossil fuel burning, and greenhouse gas emissions— our habitat is rapidly deteriorating. Whether you are a farmer, a long-shower-taking teenager, a worker in a pollution-producing factory, or a climate-denier, the future of humankind is in our hands. The choices we make and the actions we take will forever affect planet Earth.

 India Brown is an eighth grader who lives in New York City with her parents and older brother. She enjoys spending time with her friends, walking her dog, Morty, playing volleyball and lacrosse, and swimming.

High School Winner: Grace Williams

Apple Pie Embrace

It’s 1:47 a.m. Thanksgiving smells fill the kitchen. The sweet aroma of sugar-covered apples and buttery dough swirls into my nostrils. Fragrant orange and rosemary permeate the room and every corner smells like a stroll past the open door of a French bakery. My eleven-year-old eyes water, red with drowsiness, and refocus on the oven timer counting down. Behind me, my mom and aunt chat to no end, fueled by the seemingly self-replenishable coffee pot stashed in the corner. Their hands work fast, mashing potatoes, crumbling cornbread, and covering finished dishes in a thin layer of plastic wrap. The most my tired body can do is sit slouched on the backless wooden footstool. I bask in the heat escaping under the oven door.

 As a child, I enjoyed Thanksgiving and the preparations that came with it, but it seemed like more of a bridge between my birthday and Christmas than an actual holiday. Now, it’s a time of year I look forward to, dedicated to family, memories, and, most importantly, food. What I realized as I grew older was that my homemade Thanksgiving apple pie was more than its flaky crust and soft-fruit center. This American food symbolized a rite of passage, my Iraqi family’s ticket to assimilation. 

 Some argue that by adopting American customs like the apple pie, we lose our culture. I would argue that while American culture influences what my family eats and celebrates, it doesn’t define our character. In my family, we eat Iraqi dishes like mesta and tahini, but we also eat Cinnamon Toast Crunch for breakfast. This doesn’t mean we favor one culture over the other; instead, we create a beautiful blend of the two, adapting traditions to make them our own.

 That said, my family has always been more than the “mashed potatoes and turkey” type.

My mom’s family immigrated to the United States in 1976. Upon their arrival, they encountered a deeply divided America. Racism thrived, even after the significant freedoms gained from the Civil Rights Movement a few years before. Here, my family was thrust into a completely unknown world: they didn’t speak the language, they didn’t dress normally, and dinners like riza maraka seemed strange in comparison to the Pop Tarts and Oreos lining grocery store shelves.

 If I were to host a dinner party, it would be like Thanksgiving with my Chaldean family. The guests, my extended family, are a diverse people, distinct ingredients in a sweet potato casserole, coming together to create a delicious dish.

In her article “Cooking Stirs the Pot for Social Change,” Korsha Wilson writes, “each ingredient that we use, every technique, every spice tells a story about our access, our privilege, our heritage, and our culture.” Voices around the room will echo off the walls into the late hours of the night while the hot apple pie steams at the table’s center.

We will play concan on the blanketed floor and I’ll try to understand my Toto, who, after forty years, still speaks broken English. I’ll listen to my elders as they tell stories about growing up in Unionville, Michigan, a predominately white town where they always felt like outsiders, stories of racism that I have the privilege not to experience. While snacking on sunflower seeds and salted pistachios, we’ll talk about the news- how thousands of people across the country are protesting for justice among immigrants. No one protested to give my family a voice.

Our Thanksgiving food is more than just sustenance, it is a physical representation of my family ’s blended and ever-changing culture, even after 40 years in the United States. No matter how the food on our plates changes, it will always symbolize our sense of family—immediate and extended—and our unbreakable bond.

Grace Williams, a student at Kirkwood High School in Kirkwood, Missouri, enjoys playing tennis, baking, and spending time with her family. Grace also enjoys her time as a writing editor for her school’s yearbook, the Pioneer. In the future, Grace hopes to continue her travels abroad, as well as live near extended family along the sunny beaches of La Jolla, California.

University Winner: Lillia Borodkin

Nourishing Change After Tragedy Strikes

In the Jewish community, food is paramount. We often spend our holidays gathered around a table, sharing a meal and reveling in our people’s story. On other sacred days, we fast, focusing instead on reflection, atonement, and forgiveness.

As a child, I delighted in the comfort of matzo ball soup, the sweetness of hamantaschen, and the beauty of braided challah. But as I grew older and more knowledgeable about my faith, I learned that the origins of these foods are not rooted in joy, but in sacrifice.

The matzo of matzo balls was a necessity as the Jewish people did not have time for their bread to rise as they fled slavery in Egypt. The hamantaschen was an homage to the hat of Haman, the villain of the Purim story who plotted the Jewish people’s destruction. The unbaked portion of braided challah was tithed by commandment to the kohen  or priests. Our food is an expression of our history, commemorating both our struggles and our triumphs.

As I write this, only days have passed since eleven Jews were killed at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. These people, intending only to pray and celebrate the Sabbath with their community, were murdered simply for being Jewish. This brutal event, in a temple and city much like my own, is a reminder that anti-Semitism still exists in this country. A reminder that hatred of Jews, of me, my family, and my community, is alive and flourishing in America today. The thought that a difference in religion would make some believe that others do not have the right to exist is frightening and sickening.  

 This is why, if given the chance, I would sit down the entire Jewish American community at one giant Shabbat table. I’d serve matzo ball soup, pass around loaves of challah, and do my best to offer comfort. We would take time to remember the beautiful souls lost to anti-Semitism this October and the countless others who have been victims of such hatred in the past. I would then ask that we channel all we are feeling—all the fear, confusion, and anger —into the fight.

As suggested in Korsha Wilson’s “Cooking Stirs the Pot for Social Change,” I would urge my guests to direct our passion for justice and the comfort and care provided by the food we are eating into resisting anti-Semitism and hatred of all kinds.

We must use the courage this sustenance provides to create change and honor our people’s suffering and strength. We must remind our neighbors, both Jewish and non-Jewish, that anti-Semitism is alive and well today. We must shout and scream and vote until our elected leaders take this threat to our community seriously. And, we must stand with, support, and listen to other communities that are subjected to vengeful hate today in the same way that many of these groups have supported us in the wake of this tragedy.

This terrible shooting is not the first of its kind, and if conflict and loathing are permitted to grow, I fear it will not be the last. While political change may help, the best way to target this hate is through smaller-scale actions in our own communities.

It is critical that we as a Jewish people take time to congregate and heal together, but it is equally necessary to include those outside the Jewish community to build a powerful crusade against hatred and bigotry. While convening with these individuals, we will work to end the dangerous “otherizing” that plagues our society and seek to understand that we share far more in common than we thought. As disagreements arise during our discussions, we will learn to respect and treat each other with the fairness we each desire. Together, we shall share the comfort, strength, and courage that traditional Jewish foods provide and use them to fuel our revolution. 

We are not alone in the fight despite what extremists and anti-semites might like us to believe.  So, like any Jew would do, I invite you to join me at the Shabbat table. First, we will eat. Then, we will get to work.  

Lillia Borodkin is a senior at Kent State University majoring in Psychology with a concentration in Child Psychology. She plans to attend graduate school and become a school psychologist while continuing to pursue her passion for reading and writing. Outside of class, Lillia is involved in research in the psychology department and volunteers at the Women’s Center on campus.   

Powerful Voice Winner: Paisley Regester

As a kid, I remember asking my friends jokingly, ”If you were stuck on a deserted island, what single item of food would you bring?” Some of my friends answered practically and said they’d bring water. Others answered comically and said they’d bring snacks like Flamin’ Hot Cheetos or a banana. However, most of my friends answered sentimentally and listed the foods that made them happy. This seems like fun and games, but what happens if the hypothetical changes? Imagine being asked, on the eve of your death, to choose the final meal you will ever eat. What food would you pick? Something practical? Comical? Sentimental?  

This situation is the reality for the 2,747 American prisoners who are currently awaiting execution on death row. The grim ritual of “last meals,” when prisoners choose their final meal before execution, can reveal a lot about these individuals and what they valued throughout their lives.

It is difficult for us to imagine someone eating steak, lobster tail, apple pie, and vanilla ice cream one moment and being killed by state-approved lethal injection the next. The prisoner can only hope that the apple pie he requested tastes as good as his mom’s. Surprisingly, many people in prison decline the option to request a special last meal. We often think of food as something that keeps us alive, so is there really any point to eating if someone knows they are going to die?

“Controlling food is a means of controlling power,” said chef Sean Sherman in the YES! Magazine article “Cooking Stirs the Pot for Social Change,” by Korsha Wilson. There are deeper stories that lie behind the final meals of individuals on death row.

I want to bring awareness to the complex and often controversial conditions of this country’s criminal justice system and change the common perception of prisoners as inhuman. To accomplish this, I would host a potluck where I would recreate the last meals of prisoners sentenced to death.

In front of each plate, there would be a place card with the prisoner’s full name, the date of execution, and the method of execution. These meals could range from a plate of fried chicken, peas with butter, apple pie, and a Dr. Pepper, reminiscent of a Sunday dinner at Grandma’s, to a single olive.

Seeing these meals up close, meals that many may eat at their own table or feed to their own kids, would force attendees to face the reality of the death penalty. It will urge my guests to look at these individuals not just as prisoners, assigned a number and a death date, but as people, capable of love and rehabilitation.  

This potluck is not only about realizing a prisoner’s humanity, but it is also about recognizing a flawed criminal justice system. Over the years, I have become skeptical of the American judicial system, especially when only seven states have judges who ethnically represent the people they serve. I was shocked when I found out that the officers who killed Michael Brown and Anthony Lamar Smith were exonerated for their actions. How could that be possible when so many teens and adults of color have spent years in prison, some even executed, for crimes they never committed?  

Lawmakers, police officers, city officials, and young constituents, along with former prisoners and their families, would be invited to my potluck to start an honest conversation about the role and application of inequality, dehumanization, and racism in the death penalty. Food served at the potluck would represent the humanity of prisoners and push people to acknowledge that many inmates are victims of a racist and corrupt judicial system.

Recognizing these injustices is only the first step towards a more equitable society. The second step would be acting on these injustices to ensure that every voice is heard, even ones separated from us by prison walls. Let’s leave that for the next potluck, where I plan to serve humble pie.

Paisley Regester is a high school senior and devotes her life to activism, the arts, and adventure. Inspired by her experiences traveling abroad to Nicaragua, Mexico, and Scotland, Paisley hopes to someday write about the diverse people and places she has encountered and share her stories with the rest of the world.

Powerful Voice Winner: Emma Lingo

The Empty Seat

“If you aren’t sober, then I don’t want to see you on Christmas.”

Harsh words for my father to hear from his daughter but words he needed to hear. Words I needed him to understand and words he seemed to consider as he fiddled with his wine glass at the head of the table. Our guests, my grandma, and her neighbors remained resolutely silent. They were not about to defend my drunken father–or Charles as I call him–from my anger or my ultimatum.

This was the first dinner we had had together in a year. The last meal we shared ended with Charles slopping his drink all over my birthday presents and my mother explaining heroin addiction to me. So, I wasn’t surprised when Charles threw down some liquid valor before dinner in anticipation of my anger. If he wanted to be welcomed on Christmas, he needed to be sober—or he needed to be gone.

Countless dinners, holidays, and birthdays taught me that my demands for sobriety would fall on deaf ears. But not this time. Charles gave me a gift—a one of a kind, limited edition, absolutely awkward treat. One that I didn’t know how to deal with at all. Charles went home that night, smacked a bright red bow on my father, and hand-delivered him to me on Christmas morning.

