Bread was founded in the early 1970s by Rev. Art Simon, who was pastoring a Lutheran congregation on the Lower East Side of Manhattan when he gathered a small group of seven Catholics and seven Protestants to discuss a bold idea: creating a national, non-partisan Christian movement to end hunger by speaking out to their elected officials in Washington.

“Who knew that a small group of local church leaders coming together to explore ways they might address the root causes of hunger would spark a movement with such a profound impact – helping billions of people across the globe,” said Rev. Eugene Cho, president and CEO of Bread for the World.

Fifty years later, Bread continues to be a leading voice to bring about the end of hunger through policy and grassroots advocacy. Bread’s bipartisan network now includes hundreds of thousands of people and churches that are active in every congressional district across the country.

“For 50 years, Bread for the World has called Republicans and Democrats, Baptists and Catholics, and all stripes in between to come together to ensure all people have the food they need to live as God intended.  With more people dying today from hunger than people dying at the height of the pandemic, we have a crisis unfolding right in front of us.  Fortunately, our farmers and ranchers around the world are producing enough food to ensure that all people should have enough to eat.  The problem is in access.  The problem is not caring enough to make this a priority.  But these problems are inherently solvable.   The solution to the problem of hunger requires all sectors and political parties to work collaboratively.  So, we the people must heed Bread’s call once again to come alongside our brothers and sisters struggling for survival to end hunger in our lifetime,” said Jeremy Everett, chair of Bread’s Board of Directors and the founder and executive director of the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty.

“A hunger-free world is possible in our lifetime. Hunger is not a result of scarcity, but a symptom of unjust or non-existent policies. For 50 years, Bread for the World has been at the forefront of advocating for policies that lift children, families, and individuals out of food insecurity and poverty. Our unique approach—rooted in policy research, raising awareness, and empowering the faith community to advocate—has led to significant breakthroughs. While progress has been made, much remains to be done. We will continue our commitment to a hunger-free world because when our neighbors, near and far, are struggling with hunger, we all lose as a society,” said Mariam Mengistie, vice chair of Bread’s Board of Directors and a community organizer and leader in Orlando, Florida.

In June, Bread will host its’ 50th Anniversary Advocacy Summit, bringing Bread advocates from across the country together to celebrate 50 years of achievements and advocate on Capitol Hill for policies that can help end hunger.

“Bread is a testament to the impact a collective Christian voice can have—spanning generations, denominations, ethnicities, and political parties—to become an incredible movement for hope and change,” added Cho. “As we are reminded in Hebrews 12:1, we are surrounded and inspired by committed people of faith who came before us and therefore prepared to run with perseverance the race that is ahead of us. We’re proud of our legacy and excited to carry the momentum forward in building a future where everyone has access to the food and nutrition they need to thrive.”

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Soaring rates of severe malnutrition and famine make it clear that we need to ensure robust funding for global nutrition.

Good nutrition is the bedrock for a healthy and impactful life. Without it, children, families, and communities face significant challenges: disruptions to physical, mental, and emotional development; lost productivity; strain on healthcare systems; and instability.

UNICEF estimates that almost 45 million children under the age of 5 suffer from wasting (a condition whereby a child is severely thin for their height due to poor nutrition).¹ Nearly half of all preventable deaths among children under five are attributed to malnutrition. And yet, we are only able to reach roughly 25 percent of children suffering from the most dangerous form of malnutrition.²

Despite progress over the past few decades, the world continues to lose more than two million young children to malnutrition every year.³

Most people living with malnutrition are concentrated in South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Central America. The causes of malnutrition and food insecurity are often rooted in and amplified by conflict and political instability, rising food prices, climate impacts, and the aftermath of COVID-19.

Bread for the World and its partners are asking Congress to provide robust funding for global nutrition in the federal budget.

In 2023, USAID nutrition programs reached more than 39 million women and children globally with critical nutrition interventions, including:

• 28 million children with nutrition programs
• 11 million women with counseling on maternal and child nutrition and micronutrient supplementation
• 6 million infants and young children through nutrition education, resources, and programs provided to families and caregivers
• 256,000 people with professional nutrition training and skills development to deliver nutrition-related interventions

But the need is far greater. By robustly funding global nutrition programs, we can reach more women and children with evidence-based and highly effective treatment that saves lives and provides a brighter future for children and families.

Every $1 invested in nutrition results in up to $35 in economic returns.⁴

Better nutrition for children and women will enable countries to improve the health of their populations, send more children to school, and strengthen their economies.

For a tiny fraction—less than 1 percent— of the federal budget, global nutrition programs reach millions of children and mothers with lifesaving aid. These programs also support U.S. strategic interests by building and maintaining relationships with partner countries and promoting regional stability.