He arrived for breakfast freshly showered and looking flustered. He would remember this day for once only because his daughter had scolded him into sobriety. Dad teetered between happiness and shame. Grandma distracted us from Dad’s presence by bringing the piping hot bacon and biscuits from the kitchen to the table, theatrically announcing their arrival. Although these foods were the alleged focus of the meal, the real spotlight shined on the unopened liquor cabinet in my grandma’s kitchen—the cabinet I know Charles was begging Dad to open.

I’ve isolated myself from Charles. My family has too. It means we don’t see Dad, but it’s the best way to avoid confrontation and heartache. Sometimes I find myself wondering what it would be like if we talked with him more or if he still lived nearby. Would he be less inclined to use? If all families with an addict tried to hang on to a relationship with the user, would there be fewer addicts in the world? Christmas breakfast with Dad was followed by Charles whisking him away to Colorado where pot had just been legalized. I haven’t talked to Dad since that Christmas.

As Korsha Wilson stated in her YES! Magazine article, “Cooking Stirs the Pot for Social Change,” “Sometimes what we don’t cook says more than what we do cook.” When it comes to addiction, what isn’t served is more important than what is. In quiet moments, I like to imagine a meal with my family–including Dad. He’d have a spot at the table in my little fantasy. No alcohol would push him out of his chair, the cigarettes would remain seated in his back pocket, and the stench of weed wouldn’t invade the dining room. Fruit salad and gumbo would fill the table—foods that Dad likes. We’d talk about trivial matters in life, like how school is going and what we watched last night on TV.

Dad would feel loved. We would connect. He would feel less alone. At the end of the night, he’d walk me to the door and promise to see me again soon. And I would believe him.

Emma Lingo spends her time working as an editor for her school paper, reading, and being vocal about social justice issues. Emma is active with many clubs such as Youth and Government, KHS Cares, and Peer Helpers. She hopes to be a journalist one day and to be able to continue helping out people by volunteering at local nonprofits.

Powerful Voice Winner: Hayden Wilson

Bittersweet Reunion

I close my eyes and envision a dinner of my wildest dreams. I would invite all of my relatives. Not just my sister who doesn’t ask how I am anymore. Not just my nephews who I’m told are too young to understand me. No, I would gather all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins to introduce them to the me they haven’t met.

For almost two years, I’ve gone by a different name that most of my family refuses to acknowledge. My aunt, a nun of 40 years, told me at a recent birthday dinner that she’d heard of my “nickname.” I didn’t want to start a fight, so I decided not to correct her. Even the ones who’ve adjusted to my name have yet to recognize the bigger issue.

Last year on Facebook, I announced to my friends and family that I am transgender. No one in my family has talked to me about it, but they have plenty to say to my parents. I feel as if this is about my parents more than me—that they’ve made some big parenting mistake. Maybe if I invited everyone to dinner and opened up a discussion, they would voice their concerns to me instead of my parents.

I would serve two different meals of comfort food to remind my family of our good times. For my dad’s family, I would cook heavily salted breakfast food, the kind my grandpa used to enjoy. He took all of his kids to IHOP every Sunday and ordered the least healthy option he could find, usually some combination of an overcooked omelet and a loaded Classic Burger. For my mom’s family, I would buy shakes and burgers from Hardee’s. In my grandma’s final weeks, she let aluminum tins of sympathy meals pile up on her dining table while she made my uncle take her to Hardee’s every day.

In her article on cooking and activism, food writer Korsha Wilson writes, “Everyone puts down their guard over a good meal, and in that space, change is possible.” Hopefully the same will apply to my guests.

When I first thought of this idea, my mind rushed to the endless negative possibilities. My nun-aunt and my two non-nun aunts who live like nuns would whip out their Bibles before I even finished my first sentence. My very liberal, state representative cousin would say how proud she is of the guy I’m becoming, but this would trigger my aunts to accuse her of corrupting my mind. My sister, who has never spoken to me about my genderidentity, would cover her children’s ears and rush them out of the house. My Great-Depression-raised grandparents would roll over in their graves, mumbling about how kids have it easy nowadays.

After mentally mapping out every imaginable terrible outcome this dinner could have, I realized a conversation is unavoidable if I want my family to accept who I am. I long to restore the deep connection I used to have with them. Though I often think these former relationships are out of reach, I won’t know until I try to repair them. For a year and a half, I’ve relied on Facebook and my parents to relay messages about my identity, but I need to tell my own story.

At first, I thought Korsha Wilson’s idea of a cooked meal leading the way to social change was too optimistic, but now I understand that I need to think more like her. Maybe, just maybe, my family could all gather around a table, enjoy some overpriced shakes, and be as close as we were when I was a little girl.

 Hayden Wilson is a 17-year-old high school junior from Missouri. He loves writing, making music, and painting. He’s a part of his school’s writing club, as well as the GSA and a few service clubs.

 Literary Gems

We received many outstanding essays for the Fall 2018 Writing Competition. Though not every participant can win the contest, we’d like to share some excerpts that caught our eye.

Thinking of the main staple of the dish—potatoes, the starchy vegetable that provides sustenance for people around the globe. The onion, the layers of sorrow and joy—a base for this dish served during the holidays.  The oil, symbolic of hope and perseverance. All of these elements come together to form this delicious oval pancake permeating with possibilities. I wonder about future possibilities as I flip the latkes.

—Nikki Markman, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, California

The egg is a treasure. It is a fragile heart of gold that once broken, flows over the blemishless surface of the egg white in dandelion colored streams, like ribbon unraveling from its spool.

—Kaylin Ku, West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South, Princeton Junction, New Jersey

If I were to bring one food to a potluck to create social change by addressing anti-Semitism, I would bring gefilte fish because it is different from other fish, just like the Jews are different from other people.  It looks more like a matzo ball than fish, smells extraordinarily fishy, and tastes like sweet brine with the consistency of a crab cake.

—Noah Glassman, Ethical Culture Fieldston School,  Bronx, New York

I would not only be serving them something to digest, I would serve them a one-of-a-kind taste of the past, a taste of fear that is felt in the souls of those whose home and land were taken away, a taste of ancestral power that still lives upon us, and a taste of the voices that want to be heard and that want the suffering of the Natives to end.

—Citlalic Anima Guevara, Wichita North High School, Wichita, Kansas

It’s the one thing that your parents make sure you have because they didn’t.  Food is what your mother gives you as she lies, telling you she already ate. It’s something not everybody is fortunate to have and it’s also what we throw away without hesitation.  Food is a blessing to me, but what is it to you?

—Mohamed Omar, Kirkwood High School, Kirkwood, Missouri

Filleted and fried humphead wrasse, mangrove crab with coconut milk, pounded taro, a whole roast pig, and caramelized nuts—cuisines that will not be simplified to just “food.” Because what we eat is the diligence and pride of our people—a culture that has survived and continues to thrive.

—Mayumi Remengesau, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, California

Some people automatically think I’m kosher or ask me to say prayers in Hebrew.  However, guess what? I don’t know many prayers and I eat bacon.

—Hannah Reing, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, The Bronx, New York

Everything was placed before me. Rolling up my sleeves I started cracking eggs, mixing flour, and sampling some chocolate chips, because you can never be too sure. Three separate bowls. All different sizes. Carefully, I tipped the smallest, and the medium-sized bowls into the biggest. Next, I plugged in my hand-held mixer and flicked on the switch. The beaters whirl to life. I lowered it into the bowl and witnessed the creation of something magnificent. Cookie dough.

—Cassandra Amaya, Owen Goodnight Middle School, San Marcos, Texas

Biscuits and bisexuality are both things that are in my life…My grandmother’s biscuits are the best: the good old classic Southern biscuits, crunchy on the outside, fluffy on the inside. Except it is mostly Southern people who don’t accept me.

—Jaden Huckaby, Arbor Montessori, Decatur, Georgia

We zest the bright yellow lemons and the peels of flavor fall lightly into the batter.  To make frosting, we keep adding more and more powdered sugar until it looks like fluffy clouds with raspberry seed rain.

—Jane Minus, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, Bronx, New York

Tamales for my grandma, I can still remember her skillfully spreading the perfect layer of masa on every corn husk, looking at me pitifully as my young hands fumbled with the corn wrapper, always too thick or too thin.

—Brenna Eliaz, San Marcos High School, San Marcos, Texas

Just like fry bread, MRE’s (Meals Ready to Eat) remind New Orleanians and others affected by disasters of the devastation throughout our city and the little amount of help we got afterward.

—Madeline Johnson, Spring Hill College, Mobile, Alabama

I would bring cream corn and buckeyes and have a big debate on whether marijuana should be illegal or not.

—Lillian Martinez, Miller Middle School, San Marcos, Texas

We would finish the meal off with a delicious apple strudel, topped with schlag, schlag, schlag, more schlag, and a cherry, and finally…more schlag (in case you were wondering, schlag is like whipped cream, but 10 times better because it is heavier and sweeter).

—Morgan Sheehan, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, Bronx, New York

Clever Titles

This year we decided to do something different. We were so impressed by the number of catchy titles that we decided to feature some of our favorites. 

“Eat Like a Baby: Why Shame Has No Place at a Baby’s Dinner Plate”

—Tate Miller, Wichita North High School, Wichita, Kansas 

“The Cheese in Between”

—Jedd Horowitz, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, Bronx, New York

“Harvey, Michael, Florence or Katrina? Invite Them All Because Now We Are Prepared”

—Molly Mendoza, Spring Hill College, Mobile, Alabama

“Neglecting Our Children: From Broccoli to Bullets”

—Kylie Rollings, Kirkwood High School, Kirkwood, Missouri  

“The Lasagna of Life”

—Max Williams, Wichita North High School, Wichita, Kansas

“Yum, Yum, Carbon Dioxide In Our Lungs”

—Melanie Eickmeyer, Kirkwood High School, Kirkwood, Missouri

“My Potluck, My Choice”

—Francesca Grossberg, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, Bronx, New York

“Trumping with Tacos”

—Maya Goncalves, Lincoln Middle School, Ypsilanti, Michigan

“Quiche and Climate Change”

—Bernie Waldman, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, Bronx, New York

“Biscuits and Bisexuality”

“W(health)”

—Miles Oshan, San Marcos High School, San Marcos, Texas

“Bubula, Come Eat!”

—Jordan Fienberg, Ethical Culture Fieldston School,  Bronx, New York

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Goal 2: Zero Hunger

Goal 2 is about creating a world free of hunger by 2030.The global issue of hunger and food insecurity has shown an alarming increase since 2015, a trend exacerbated by a combination of factors including the pandemic, conflict, climate change, and deepening inequalities.

By 2022, approximately 735 million people – or 9.2% of the world’s population – found themselves in a state of chronic hunger – a staggering rise compared to 2019. This data underscores the severity of the situation, revealing a growing crisis.

In addition, an estimated 2.4 billion people faced moderate to severe food insecurity in 2022. This classification signifies their lack of access to sufficient nourishment. This number escalated by an alarming 391 million people compared to 2019.

The persistent surge in hunger and food insecurity, fueled by a complex interplay of factors, demands immediate attention and coordinated global efforts to alleviate this critical humanitarian challenge.

Extreme hunger and malnutrition remains a barrier to sustainable development and creates a trap from which people cannot easily escape. Hunger and malnutrition mean less productive individuals, who are more prone to disease and thus often unable to earn more and improve their livelihoods.

2 billion people in the world do not have reg- ular access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food. In 2022, 148 million children had stunted growth and 45 million children under the age of 5 were affected by wasting.

How many people are hungry?

It is projected that more than 600 million people worldwide will be facing hunger in 2030, highlighting the immense challenge of achieving the zero hunger target.

People experiencing moderate food insecurity are typically unable to eat a healthy, balanced diet on a regular basis because of income or other resource constraints.

Why are there so many hungry people?

Shockingly, the world is back at hunger levels not seen since 2005, and food prices remain higher in more countries than in the period 2015–2019. Along with conflict, climate shocks, and rising cost of living, civil insecurity and declining food production have all contributed to food scarcity and high food prices.

Investment in the agriculture sector is critical for reducing hunger and poverty, improving food security, creating employment and building resilience to disasters and shocks.

Why should I care?

We all want our families to have enough food to eat what is safe and nutritious. A world with zero hunger can positively impact our economies, health, education, equality and social development.

It’s a key piece of building a better future for everyone. Additionally, with hunger limiting human development, we will not be able to achieve the other sustainable development goals such as education, health and gender equality.

How can we achieve Zero Hunger?

Food security requires a multi-dimensional approach – from social protection to safeguard safe and nutritious food especially for children to transforming food systems to achieve a more inclusive and sustainable world. There will need to be investments in rural and urban areas and in social protection so poor people have access to food and can improve their livelihoods.

What can we do to help?

You can make changes in your own life—at home, at work and in the community—by supporting local farmers or markets and making sustainable food choices, supporting good nutrition for all, and fighting food waste.

You can also use your power as a consumer and voter, demanding businesses and governments make the choices and changes that will make Zero Hunger a reality. Join the conversation, whether on social media platforms or in your local communities.

Facts and Figures

Goal 2 targets.

• Despite global efforts, in 2022, an estimated 45 million children under the age of 5 suffered from wasting, 148 million had stunted growth and 37 million were overweight. A fundamental shift in trajectory is needed to achieve the 2030 nutrition targets.
• To achieve zero hunger by 2030, urgent coordinated action and policy solutions are imperative to address entrenched inequalities, transform food systems, invest in sustainable agricultural practices, and reduce and mitigate the impact of conflict and the pandemic on global nutrition and food security.

Source: The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2023

2.1 By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round.

2.2 By 2030, end all forms of malnutrition, including achieving, by 2025, the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older persons.

2.3 By 2030, double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment.

2.4 By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality.

2.5 By 2020, maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed and diversified seed and plant banks at the national, regional and international levels, and promote access to and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, as internationally agreed.

2.A Increase investment, including through enhanced international cooperation, in rural infrastructure, agricultural research and extension services, technology development and plant and livestock gene banks in order to enhance agricultural productive capacity in developing countries, in particular least developed countries.

2.B Correct and prevent trade restrictions and distortions in world agricultural markets, including through the parallel elimination of all forms of agricultural export subsidies and all export measures with equivalent effect, in accordance with the mandate of the Doha Development Round.

2.C Adopt measures to ensure the proper functioning of food commodity markets and their derivatives and facilitate timely access to market information, including on food reserves, in order to help limit extreme food price volatility.

International Fund for Agricultural Development

Food and Agriculture Organization

World Food Programme

UNICEF – Nutrition

Zero Hunger Challenge

Think.Eat.Save.   Reduce your foodprint.

UNDP – Hunger

Fast Facts: No Hunger

Infographic: No Hunger

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Delegates attending a UN forum in Bahrain endorsed on Wednesday a declaration calling on the international community to harness the power of entrepreneurship and innovation in pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with a strong emphasis on including women, youth, persons with disabilities and productive families in these efforts. 

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Home — Essay Samples — Social Issues — Hunger — About World Hunger: A Global Crisis in Need of Solutions

About World Hunger: a Global Crisis in Need of Solutions

• Categories: Hunger World Food Crisis

About this sample

Words: 749 |

Published: Sep 12, 2023

Words: 749 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Table of contents

The magnitude of the problem, causes of world hunger, consequences of world hunger, addressing world hunger: potential solutions, the importance of global collaboration.

• According to the United Nations, nearly 9% of the world's population, or approximately 690 million people, suffered from chronic hunger in 2019.
• Hunger-related diseases and malnutrition are responsible for about 45% of child deaths worldwide.
• Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are regions with the highest prevalence of hunger, where millions face food insecurity daily.

1. Poverty:

2. inequality:, 3. conflict and displacement:, 4. climate change:, 5. lack of infrastructure:, 6. food waste:, 1. malnutrition:, 2. impaired productivity:, 3. poverty trap:, 4. social unrest:, 1. poverty alleviation:, 2. food aid and assistance:, 3. climate resilience:, 4. education:, 5. reducing food waste:, 6. sustainable agriculture:.

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Opinion: We Can End Hunger, Here's How

The international community has embraced eliminating hunger by 2030. But with more than 600 million people still likely to suffer from hunger in 2030, we're far from reaching that goal. We're making progress against hunger, the head of the Food and Agriculture Organization writes, but not enough to end it.

Social Studies, Economics

Feeding a Family

a mother feeding her 10 children in Kenya

Photograph by Dominic Nahr

This article was originally published October 16, 2015, written by José Graziano Da Silva, UN Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization. The international community has embraced a new goal, the eradication of hunger by 2030. That makes us the zero-hunger generation with a shared commitment to make hunger history. As we commemorate the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s birth 70 years ago and celebrate World Food Day, we are reminded of FAO’s mission to ensure food security for all, everywhere. The zero-hunger goal requires us to accelerate our efforts to eliminate hunger and poverty. FAO monitors 129 countries and 72 of those have halved the number of people experiencing undernourishment between the years of 1991 and 2014 and have achieved the Millennium Development Goal. (Since the release of this op-ed, the UN Millemmium Development Goals, have been replaced by the UN Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs. Eliminating hunger is the second goal, or  SDG 2 .) Progress, however, has been uneven: Some 800 million people continue to suffer hunger, and almost a billion live in extreme poverty. We need to break out of the cycles that trap people in poverty and hunger. In a business-as-usual scenario, more than 600 million people are still likely to be hungry in 2030. That’s a long way from zero. A Pro-Poor Posture Eradicating hunger requires commitment—political will. It will require sustained efforts in many areas, particularly pro-poor investments in rural areas, where the majority of the world’s most vulnerable live. Economic growth alone will not suffice; it needs to be socially inclusive to ensure sufficient access to food for all. Pro-poor public investments include infrastructure benefitting small family farms, ensuring sustainable agriculture, reducing post-harvest food losses, strengthening land and water rights, and making sure that the poor and marginalized —whose ranks include many women and youth—have fair access to credit, farm inputs including seed and fertilizers, and the extension services that provide training and advice to rural, small family farms. Road improvement projects in South Asia's Bangladesh, to cite an example, increased agricultural wages by 27 percent and greatly increased school enrollment for local children. Such investments can break the self-perpetuating cycle of rural poverty. Beyond Short-Term Tactics Along with more pro-poor investments, we need to promote wider and deeper use of social protection programs to lift people out of poverty permanently by ensuring people do not slip back into it. Social protection refers to programs to provide basic needs. Providing a social protection floor ensures basic needs for all. Social protection schemes can take many forms, including guaranteed employment in public works, cash or in-kind transfers to eligible beneficiaries, and school feeding programs. If well designed, they enable the poorest to undertake activities to earn more, rising above the poverty line. In 2013 alone, social protection measures took around 150 million people out of extreme poverty. The growing acceptance and proliferation of social protection in the developing world implies the recognition of their ability to immediately address poverty and hunger. Such schemes work and are affordable, especially compared to the cost and price of doing nothing. Social protection offsets income shortfalls so that vulnerable households can avoid livelihood and food security shocks (sudden, unexpected loss of food from climate change or a geopolitical crisis), which are particularly hard for rural households that are dependent on agriculture to recover from. But it can do much more: It can help millions of family farmers and rural laborers move beyond short-term survival tactics and enable them to invest more in productive activities as well as their children’s health and education. Time is money, and that is no less true for the poor. Today, we know that even relatively small monetary transfers to poor households, when regular and predictable, helps them pursue other income-generating activities. Far from creating dependency or reducing work effort, social protection strengthens livelihoods. Increasing the purchasing power of the poor also benefits the wider community by increasing business opportunities, triggering a virtuous local economic growth cycle, which is especially welcome in typically neglected rural areas. But social protection programs, on their own, will not be enough. We need to integrate them with pro-poor agricultural investment programs to derive more effective collaborations. Political commitment, partnerships, and adequate funding are key to realizing this vision. Policies and plans for rural development, poverty reduction, food security, and nutrition need to promote pro-poor investments and social protection to fight poverty and hunger, together with a broader set of interventions, notably in health and education. We know what to do. We have the tools. Now we’ve made the pledge. So we must be the zero-hunger generation.

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October 18, 2017

World Hunger Is Increasing, Thanks to Wars and Climate Change

Despite efforts to end food shortages, a recent U.N. report shows that, after years of decline, hunger is on the rise again

By Leah Samberg & The Conversation UK

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The following essay is reprinted with permission from  The Conversation , an online publication covering the latest research.

Around the globe, about 815 million people – 11 percent of the world’s population – went hungry in 2016, according to the latest data from the United Nations. This was the first increase in more than 15 years.

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Between 1990 and 2015, due largely to a set of sweeping initiatives by the global community, the proportion of undernourished people in the world was cut in half. In 2015, U.N. member countries adopted the Sustainable Development Goals , which doubled down on this success by setting out to end hunger entirely by 2030. But a recent U.N. report shows that, after years of decline, hunger is on the rise again.

As evidenced by nonstop news coverage of floods, fires, refugees and violence, our planet has become a more unstable and less predictable place over the past few years. As these disasters compete for our attention, they make it harder for people in poor, marginalized and war-torn regions to access adequate food.

I study decisions that smallholder farmers and pastoralists , or livestock herders, make about their crops, animals and land. These choices are limited by lack of access to services, markets or credit; by poor governance or inappropriate policies; and by ethnic, gender and educational barriers. As a result, there is often little they can do to maintain secure or sustainable food production in the face of crises.

The new U.N. report shows that to reduce and ultimately eliminate hunger, simply making agriculture more productive will not be enough. It also is essential to increase the options available to rural populations in an uncertain world.

Conflict and climate change threaten rural livelihoods

Around the world, social and political instability are on the rise. Since 2010, state-based conflict has increased by 60 percent and armed conflict within countries has increased by 125 percent. More than half of the food-insecure people identified in the U.N. report (489 million out of 815 million) live in countries with ongoing violence. More than three-quarters of the world’s chronically malnourished children (122 million of 155 million) live in conflict-affected regions.

At the same time, these regions are experiencing increasingly powerful storms, more frequent and persistent drought and more variable rainfall associated with global climate change. These trends are not unrelated. Conflict-torn communities are more vulnerable to climate-related disasters, and crop or livestock failure due to climate can contribute to social unrest.

War hits farmers especially hard. Conflict can evict them from their land, destroy crops and livestock, prevent them from acquiring seed and fertilizer or selling their produce, restrict their access to water and forage, and disrupt planting or harvest cycles. Many conflicts play out in rural areas characterized by smallholder agriculture or pastoralism. These small-scale farmers are some of the most vulnerable people on the planet . Supporting them is one of the U.N.‘s key strategies for reaching its food security targets.

Disrupted and displaced

Without other options to feed themselves, farmers and pastoralists in crisis may be forced to leave their land and communities. Migration is one of the most visible coping mechanisms for rural populations who face conflict or climate-related disasters.

Globally, the number of refugees and internally displaced persons doubled between 2007 and 2016 . Of the estimated 64 million people who are currently displaced, more than 15 million are linked to one of the world’s most severe conflict-related food crises in Syria, Yemen, Iraq, South Sudan, Nigeria and Somalia.

While migrating is uncertain and difficult, those with the fewest resources may not even have that option. New research by my colleagues at the University of Minnesota shows that the most vulnerable populations may be “ trapped ” in place, without the resources to migrate .

Displacement due to climate disasters also feeds conflict. Drought-induced migration in Syria, for example, has been linked to the conflict there, and many militants in Nigeria have been identified as farmers displaced by drought.

Supporting rural communities

To reduce world hunger in the long term, rural populations need sustainable ways to support themselves in the face of crisis. This means investing in strategies to support rural livelihoods that are resilient, diverse and interconnected.

Many large-scale food security initiatives supply farmers with improved crop and livestock varieties, plus fertilizer and other necessary inputs. This approach is crucial, but can lead farmers to focus most or all of their resources on growing more productive maize, wheat or rice. Specializing in this way increases risk. If farmers cannot plant seed on time or obtain fertilizers, or if rains fail, they have little to fall back on.

Increasingly, agricultural research and development agencies, NGOs and aid programs are working to help farmers maintain traditionally diverse farms by providing financial, agronomic and policy support for production and marketing of native crop and livestock species. Growing many different locally adapted crops provides for a range of nutritional needs and reduces farmers’ risk from variability in weather, inputs or timing.

While investing in agriculture is viewed as the way forward in many developing regions, equally important is the ability of farmers to diversify their livelihood strategies beyond the farm. Income from off-farm employment can buffer farmers against crop failure or livestock loss , and is a key component of food security for many agricultural households.

Training, education, and literacy programs allow rural people to access a greater range of income and information sources. This is especially true for women, who are often more vulnerable to food insecurity than men.

Conflict also tears apart rural communities, breaking down traditional social structures. These networks and relationships facilitate exchanges of information, goods and services, help protect natural resources, and provide insurance and buffering mechanisms.

In many places, one of the best ways to bolster food security is by helping farmers connect to both traditional and innovative social networks, through which they can pool resources , store food, seed and inputs and make investments. Mobile phones enable farmers to get information on weather and market prices, work cooperatively with other producers and buyers and obtain aid, agricultural extension or veterinary services. Leveraging multiple forms of connectivity is a central strategy for supporting resilient livelihoods.

In the past two decades the world has come together to fight hunger. This effort has produced innovations in agriculture, technology and knowledge transfer. Now, however, the compounding crises of violent conflict and a changing climate show that this approach is not enough. In the planet’s most vulnerable places, food security depends not just on making agriculture more productive, but also on making rural livelihoods diverse, interconnected and adaptable.

This article was originally published on  The Conversation . Read the original article .

Introduction: Understanding Hunger

• Published: 28 May 2021
• Volume 40 , pages 503–506, ( 2021 )

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• Davide Serpico 2  

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1 Hunger and the Philosophy of Food

The philosophy of food is by now a relatively well-established area of research, with ramifications in branches such as ethics (Chignell et al. 2016 ; Thompson 2015 ; Sandler 2014 ; Barnhill et al. 2012 ), aesthetics (Todd 2010 ; Scruton 2009 ; Smith 2006 ; Korsmeyer 1999 ; Telfer 1996 ), philosophy of mind and epistemology (Barwich 2020 ), science and politics (Scrinis 2013 ), metaphysics and ontology (Borghini and Engisch 2021 ; Borghini and Piras 2020 ; Borghini 2015 ); it also convenes philosophers that identify themselves with different schools and methods (for some essays of such variety, see Kaplan 2012 as well as Curtin and Heldke 1992 ). Nonetheless, it is a widespread prejudice to think that issues pertaining to food and philosophy regard the food itself—e.g., what food we ought or ought not to eat under given circumstances, the aesthetic properties of food, the moral and cultural values linked to food, how to improve extant food systems, and so on.

The list of topics that have so far been neglected includes the varieties of volitional states associated with the concept of hunger, broadly understood (see Borghini 2017 ). Hunger has come under closer scrutiny in other fields of scholarship, most notably in history (Williams 2020 , Tucker 2007 , Russell 2005 , Vernon 2007 ), psychology (e.g., Rappoport 2003 ), studies of science and culture (e.g., Dmitriev et al. 2019 ). As for philosophy, there are more or less recent notable examples of studies concerned with specific aspects of hunger, such as eating disorders (e.g., Giordano 2005 ) or famine (Pogge 2016 ; O’Neill 1980 ); and there are some philosophical studies on the existential meaningfulness of consuming foods (e.g., Leder 1990 ). Nonetheless, the bounty of issues that hunger may elicit have hitherto been only skimmed superficially: is hunger best understood as a form of pain? Is it a complex desire? Or is it a biological condition? Is there a fundamental distinction between hunger and appetite? In what ways the conceptual study of hunger impinges over our understanding of topics such as eating disorders and obesity?

This special issue was put together to start covering the scholarship gap on hunger in the philosophical arena. Its idea originated from two workshops organised by Andrea Borghini and Davide Serpico at the University of Milan in the Fall of 2018, respectively titled “The Depths of Hunger” (October 12, 2018) and “Measuring Hunger” (November 16, 2018). The goal of the workshops and, then, of the issue is to focus on conceptual aspects of hunger that are theoretical in nature and that bear significant value-laden consequences. The approach brings together different philosophical perspectives and methods as well as some scholars from another discipline (i.e., psychology, with the paper by Beaulieu and Blundell) that accepted the challenge to write for a philosophical audience.

To introduce the issue, we shall now offer an overview of the philosophical questions that pertain to hunger, to then present the papers here collected.

2 Hunger: Philosophical Questions

The papers contained in this issue bear witness to the wide array of themes that pertain to a philosophical study of hunger. Before delving into the details of the papers, however, it is worthy to take a step back and depict a broader picture of the topics that philosophers can peruse when it comes to hunger (see also Borghini 2017 on this). In this section, we suggest three areas of research where philosophers can provide meaningful contributions.

The concept of hunger is central to frame philosophical questions pertaining to the ethics and politics of malnutrition, undernutrition, and famine. The latter, in fact, are correlated to specific conditions where agents cannot suitably satisfy their volitional states regarding food—for instance, the agent cannot procure enough food for themselves or is surrounded by too much food; or, contrary to their preferences, the agent's diet is lacking or is too abundant in specific nutrients. The connection between hunger and these other concepts is, nonetheless, far from being clearly established in the literature. Philosophers can offer much in this area, starting from a conceptual analysis of hunger and of its ties to the other concepts (see Borghini 2017 ).

Hunger can be approached, from an existential point of view, as a defining aspect of the human condition. In other words, hunger, understood in a broad sense, is a primary mode of being. We are born hungry. We have been hungry well longer than we can remember being alive and well before gaining self-consciousness of our own pleasures. Each human, qua human, is endowed with an array of physiological and psychological states correlated with the act of eating (as discussed by Beaulieu and Blundell in their essay included in this issue); the satisfaction of hunger is one of the most complex and important ecological relationships in which we partake. Through this lens, hunger raises little-explored philosophical difficulties: What sort of state is hunger—e.g., is it a perception, an emotion, a mood, none of these or all of these? What is the relationship between hunger, desire, and pleasure? Ombrato and Phillips as well as Kaplan, in the essays contributed to this issue, advance our understanding of these questions. Also, the essay by Dean included in this issue offers a much needed analysis of the positive values of mindless eating.

Finally, an appreciation of the complex facets of hunger is relevant in high-end gastronomy and can make a difference to the aesthetic value of a dining experience. Following Borghini ( 2017 ), we can envisage two avenues for research here. The first is related to the constitutive role of hunger in defining specific gastronomic attitudes and perspectives (see Shapin 1998 for some examples), and specific schools and movements, such as Nouvelle cuisine. The second avenue sustains those approaches to taste that purport to go beyond what merely happens in the mouth of a diner, rather insisting that hunger is a key ingredient in providing a gastronomic experience with aesthetic worth. In fact, Bacchini’s paper in this issue delves into these issues.

To these three areas of research, others may be added. For instance, as the papers by Amoretti and Giordano in this issue demonstrate, reflecting on hunger is key to enhance our understanding of eating disorders. Also, to offer another example, a more nuanced conception of hunger could be put at use in devising appropriate strategies for tackling issues such as obesity, as suggested by Serpico and Borghini also in this issue. While we cannot peruse and develop all these suggestions for further research, we hope these remarks can convince the reader of their fruitfulness and importance.

3 The Issue

This special issue was put together with the conviction that the conceptual subtleties of hunger cannot solely be investigated by a specific category of philosophers (e.g., philosophers of emotion or philosophers of action), but rather require the concerted effort of several philosophical sub-disciplines as well as the contribution and validation of scholars that approach the topic from other disciplinary perspectives.

The eight papers that compose the issue highlight the complexity of the philosophical questions linked to hunger and may be grouped under two main clusters. The first cluster digs into the varieties of experiential states correlated with hunger and aims to uncover theoretical assumptions underpinning ethical, political, and aesthetic conceptions of hunger. We can include here the papers by Dean, Ombrato and Phillips, Kaplan, Bacchini, and Giordano. The second cluster examines different approaches to the measurement of hunger, with the goal of uncovering chief theoretical assumptions that bear important ethical and political consequences. Here we can include the papers by Amoretti, Beaulieu and Blundell, Giordano, and Serpico and Borghini.

More specifically, in “In Defense of Mindless Eating,” Megan A. Dean makes the case for mindless eating against a widespread opinion—most famously defended by Brian Wansink—according to which mindless eating is always a bad way of eating. Building upon Maureen Sie’s account of agency, Dean convincingly shows that some forms of mindless eating ought to be regarded positively because they constitute “a non-conscious but agential response to situational normative cues.” Dean’s paper opens up new avenues of interpretation and research over a form of eating that is quotidian and ultimately unavoidable for human beings.

The links between hunger and agency are investigated also by Michele Davide Ombrato and Edgar Phillips in “The Mind of the Hungry Agent: Hunger, Affect, and Appetite. ” In their paper, Ombrato and Phillips discuss the fundamental conceptual framework that may be needed to properly explain the behaviour of hungry agents. To do so, they begin by asking what sort of condition hunger is, suggesting that it is a complex state bearing both hedonic and somatic aspects, with the power of affecting an agent's attention. A key feature of hunger seems to be its likeness to the states that we label as needs: hunger triggers an aversive affective reaction, which motivates an agent to seek out ways to accommodate it by, for instance, consuming some (possibly specific) food. At the same time, Ombrato and Phillips suggest that hunger is also linked to positive affective reactions, including interest and appetite.

In “Hunger Hermeneutics ,” David M. Kaplan adopts a different methodology to inquire how hunger affects our agency, which is more rooted in the phenomenological tradition. Kaplan’s initial focus is on the lack of knowledge that typically accompanies individual agency when it comes to hunger. Such lack may be primarily attributed to the influences of our bodies, of unconscious desires, and of society over our representations of our hunger states. And yet—Kaplan suggests—hunger also displays some peculiar forms of certainty that is provided by internal influences: our internal senses suggest us when to stop eating and when to seek out more food, and taste of course guides us in the quest for food. It is thus in the dialectic between the wide range of internal sources of information versus those that are regarded as “external” that we can try to make sense of the peculiar agentive state characteristic of hunger.

With the paper by Fabio Bacchini “Hunger as a Constitutive Property of a Culinary Work” we move into a different terrain, which connects our understanding of hunger to the appreciation of the aesthetic value of certain culinary experiences. Bacchini contends that, in some instances, a certain degree of hunger is a constitutive property of a culinary work. That is, in some instances a cook poses as a necessary condition for experiencing their work that the diner possesses a certain degree of hunger. Bacchini’s piece shows in what ways specific conceptions of hunger are linked to culinary works, making an original contribution to the debate on the aesthetic value of dining experiences.

Another important essay of the link between conceptual and value-laden issues when it comes to hunger is offered by Simona Giordano’s “Secret Hunger: The Case of Anorexia Nervosa.” In her paper, Giordano studies the coercive treatment for anorexia nervosa. On the one hand, such treatment is sometimes the only way to prevent death, while on the other hand such practice stands as a concerning form of bodily intrusion, violating even those stated wishes of patients that are intelligently and uncontroversially stated. In fact—Giordano argues—the exceptional circumstances that affect agents with anorexia nervosa do call for the proposal of alternative ethical principles of decision-making, which evade those standardly adopted in other spheres of agency. In order to develop her proposal, Giordano surveys cases that appeared before the courts of England and Wales and in the US between 2012 and 2016, offering a conceptual analysis of concepts such as capacity, best interests, and futility, which are crucially employed in court setting. Giordano’s research, thus, offers a concrete precedent of how the conceptual work provided by philosophers may be of use in delicate legal settings and may also serve society at large to adequately confront eating behaviours such as those characteristically associated to anorexia nervosa.

Giordano’s paper also serves as a link between the two clusters of papers within the issue, as it underscores the crucial role played by health sciences and health experts in forming the conceptions of hunger at play in contemporary societies. In “Do Feeding and Eating Disorders Fit the General Definition of Mental Disorder?,” Maria Cristina Amoretti faces straight up the question of whether feeding and eating disorders should be classified as mental disorders, given the extant definitions employed by health practitioners. Amoretti’s starting point is the definition of mental disorder provided in the Introduction of DSM-5. Such definition sees a disorder as a dysfunction associated with distress and disability. Hence, Amoretti suggests, in order to find out whether eating disorders are mental disorders, we should study, first, in what ways they may be accompanied by dysfunctions and, second, whether they are associated with significant harm. With respect to the latter, Amoretti unpacks the general notions of distress and disability that accompany eating disorders. With respect to whom, by whom, and how should such notions be employed? And what role does the harm requirement play in diagnoses of eating disorders?

The next paper within the issue is contributed by psychology researchers, who landed themselves to the challenge of presenting their ideas within the context of a philosophy journal. In “The Psychobiology of Hunger—A Scientific Perspective,” Kristine Beaulieu and John Blundell offer a psychobiological framework for hunger, which sees it as a ‘need state’ mediating between biological and environmental factors. Hunger—they explain—is a conscious sensation that we learn to distinguish from other conscious states such as pain, fear, and tiredness. Such sensation can be objectively measured and marks underlying, biological conditions. In fact, they use empirical studies to show that hunger is clearly associated with biological signals, in particular it is rooted in the relationship between energy expenditure and energy intake, and reflects the degree of a person’s physical activity. And yet, an explanation of the conscious state of hunger requires also the consideration of environmental influences, which modulate its intensity and periodicity, as well as cultural factors, which shape the appropriateness of its expression. Ultimately, Beaulieu and Blundell suggest that the control of the intensity of hunger may be achieved by better understanding the biological and the environmental factors that influence it.

Finally, in “From Obesity to Energy Metabolism: Ontological Perspectives on the Metrics of Human Bodies,” Davide Serpico and Andrea Borghini put forward a principled characterisation of the biological status of obesity, inspired by the comparison of obesity-related traits with other phenotypic traits such as Mendelian diseases, IQ, and human stature. The paper first discusses how the contemporary study of the genetics and development of obesity makes use of a plurality of methodological and theoretical approaches. Methodologies can involve genome-wide association and heritability studies, widely adopted in quantitative genetics, or Mendelian methods such as the candidate-gene approach, or molecular explanations. From a theoretical perspective, instead, researchers can differently conceptualise and operationalise obesity-related traits depending on the aims of their research. By highlighting the plurality of current scientific understandings of obesity, Serpico and Borghini suggest that classifications of humans into obese and non-obese are a delicate affair. Their suggestion is to employ conceptual resources of developmental biology and epigenetics to rethink obesity in a framework that is specific to the development of individual agents and that is sensitive to the temporal potentialities of bodily transformations.

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Borghini, A., Serpico, D. Introduction: Understanding Hunger. Topoi 40 , 503–506 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-021-09746-1

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-021-09746-1

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How climate change increases hunger (and why we're all at risk)

May 23, 2022

Climate change is a threat multiplier for hunger, destroying livelihoods, driving displacement, widening social inequalities, and undermining sustainable development. This piece is adapted from Rupa Mukerji's essay, "Climate Change and Hunger," published as part of the 2019 Global Hunger Index (co-produced by Concern and Welthungerhilfe).

Since the early 1990s, the number of extreme weather-related disasters has doubled. Harvests have decreased, and food prices have risen as a result. The climate crisis is fueling the hunger crisis, and with our food systems more global than ever, we all stand to lose.

Sadly, this is not a trend that appears to be going away any time soon. Looking ahead, climate models predict higher average temperatures around the world and hotter extremes, rising sea levels in coastal areas and more frequent droughts in other areas. The Horn of Africa is currently experiencing its worst drought in 40 years. While climate change can be a difficult topic to fully understand, the human impacts are clear and very tangible: Millions of people go to bed hungry every night as a result of global warming. Here are four ways that climate change and hunger go hand-in-hand — and why we should all be concerned.

Find out what you can do to help fight climate change and hunger.

1. climate change impacts agriculture and food production.

Higher temperatures, water scarcity, droughts, floods, and greater CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere affect staple crops around the world. Corn and wheat production has declined in recent years due to extreme weather events, plant diseases, and a global water crisis .

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, 80% of the causes behind an unpredictable harvest for cereal crops in areas like Africa’s Sahel come down to climate variability. In other areas like Bangladesh and Vietnam, rising sea levels pose a different threat to food security. There, coastal farmlands are often flooded by saltwater, which kills off rice crops. With half of Vietnam’s national rice production centered in the Mekong Delta (roughly the size of Maryland), even a minor flood can have major implications.

While the causes of these issues are fairly consistent, the solutions are not. This means that, with the effects of climate change already apparent in areas like the Horn of Africa and Southeast Asia, we need to find unique methods to mitigate disasters when they strike, and develop bespoke ways to reduce the impacts of hazards on the lives and livelihoods of these areas in the future.

2. Climate change limits access to food

If climate change reduces the amount of food produced, then it makes sense that it also reduces the amount of food people can access. This simple instance of supply-and-demand, however, has big impacts. If one part of the food system is interrupted due to a climate event (big or small), that can lead to inflation. We’ve seen this happen over the last two years after international trade was suspended due to COVID-19. These price spikes leave the poorest families most vulnerable; one study shows that people living in urban areas under the poverty line spend up to 75% of their budget on food alone.

Many of the world’s hungriest countries rely on agriculture as their main industry, which means that families eat seasonally in keeping with what their harvests (and their neighbors’ harvests) bring in. In the times before harvest known as “hungry seasons,” when the previous supply of food has been used up and the next crops are not quite ready to pick, families often skip one or more meals per day. In many areas, climate change has prolonged these hungry seasons.

3. Climate change decreases the nutritional value of food

Hunger and malnutrition are issues of both quantity and quality. Climate change affects both. Studies show that higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in plants reduce their protein, zinc, and iron content. By 2050, an estimated 175 million people could develop zinc deficiencies. 122 million people may be protein-deficient by that time as well.

Beyond plant-based nutrition, climate change also affects the quality of livestock, which rely on the same resources as humans to eat, grow, and produce meat, eggs, and/or milk. Cattle, goats, and other livestock account for 36% of all drought-related losses (crops make up 49%). Likewise, climate extremes threaten fish populations, especially in areas like Southeast Asia.

During a drought, 49% of all assets lost are crops; 36% are livestock.

4. Climate change increases food waste

Even if a harvest is good (or promises to be good), more of it now goes to waste as the climate crisis intensifies. Crops grown in high-drought areas are often moved into humid storage facilities, leaving them vulnerable to fungal infestations and pests. Rain doesn’t always help, either: Flooding from extreme rainfalls can also produce toxic mold on crops. The more climate changes and the more that extreme climate events become commonplace, the more food we lose on an annual basis.

According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, roughly one-third of the food produced by farmers is lost between the field and the market in low- and middle-income countries. In high-income countries, a similar amount is wasted between the market and the table. Currently, the food system contributes 21–37% of greenhouse gasses, meaning that these food losses add to the climate crisis but do nothing for food security or malnutrition levels.

Climate change and hunger: What comes next?

Climate change affects the global food system in such a way that those who already suffer from hunger and undernutrition are those most vulnerable to losing more as the climate crisis continues. In order to end hunger — one of our top Sustainable Development Goals for the year 2030 — we need to address the causes of climate change , particularly at the governmental and policy levels. We also need to prioritize climate justice to support the communities on the frontlines of the crisis, communities that often contribute very little to greenhouse gas emissions.

The last few years have made it clear that this cannot happen in isolation. We must foster global solidarity with the most climate-vulnerable communities and countries. High-income countries (especially those with the highest greenhouse emissions) must take responsibility for both mitigating the causes of climate change and supporting low- and middle-income countries in adapting to the effects of these changes. We must also honor commitments to programs like the Paris Climate Agreement , and accelerate national and international responses. All of this is a tall order, but it’s an order that will affect all of our futures, regardless of where we live.

Climate change and hunger: Concern’s response

Concern is clear that the climate crisis constitutes the most serious global environmental threat and is a significant poverty and hunger multiplier.

The majority of people Concern works with are involved in some way with farming and food production. Many of these communities are also on the frontlines of climate change. We work with rural communities to promote Climate Smart Agriculture , an approach that helps families adapt to better crops, growing techniques, and soil improvement practices in response to the changing — and often unpredictable — environment. We also work to strengthen links with the private sector to facilitate access to supplies and equipment.

We combine this with our award-winning and standard-setting program, Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) , which has saved millions of lives over the past 20 years. We’ve continued to work with partners and communities to find more tailored approaches to community-based treatment of childhood malnutrition, which has led to CMAM Surge: a way of proactively responding to malnutrition during seasonal “surge” periods throughout the year. Two CMAM Surge pilot tests in Kenya in 2012 saw that the model managed peaks, without undermining other health and nutrition efforts.

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World Hunger Essay

World hunger is a problem that has existed for centuries. Despite the efforts of many organizations and individuals, the number of people who are hungry or at risk of hunger continues to rise. According to the World Food Programme, there are about 795 million people who are chronically undernourished, which means that they do not have enough food to lead a healthy and active life.

The causes of world hunger are complex and multi-faceted, but there are some common underlying factors. One of the main causes is poverty. People living in poverty do not have the money to buy food, or they may not have access to land where they can grow their own food. Another major cause of world hunger is conflict. When countries are in conflict, it disrupts the distribution of food and can lead to widespread famine. Natural disasters, such as droughts and floods, can also cause food shortages.

There are many ways to address world hunger. One way is to provide emergency food assistance to people who are affected by natural disasters or conflicts. Another way is to work on long-term solutions such as economic development and agricultural reform.

World hunger is a complex problem that requires a multi-faceted approach to be effectively addressed. However, with concerted effort and cooperation, it is possible to make progress in the fight against hunger.

As I speak these words to you, a youngster somewhere on this planet will have perished from starvation. A child. Children are the most vulnerable of us: they trust everyone instinctively, and their purity is genuine and appropriate and necessary–and they’re dying in far-flung regions of the globe until their skin stretches over their bones and they don’t have the strength, desire, or capacity to cry out anymore. You may feel for them with compassion or guilt or simply an understanding of their condition.

They become a statistic, one more number in the millions that die each year from something as preventable and solvable as hunger.

World hunger is one of the biggest problems faced by the human race. It’s not just a problem in developing countries, either. In our own country, the United States of America, there are children going to bed hungry every night. Just think about that for a moment. In the richest country in the world, with more resources than any other nation, there are still children who don’t have enough to eat. That’s shameful.

The problem of world hunger is complex and multi-faceted. There are many factors that contribute to it: war, natural disasters, poverty, poor infrastructure and access to resources, and more. But the bottom line is that there is enough food in the world to feed everyone. So why are people still going hungry?

There are a number of organizations working to solve the problem of world hunger. One of them is World Food Programme (WFP). The WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, working to end hunger worldwide. They provide food assistance in emergencies and help communities develop long-term solutions to hunger.

You can help fight world hunger by supporting the WFP or another organization working to end hunger. You can also donate money or time to local food banks or soup kitchens. Or you can advocate for policies that will help reduce hunger and poverty.

The bottom line is that we can end world hunger. But it’s going to take all of us working together to make it happen.

Despite this, they remain hungry while their countries suffer from deadly plagues that demand sweet forgiveness. You may believe you can do nothing, but a single dollar here and there seems to fall off your fingers without a second thought—dollars that could feed starving families for days.

In order to truly address the problem of world hunger, not only must someone travel to these nations and improve their infrastructure in order to give assistance, but you must also keep them in mind so that their suffering does not go unnoticed. The first step is changing one’s diet.

People in these areas often don’t have access to gardens or grocery stores. Without a change in diet, the people will never be able to properly absorb the nutrients they need. They must have access to education so that they can learn about food and its value, not only for themselves but also for their families. The next issue is infrastructure.

These countries must have access to clean water and sanitation so that disease doesn’t spread like wildfire through their communities. They also need roads and transportation so that they can get food and supplies to where they’re needed most. And finally, they need medical care. Too often, children die because they don’t have access to basic medical care, such as vaccinations. World hunger is a problem that can be solved, but it will take more than just money.

It will take a change in mindset and a willingness to help those who cannot help themselves. With your help, we can make the world a better place for everyone. World hunger is a global issue that effects us all. We need to work together to find a solution so that everyone can have access to food and live a healthy life. Thank you for your time and consideration. World hunger must end now.

World hunger is defined as “a condition in which people lack the means necessary to obtain adequate food on a daily basis” (www.endworldhunger.org). According to the World Food Programme, there are 795 million people around the world who are affected by hunger on a daily basis, including 155 million children under the age of five.

Some countries have the resources to provide children with adequate calories to develop and thrive, yet they waste away and die. This is due to malnutrition. Micronutrients (particularly protein) are lacking in many fatal diseases due to a lack of macronutrients (especially protein).

Both kwashiorkor and marasmus are particularly terrible and prevalent forms of malnutrition. Kwashiorkor occurs as a result of a deficit in protein, whereas marasmus results from an absence of all minerals. Both induce youngsters to become heartbreaking images made up of skin and bones. The method to properly subsist on farm must be established in every nation on the planet in order to address this.

World hunger has many causes, but all of them are interconnected. Poverty is the main cause of world hunger. According to World Bank, “Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for tomorrow, living one day at a time.”

This means that people who are poor do not have enough money to buy food or clothes or even pay their rent. They also do not have enough money to go to the doctor when they are sick and they cannot afford to send their children to school because they need them to work in order to earn some money.

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Disease and hunger soar in Latin America after floods and drought, study finds

Climate chaos is threatening food production, trade and lives, says World Meteorological Organization

Hunger and disease are rising in Latin America after a year of record heat, floods and drought, a report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has shown.

The continent, which is trapped between the freakishly hot Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, probably suffered tens of thousands of climate-related deaths in 2023, at least $21bn (£17bn) of economic damage and “the greatest calorific loss” of any region, the study found .

The climate chaos, caused by a combination of human-driven global heating and a natural El Niño effect, is continuing with devastating floods in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre , which have killed at least 95 people and deluged swathes of farmland after the world’s hottest April in human history.

Global heat records have now been broken for 11 months in a row, causing death and destruction across many parts of the planet. Latin America and the Caribbean have experienced some of the worst effects.

In a summary of last year’s toll in this region, the WMO said disasters and climate change, along with socioeconomic shocks, are the main drivers of acute food insecurity, which affects 13.8 million people.

As the climate warms, diseases are spreading across a greater area. The WMO noted that more than 3m cases of dengue fever were reported in the first seven months of 2023, breaking the previous annual record for the region. Uruguay experienced its first cases of chikungunya and Chile widened alerts about the Aedes aegypti mosquito vector.

There were an average of 36,695 heat-related excess deaths each year in the region in the first two decades of this century. Last year’s toll has not yet been calculated, but it is likely to exceed the average given the record temperatures and prolonged heatwaves in many areas.

Mexico had a record high of 51.4C on 29 August, and many areas sweltered in a prolonged heatwave. By the end of the year, 76% of Mexico was experiencing some degree of drought. In October Acapulco was hit by the first ever category 5 hurricane to make landfall on the Pacific coastline. Hurricane Otis killed at least 48 people, damaged 80% of the city’s hotels and left damages calculated at $12bn.

Other areas of Central and South America endured unusually fierce heat and prolonged drought. The Panama Canal had 41% less rainfall than normal , causing difficulties for one of the most important conduits of world trade.

Brazil, the biggest country in Latin America, experienced record winter heat in excess of 41C and severe droughts in the Amazon rainforest, where the Rio Negro recorded its lowest level in more than 120 years of observations , fires raged around Manaus and more than 100 baiji river dolphins died in the hot, shallow, polluted waters of Lake Tefé.

The south of Brazil has repeatedly suffered deadly flooding. At least 65 people died in São Paulo in February 2023 after torrential rains and landslides. Another 48 were killed and 20,000 displaced in the state of Rio Grande do Sul in September after 300mm of rain fell in 24 hours and now the same southern state is deluged once again. Streets have turned to rivers in Porto Alegre, the capital, forcing the international airport to close while the football pitch of the Arena do Grêmio resembles a lake.

Last year, floods also took lives, disrupted business or ruined crops in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Peru and Bolivia.

Combined with drought, this has hurt agricultural production in one of the world’s most important food production regions. Wheat production in Argentina fell 30% below the five-year average, and a similar loss is expected in the harvest of the grain in the Brazilian state of Paraná and Rio Grande do Sul. Some of these losses have been offset by record maize production in other parts of Brazil, but food prices are rising. Overall, Latin America has suffered significant calorific losses, the report said. In countries that are also experiencing political and economic problems, such as Venezuela, Haiti and parts of Colombia, this is creating a food crisis.

The costs in human lives, lost food production and economic damage are expected to rise for as long as humans continue to burn gas, oil, coal and trees, which emit heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere.

“Sadly, this is probably only the beginning,” said Prof José Marengo, the lead author of the WMO report and director of the Brazil National Center for Monitoring and Early Warning of Natural Disasters. “Extreme events are becoming more frequent and the period of return is becoming shorter.”

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Texas is among the most food-insecure states, national study shows

For the first time, the number of texans who face hunger surpasses california, and a third of those are children, according to feeding america report..

By Leah Waters

10:57 AM on May 15, 2024 CDT — Updated at 3:29 PM on May 15, 2024 CDT

Texas ranks among the nation’s most food-insecure states after pandemic-era programs expired and record-high inflation drove up food prices, according to a national study released Wednesday by Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger-relief organization.

At its annual Mayor Day event on Wednesday, the North Texas Food Bank unveiled the latest insights from the Map the Meal Gap study of 2022 data, which revealed a stark reality for the Lone Star State.

The North Texas Food Bank — a partner food bank of Feeding America — sources, purchases, packages and distributes food through its 500 partners across 13 counties in the region.

The annual Mayor Day event allows Dallas-Fort Worth area city leaders to learn more about food insecurity and roll up their sleeves by volunteering at the food bank’s headquarters in Plano.

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Texas grapples with a food insecurity rate of 16.4%, up from 13.7% in 2021. Food insecurity is a result of economic inequality, where households do not earn enough money to regularly afford basic food needs, leading to skipped meals and hungry bellies, according to Feeding America.

Following decades of booming population growth, Texas now has the largest number of food-insecure residents — more than 4.9 million people — surpassing California for the first time.

One out of three food-insecure Texans is a child.

“We typically see families with children being disproportionately affected because they have more mouths to feed,” said Trisha Cunningham, the North Texas Food Bank’s president and CEO.

Related: Sen. John Cornyn tours Bonton Farms to talk justice system reforms with local nonprofits

The latest Map the Meal Gap study, which provides local-level estimates of food insecurity and food costs, confirmed much of what North Texas’ hunger fighters already knew, according to Cunningham.

A hunger crisis is worsening, she said.

“Texas boasts of being bigger in so many aspects that leading the nation in food insecurity is not a badge of honor that we should proudly wear in Texas,” said Cunningham in an interview with The Dallas Morning News.

The North Texas Food Bank’s region, which includes 13 counties, has the fourth largest number of food-insecure residents in the nation, behind Los Angeles, New York City and Houston.

North Texans have tried their best to endure a perfect storm of rising inflation and drops in income and government support, Cunningham said.

Related: Hispanic residents in Texas have poorer health than those in other states, study finds

“We know that neighbors in every ZIP code had to make those difficult choices every day,” she said. “Do they buy groceries, or do they pay for child care or gas? Their standard of living didn’t change. What changed was the cost of the basic needs that ate up any kind of buffer that they had. And now they’re having to make choices that they’ve never had to make before.”

Despite a robust food network, the North Texas region still fights to fill a gap of 146 million meals annually, according to the study.

Congressman Colin Allred, who represents parts of the North Texas Food Bank’s region, said in a statement that no family should ever wonder where they’ll get their next meal.

“Sadly, over 777,000 people are facing hunger in North Texas, and we must ensure that the North Texas Food Bank can meet those needs,” said Allred, a supporter of federal food assistance programs. “Let’s keep working to lower costs and ensure our economy is lifting up every Texan.”

More than half of the North Texas Food Bank’s food-insecure population lives in Dallas County, followed by Collin County at 17%, Denton County at 15% and the remaining 10 counties making up 16%.

Racial disparities

Understanding where families facing hunger live is critical to the food bank’s work to ensure they have access to food, said Erica Yaeger, the food bank’s chief external affairs officer.

The food bank uses the Feeding America data along with a Hunger Action Map, a comprehensive report developed in partnership with Bain Consulting, to look at regional demographic information and work with its partners to distribute food in ZIP codes with high unmet needs.

Related: Dallas, Collin counties see lowest count in homelessness since 2015, according to data

In Dallas County, 20% of the people facing hunger reside in 10 South Dallas and southern Dallas ZIP codes. Last year, the food bank provided about 20 million meals to residents living in those 10 ZIP codes through 160 feeding programs and partners.

In North Texas, the percentage of Black and Hispanic families facing insecurity increased the most compared with white, non-Hispanic households.

About 28% of Black North Texans were food insecure, up from 22% the previous year. About 20% of Hispanic residents were food insecure, a jump from 14%. About 9% of white, non-Hispanic residents in North Texas were food-insecure, up slightly from 7% in 2021.

A North Texas impact

The North Texas Food Bank’s network has been a steady lifeline to support hungry families over the years, Cunningham said.

Related: Dallas approves annual urban land bank plan to spur affordable housing

“Amid these struggles, there shines a beacon of hope,” she said. “Through the dedication of generous supporters and steadfast partnerships, the North Texas Food Bank delivered a record 144 million meals in fiscal year 2023, a testament to the power of collective compassion and action in the face of adversity.”

The food bank’s strategic plan addresses the increased need by partnering with over 500 food pantries and organizations, like its redistribution partners Crossroads Community Services in South Dallas and Sharing Life Community Outreach in Mesquite. The North Texas Food Bank provides access to about 400,000 meals each day.

“We see a clear picture of food insecurity not just in Dallas County, but also in Rockwall and Kaufman counties,” said Teresa Jackson, CEO of Sharing Life. “These are our communities, where our friends and neighbors struggle to put food on the table every single day.”

Leah Waters , Equity Reporter . Leah Waters is the equity reporter and former multiplatform editor for The Dallas Morning News. She reports on North Texas’ equity crisis from a human-centered perspective that takes into account the historical contexts, structural barriers and public policy that have contributed to its growth. Topics: Housing, Homelessness, Public Policy, Growth

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Guest Essay

A Year on Ozempic Taught Me We’re Thinking About Obesity All Wrong

By Johann Hari

Mr. Hari is a British journalist and the author of “Magic Pill: The Extraordinary Benefits — and Disturbing Risks — of the New Weight Loss Drugs.”

Ever since I was a teenager, I have dreamed of shedding a lot of weight. So when I shrank from 203 pounds to 161 in a year, I was baffled by my feelings. I was taking Ozempic, and I was haunted by the sense that I was cheating and doing something immoral.

I’m not the only one. In the United States (where I now split my time), over 70 percent of people are overweight or obese, and according to one poll, 47 percent of respondents said they were willing to pay to take the new weight-loss drugs. It’s not hard to see why. They cause users to lose an average of 10 to 20 percent of their body weight, and clinical trials suggest that the next generation of drugs (probably available soon) leads to a 24 percent loss, on average. Yet as more and more people take drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro, we get more confused as a culture, bombarding anyone in the public eye who takes them with brutal shaming.

This is happening because we are trapped in a set of old stories about what obesity is and the morally acceptable ways to overcome it. But the fact that so many of us are turning to the new weight-loss drugs can be an opportunity to find a way out of that trap of shame and stigma — and to a more truthful story.

In my lifetime, obesity has exploded, from being rare to almost being the norm. I was born in 1979, and by the time I was 21, obesity rates in the United States had more than doubled . They have skyrocketed since. The obvious question is, why? And how do these new weight-loss drugs work? The answer to both lies in one word: satiety. It’s a concept that we don’t use much in everyday life but that we’ve all experienced at some point. It describes the sensation of having had enough and not wanting any more.

The primary reason we have gained weight at a pace unprecedented in human history is that our diets have radically changed in ways that have deeply undermined our ability to feel sated. My father grew up in a village in the Swiss mountains, where he ate fresh, whole foods that had been cooked from scratch and prepared on the day they were eaten. But in the 30 years between his childhood and mine, in the suburbs of London, the nature of food transformed across the Western world. He was horrified to see that almost everything I ate was reheated and heavily processed. The evidence is clear that the kind of food my father grew up eating quickly makes you feel full. But the kind of food I grew up eating, much of which is made in factories, often with artificial chemicals, left me feeling empty and as if I had a hole in my stomach. In a recent study of what American children eat, ultraprocessed food was found to make up 67 percent of their daily diet. This kind of food makes you want to eat more and more. Satiety comes late, if at all.

One scientific experiment — which I have nicknamed Cheesecake Park — seemed to me to crystallize this effect. Paul Kenny, a neuroscientist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, grew up in Ireland. After he moved in 2000 to the United States, when he was in his 20s, he gained 30 pounds in two years. He began to wonder if the American diet has some kind of strange effect on our brains and our cravings, so he designed an experiment to test it. He and his colleague Paul Johnson raised a group of rats in a cage and gave them an abundant supply of healthy, balanced rat chow made out of the kind of food rats had been eating for a very long time. The rats would eat it when they were hungry, and then they seemed to feel sated and stopped. They did not become fat.

But then Dr. Kenny and his colleague exposed the rats to an American diet: fried bacon, Snickers bars, cheesecake and other treats. They went crazy for it. The rats would hurl themselves into the cheesecake, gorge themselves and emerge with their faces and whiskers totally slicked with it. They quickly lost almost all interest in the healthy food, and the restraint they used to show around healthy food disappeared. Within six weeks, their obesity rates soared.

After this change, Dr. Kenny and his colleague tweaked the experiment again (in a way that seems cruel to me, a former KFC addict). They took all the processed food away and gave the rats their old healthy diet. Dr. Kenny was confident that they would eat more of it, proving that processed food had expanded their appetites. But something stranger happened. It was as though the rats no longer recognized healthy food as food at all, and they barely ate it. Only when they were starving did they reluctantly start to consume it again.

Though Dr. Kenny’s study was in rats, we can see forms of this behavior everywhere. We are all living in Cheesecake Park — and the satiety-stealing effect of industrially assembled food is evidently what has created the need for these medications. Drugs like Ozempic work precisely by making us feel full. Carel le Roux, a scientist whose research was important to the development of these drugs, says they boost what he and others once called “satiety hormones.”

Once you understand this context, it becomes clear that processed and ultraprocessed food create a raging hole of hunger, and these treatments can repair that hole. Michael Lowe, a professor of psychology at Drexel University who has studied hunger for 40 years, told me the drugs are “an artificial solution to an artificial problem.”

Yet we have reacted to this crisis largely caused by the food industry as if it were caused only by individual moral dereliction. I felt like a failure for being fat and was furious with myself for it. Why do we turn our anger inward and not outward at the main cause of the crisis? And by extension, why do we seek to shame people taking Ozempic but not those who, say, take drugs to lower their blood pressure?

The answer, I think, lies in two very old notions. The first is the belief that obesity is a sin. When Pope Gregory I laid out the seven deadly sins in the sixth century, one of them was gluttony, usually illustrated with grotesque-seeming images of overweight people. Sin requires punishment before you can get to redemption. Think about the competition show “The Biggest Loser,” on which obese people starve and perform extreme forms of exercise in visible agony in order to demonstrate their repentance.

The second idea is that we are all in a competition when it comes to weight. Ours is a society full of people fighting against the forces in our food that are making us fatter. It is often painful to do this: You have to tolerate hunger or engage in extreme forms of exercise. It feels like a contest in which each thin person creates additional pressure on others to do the same. Looked at in this way, people on Ozempic can resemble athletes like the cyclist Lance Armstrong who used performance-enhancing drugs. Those who manage their weight without drugs might think, “I worked hard for this, and you get it for as little as a weekly jab?”

We can’t find our way to a sane, nontoxic conversation about obesity or Ozempic until we bring these rarely spoken thoughts into the open and reckon with them. You’re not a sinner for gaining weight. You’re a typical product of a dysfunctional environment that makes it very hard to feel full. If you are angry about these drugs, remember the competition isn’t between you and your neighbor who’s on weight-loss drugs. It’s between you and a food industry constantly designing new ways to undermine your satiety. If anyone is the cheat here, it’s that industry. We should be united in a struggle against it and its products, not against desperate people trying to find a way out of this trap.

There are extraordinary benefits as well as disturbing risks associated with weight-loss drugs. Reducing or reversing obesity hugely boosts health, on average: We know from years of studying bariatric surgery that it slashes the risks of cancer, heart disease and diabetes-related death. Early indications are that the new anti-obesity drugs are moving people in a similar radically healthier direction, massively reducing the risk of heart attack or stroke. But these drugs may increase the risk for thyroid cancer. I am worried they diminish muscle mass and fear they may supercharge eating disorders. This is a complex picture in which the evidence has to be weighed very carefully.

But we can’t do that if we remain lost in stories inherited from premodern popes or in a senseless competition that leaves us all, in the end, losers. Do we want these weight loss drugs to be another opportunity to tear one another down? Or do we want to realize that the food industry has profoundly altered the appetites of us all — leaving us trapped in the same cage, scrambling to find a way out?

Johann Hari is a British journalist and the author of “Magic Pill: The Extraordinary Benefits — and Disturbing Risks — of the New Weight Loss Drugs,” among other books.

Source photographs by seamartini, The Washington Post, and Zana Munteanu via Getty Images.

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Stamp Out Hunger is in the can

Across the nation, employees collected food for those in need.

Postal Service employees across the nation collected food donations for their communities during this year’s Stamp Out Hunger drive, held May 11.

The National Association of Letter Carriers leads the annual event, with help from USPS and other organizations. Since its launch in 1993, Stamp Out Hunger has grown into the nation’s largest one-day food drive, with all donations going to local food banks and pantries.

“We always get so excited this time of year,” said Daryl Sexton, a Springfield, MO, carrier technician. “It feels so good to help these local families and to help keep the community strong. It’s an honor to be a part of it.”

Organizers are expected to report this year’s tally by mid-June. Many large communities are reporting thousands of pounds of food in donations.

“The sheer volume of food collected was overwhelming,” said Connor Patton, an Atlantic Area delivery support specialist who helped oversee volunteer efforts in Rochester, NH.

Preparations for Stamp Out Hunger begin weeks in advance. In Riviera Beach, FL, for example, the local Post Office helped get the word out early with a media day on April 30.

“Letter carriers are out in the neighborhoods every single day of the year — we see the communities, we see the struggle there,” Letter Carrier Jeff Wagner told the local ABC station.

The event also brings out former postal employees.

Retirees such as Jeff Weipert, who worked as a letter carrier in Warren, MI, said he enjoys meeting up with his former co-workers and offered a historical perspective on how far the drive has come.  

The first drive was “hectic … we laid all the food out in a vacant parking lot for a local organization to come and pick it up. Now, after all these years, we have a plan and a great system to make every year the best food drive ever.”

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Want to promote semipostal stamps? Here are the rules

Stamp Out Hunger is set for May 11

The annual food drive collects donations for those in need

USPS raised $2.85 million for the Combined Federal Campaign   

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All Faiths Food Bank facing summer volunteer shortage for food distributions

As summer approaches and many part-time residents flee the state to escape the heat, All Faiths Food Bank is facing a critical volunteer shortage. From May through September, AFFB needs nearly 800 volunteers to cover approximately 12,000 volunteer hours for its 60 planned outdoor mobile food distributions.

“All Faiths Food Bank is honored and grateful to have one of the most robust volunteer bases in the region,” AFFB president and CEO Nelle Miller said. “Our volunteers are essential in helping us to maximize our reach and impact, ensuring that we can carry out activities at a level that our professional team couldn’t achieve without their support. We are concerned about our ability to meet the need this summer, though, and hope those with time and a desire to help others will consider volunteering with us.”

Sarasota resident Wendy Lachaunce and her spouse Bonnie Alberti have been volunteering for AFFB since 2019, collectively contributing around 50 hours each month. Lachaunce says that, as a child growing up with a single mom and two sisters, “We knew what it was like not to have enough food to eat and, at times, just having to go without.”

Volunteer Cullen “Cully” Pfanmiller was recognized as one of AFFB’s “Outstanding Youth Volunteers” during the 2024 Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon for his dedication to the organization. The 18-year-old senior at Sarasota High School was introduced to AFFB through Temple Emanu-El’s annual day of service, Mitzvah Day, during which he and his family sorted and packed food. Two years ago, he became a teen leader at the Emma E. Booker Elementary School mobile pantry.

“I would say that giving back to your community does as much for you as it does for your community,” he said. “After a volunteer shift, I feel like I have done something important for the families in my community. My heart is full knowing that I have helped in some way to put food on their tables.”

Lachaunce, 70, admits that volunteering during the summer can be physically rigorous. “Last summer, we had 45 days in a row of heat advisories. The volunteers that are working these pantries do it because of their beautiful service hearts,” she said. “We all have our personal stories and we care deeply for our friends and neighbors. No person should go hungry when I/we can do something about it.”

Making a difference for others

Fifty-somethings Kelly and Sean Jennings began volunteering with AFFB earlier this year, soon after moving to Sarasota from Michigan. Sean volunteers twice weekly at the warehouse, while Kelly volunteers to help sort and pack food, and assist at mobile pantries.

When asked how she feels after a typical volunteer shift, Jennings says, “I usually feel like I had a great workout! But I also feel so good about helping others and making a difference in someone's life. I especially like working at the mobile pantries, where I get to interact with the people who come to get food. It is a blessing to get to say ‘hello’ to them and see how happy they are to get the supplies that they need. It is also nice to work with the other volunteers and get to know them.”

In 2023, AFFB’s volunteers contributed more than 52,300 hours to help make a positive impact on the lives of their neighbors facing hunger.

Jennings encourages others to consider volunteering.

“I would say that they really should give it a try because it is such a blessing to help others. There is a job for everyone, whether you can lift heavy things or not,” she said.

For more about All Faiths Food Bank or to learn how you can be a hands-on “Hunger Hero” this summer, visit  allfaithsfoodbank.org/volunteer .

Submitted by Sharon Kunkel

May 8, 2024

Stamp Out Hunger Annual Food Drive Held Saturday, May 11

%news-subheading%

Detroit, MI — Postal Service employees will step up to Stamp Out Hunger — an annual food drive to help feed those in need — on Saturday, May 11.

To participate, USPS customers are asked to fill a bag with healthy, nonperishable food items and place it by their mailbox for mail carriers to pick up. During the drive, postal employees collect the food and donate it to local food banks and pantries. Participation is voluntary.

Stamp Out Hunger is the nation’s largest one-day food drive, with 1.82 billion pounds of food collected since it began in 1993. The National Association of Letter Carriers’ annual Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive has grown into the nation’s largest one-day food drive, helping to fill the shelves of food banks in cities and towns throughout the United States.

More than 34 million Americans, including 9 million children, experience food insecurity and rely on food donations. This drive is one way you can help those in your own city or town who need help.

Food Drive TIPS WHAT TO GIVE: Most-wanted foods include:

• Canned meats (tuna, chicken, salmon)
• Canned and boxed meals (soup, chili, stew, macaroni, and cheese)
• Canned or dried beans and peas (black, pinto, lentils)
• Pasta, rice cereal
• Canned fruits
• 100 percent fruit juice (canned, plastic or boxed)
• Canned vegetables
• Cooking oil
• Boxed cooking mixes (pancake, breads)

WHAT NOT TO GIVE:

• Rusty or unlabeled cans
• Glass containers
• Perishable items
• Homemade items
• No expired items
• Noncommercial canned or packaged items
• Alcoholic beverages or mixes or soda
• Open or used items

The United States Postal Service is an independent federal establishment, mandated to be self-financing and to serve every American community through the affordable, reliable and secure delivery of mail and packages to 167 million addresses six and often seven days a week. Overseen by a bipartisan Board of Governors, the Postal Service is implementing a 10-year transformation plan, Delivering for America , to modernize the postal network, restore long-term financial sustainability, dramatically improve service across all mail and shipping categories, and maintain the organization as one of America’s most valued and trusted brands.

The Postal Service generally receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

For USPS media resources, including broadcast-quality video and audio and photo stills, visit the USPS Newsroom . Follow us on X , formerly known as Twitter; Instagram ; Pinterest ; Threads and LinkedIn . Subscribe to the USPS YouTube Channel and like us on Facebook . For more information about the Postal Service, visit usps.com and facts.usps.com .

Media contacts

• Elizabeth Najduch [email protected] (C): (313) 268-0540

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Wisconsin drops ID checks at federally funded food pantries

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• The state Department of Health Services is changing procedures for the 265 Wisconsin food pantries that participate in The Emergency Food Assistance Program, which provides certain healthy foods that pantry donations don’t always cover.
• The state previously required workers at those pantries to check IDs of every person in a household and verify the person lived in the pantry’s county. The new rules — designed to improve food access — do not allow pantries to ask for identification or verify addresses.
• Some pantry directors support the change. Others fear they could create local food shortages. Some wonder how to accommodate a potential influx of out-of-county clients and track important demographic information.
• State officials say no problems have been identified in the 35 other states that already lack identification requirements.

Wisconsin’s emergency food pantries can now decide whether to check clients’ identification and verify their addresses. By October, the state will require them to stop asking. 

The change will improve access to a key federal program, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services said. Some pantry coordinators support the changes, but others counter that it could complicate their work. They say the state has yet to answer important questions.

Several coordinators voiced concerns when the health department last month announced changes that affect 265 state food pantries that accept food from The Emergency Food Assistance Program, or TEFAP. The federally funded program provides healthy foods that pantry donations don’t always cover, including milk, eggs, meat, fresh fruits and vegetables. Most participating pantries rely on the program for a significant amount of their food.

The overhaul comes as demand for emergency food surges following the expiration of extra FoodShare benefits during the pandemic. 

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The state previously required pantry workers to check IDs of every person in a household and verify the person lived in the pantry’s county. While pantries made exceptions for certain vulnerable groups with less access to IDs and fixed addresses, requesting that information creates unnecessary obstacles to food, supporters of the change say.

“We want to make sure people have an equitable and dignified way to receive food and we feel like the less information gathering in that regard that’s allowable, the better,” a health department spokesperson said.

With the change, Wisconsin joins 35 other states, including neighboring Minnesota, Illinois and Michigan, where TEFAP pantries don’t ask for ID.

Some anti-hunger advocates say eliminating ID checks could create local food shortages. Others support the change but worry about how to accommodate a potential influx of out-of-county clients and track demographic information about their visitors.

‘A horrible feeling’ to be turned away

Emma Tomberlin started experiencing homelessness in Madison 10 years ago. Someone stole her ID at the time, and she couldn’t afford a replacement, she said. 

She didn’t realize a local pantry would ask for identification before distributing food and hygiene products. After coordinating a ride one day and waiting in line, she said, the pantry turned her away.

“To realize that I was not worthy of food because I didn’t have an ID, and to be told that and to be turned away hungry, is just a horrible feeling,” Tomberlin said. 

She moved into her own apartment about two years ago, but she’s still not sure she could gather the paperwork the pantry’s website says it requires.

Under the previous state requirements, Wisconsin’s emergency pantries would still serve people without proper documentation during initial visits but, in rare cases, might block those who repeatedly returned without verifying their address. Unhoused people, undocumented immigrants and survivors of domestic abuse had additional leeway, guaranteeing service even on repeat visits without full documentation.

But perceptions matter just as much as procedure when it comes to food access, said Joli Guenther, executive director of the Wisconsin Association for Homeless and Runaway Services. She supports the eased state requirements.

Asking for an ID might discourage people most in need from showing up, Guenther said.

“We do want food pantries to be as low barrier as possible because that’s such an immediate need.”

Fears of food shortages

TEFAP makes emergency food aid available to households who make no more than twice the federal poverty level. That’s $40,880 annually for a two-person household.

Even before the latest changes, clients could self-declare their income without bringing proof. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the state required pantries to collect client signatures attesting to their eligibility. Safety concerns during the pandemic halted the requirements, although some pantries later resumed collecting signatures. 

That included Milwaukee-based Hunger Task Force, an anti-hunger nonprofit that relies on TEFAP for about half of its food bank supply. The signature requirement discouraged people from untruthfully claiming eligibility or inflating their household size — increasing the likelihood that food would go to people most in need, Hunger Task Force CEO Sherrie Tussler said.

Pantries may no longer collect such signatures under the state changes. That will make it virtually impossible to stop people from taking food they don’t need, Tussler contends.

“It’s completely ungoverned,” Tussler said. “Nobody’s answering the question, what’s really going to happen when we have food shortages?”

State officials don’t expect that to happen. The state health department found no shortages in surrounding states that lack identification and signature requirements, a spokesperson said.

Channel One Regional Food Bank, which serves residents of 13 Minnesota counties and Wisconsin’s La Crosse County, has faced no issues abiding by an honor system in Minnesota, said Virginia Witherspoon, its executive director.

“This truly gets down to what you believe about people, and if you believe that people are trying to take advantage of a system,” she said. “We don’t see that.” 

Among supporters of loosened identification requirements: Melissa Larson, food access and resource program manager at West CAP, which serves seven western Wisconsin counties.

In small-town pantries like West CAP’s, workers already know their clients on a first-name basis, and ID checks only create obstacles.

“In a rural area, it’s completely different,” Larson said.

Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin, which operates pantries in rural, urban and suburban areas of northeast Wisconsin and around Milwaukee, also welcomes the changes.

“We expect that the good this program will accomplish, the new enrollments and access this would facilitate, the increased ease of distribution, and the increased dignity and compassion this would provide to the participant will greatly outweigh the potential risk,” John Zhang, the organization’s director of community and government relations, told WPR and Wisconsin Watch in an email.

Expanded options for pantry clients  

Ryan Rasmussen, executive director of the Oshkosh Area Community Pantry, doesn’t expect people to start taking food they don’t need. 

“We get this question asked a lot about, ‘How many folks do you think are actually taking advantage of your pantry?’ And quite honestly, my response is zero,” he said.

But Rasmussen worries the revised guidelines will increase visits from outside of Winnebago County.

The federal government distributes emergency foods to pantries based on local poverty and unemployment rates. New state rules will allow clients to regularly visit any pantry statewide — even if it lies outside of their home county.

Rasmussen sees the potential for mismatches between resources and demands on some pantries during a time of growing demand.

While health department officials see no evidence that the new guidelines will spur a spike in cross-county visits, they will explore other food distribution models if issues arise, a spokesperson said.

Oshkosh Area Community Pantry saw a 70% increase in usage between 2022 and 2023, Rasmussen said. The pantry last year served 800 households from outside of Winnebago County. Workers then could refer those clients to options in their home county for future visits — easing demands on local resources, Rasmussen said. 

“The need is definitely growing and it’s definitely great,” Rasmussen said. “We’re doing all that we can to make sure that we stay ahead of it.” 

For Kenneth Tackett, two monthly visits to the Oshkosh pantry cover most of his needs, and there’s no reason to visit other pantries. 

“It’s where I get my bread, vegetables, potatoes, meat,” he said. “I feel blessed to have the availability to be able to do something like this.”

Federal aid important for many pantries

Most pantries rely on a mixture of TEFAP, food banks, grocery stores and donations. The federal program was an important source of food for 89% of pantries participating in the program, according to a state health department survey. 

Nearly a quarter of participating pantries get most or all of their food from the federal program, the survey showed. Most participants call the program’s food “very healthy.” 

The state health department says loosening restrictions for pantry visitors might expand pantry participation. Most pantries that don’t participate have “quite a bit” or “a great deal” of concern with program requirements and associated paperwork, survey responses show.

Most participating pantries reported no issues with requirements and reporting, and multiple pantry directors worry about losing mechanisms to collect information needed to apply for funding. 

The Sharing Center, a rural food pantry in Kenosha County, gets about 90% of its food from donations, with 10% coming from TEFAP, said Sharon Pomaville, the organization’s executive director.

Donors often question whether the pantry is “a free-for-all” that doesn’t scrutinize who receives assistance, Pomaville said.

Pomaville added in an email that she expects her organization to opt out of the federal program “because it’ll gut our pantry, and not allow us to collect data that allows us to secure critical programmatic grants for seniors, children, and veterans.”

State officials say pantries can still collect data, such as the ages of their clients, for food not associated with the federal program. But workers must clarify the questions aren’t required for TEFAP foods — potentially requiring pantries to adopt different procedures for different types of foods.

Some pantry leaders feel out of the loop

Some pantry leaders say they felt excluded from the state’s decision-making process, and they were surprised to find an updated TEFAP client form on the health department website before officials told them about the changes directly. 

The pantry directors currently lack access to an updated procedure manual, which the health department plans to publish in October.

A spokesperson said the health department asked regional TEFAP coordinators in November for feedback on the changes but heard little criticism until the department announced the changes in April.

“If the whole state would have come back to us with challenges, I think we would have had to look at this a lot closer,” the department spokesperson said.

Shane Fitzsimmons contributed reporting. This story comes from a partnership of Wisconsin Watch and WPR. Addie Costello is WPR’s Mike Simonson Memorial Investigative Reporting Fellow embedded in the newsroom of Wisconsin Watch.

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Addie Costello is WPR’s 2024-2025 Mike Simonson Memorial Investigative Reporting Fellow embedded in the Wisconsin Watch newsroom. Her reporting has been published by Marketplace, USA TODAY, the Austin American-Statesman, public radio stations across Texas and several publications in her home state of Nebraska. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin.

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