Endnotes:

^{i. https://www.unicef.org/child-health-and-survival/transforming-lives-treatment-malnutrition
ii. https://www.usaid.gov/news-information/speeches/dec-11-2024-deputy-administrator-isobel-coleman-usaids-wasting-research-consultation-event
iii. https://ourworldindata.org/half-child-deaths-linked-malnutrition
iv. https://www.usaid.gov/global-health/health-areas/nutrition}

The post Nourishing Our Future: Why Global Nutrition Needs Robust Funding appeared first on Bread for the World.

Conflict is a leading driver of hunger: 8 out of 10 of the world’s worst hunger crises are caused by conflict. But conflict does not happen in isolation. Higher costs and rising inflation make conflict more likely because wages fall and the potential gain from conflict rises. 

And conflict is not the only reason for hunger. Political instability, environmental challenges, economic disparities, and poor governance are all driving hunger crises and contributing to high levels of malnutrition around the world. Vulnerable people, particularly children, suffer the most when hunger strikes. Children are impacted most from malnutrition. 

It is alarming to consider these problems that seem insurmountable. 

But it is also where hope lies. Because whatever is done to address one of these will impact the others. The solutions are as interconnected as the crises. 

Since January, Bread for the World members have made progress against hunger even while it continues to rise, knowing that each step forward has impact on connected challenges. 

Success in 2024

Passage of $9 Billion in Emergency Humanitarian Assistance 

This April, Congress passed, and President Biden signed into law, more than $9 billion in emergency humanitarian assistance. Without it, millions of people, especially children, would have been at risk of dying.

This assistance funded food, nutrition, shelter, water, medical supplies, and other critical relief to tens of millions of people who live in multiple countries and regions on the verge of, or now experiencing, severe malnutrition and famine. The legislation also helped sustain critical bilateral support and multilateral financing to countries in crisis including hunger hotspots such as Sudan, Somalia, Armenia, Haiti, and Ethiopia.

Bread advocacy on this issue began in 2023 and continued over more than seven months alongside more than seventy-five partners, and through a Hunger Hotspots briefing series to educate leaders on country-specific needs, DC-based advocacy, and field mobilization, to reach the goal. As USAID Administrator Samantha Power said of Bread’s efforts, “Through months of uncertainty, you maintained an unrelenting voice as you asked just one thing: that we help feed the people who need it most.”

Passage of FY2024 Appropriations Bills with Funding for Key Domestic and International Nutrition Programs 

In March, Congress passed legislation to fund the government through 2024 that funds essential domestic and international nutrition priorities.

The legislation fully funds vital domestic child nutrition programs including the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), the National School Lunch Program, the School Breakfast Program, and Summer EBT. These programs play a critical role in ensuring our nation’s children receive the nutrition they need to lead healthy and productive lives. The legislation also fully funds the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), our nation’s most important program addressing hunger.

In addition, the legislation provides funding for the international nutrition programs Food for Peace and the McGovern-Dole Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program, and modest funding increases for global nutrition. These initiatives are the pillars of our efforts to address hunger and malnutrition globally. While funding for some key programs decreased slightly from 2023 levels, the legislation did not include the 70 percent cuts that had been proposed last year, and the increase in global nutrition funding will help ensure many more women and children receive critical assistance.

Bread generated thousands of letters to Congress advocating for anti-hunger provisions in the budget, especially WIC and Food for Peace. We co-led an interfaith sign-on letter urging WIC funding. After the two minibus funding packages passed, Bread sent letters to leadership in the House and Senate thanking them for prioritizing nutrition and encouraging them to continue working to achieve a more food-secure world as they take up FY2025 appropriations.

Progress in 2024 That Bread Will Continue to Move Forward in 2025

Farm Bill 

Bread advocated this year to protect key anti-hunger farm bill programs and improve others. Bread worked to protect SNAP from proposed funding cuts of $31 billion and sought to preserve necessary and hard-won flexibility in international food aid programs including Food for Peace. Bread also generated support for hunger-related improvements to the farm bill including a NAP-to-SNAP pathway for the U.S. citizens of Puerto Rico, an expansion of the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP, which provides incentives to low-income families to purchase of fruits and vegetables), and better food date labeling. 

Bread members organized in their churches, campuses, and communities to raise awareness and convince their members of Congress to support a healthy, sustainable, equitable farm bill. Congresswoman Jahana Hayes (D-CT) read into the Congressional Record Bread’s farm bill priorities. Bread led a sign-on letter from 17 faith-based organizations urging Congress to expediently pass a full farm bill that protects and strengthens key anti-hunger programs that generated engagement from more than 50 Republican and Democratic offices, and endorsed a bi-partisan resolution on the 70^th anniversary of Food for Peace supporting the renewal of the program.

It is possible that Congress will pass a new farm bill before the current one expires in 2024. Between now and year-end, Bread will urge Congress to unite across party lines and pass an updated farm bill that includes these anti-hunger priorities.

Humanitarian Aid Funding in 2025 Appropriations

Bread opposed proposed funding cuts to development and humanitarian assistance programs included in the House of Representative’s Fiscal Year 2025 State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs (SFOPs) Appropriations Act, including cuts to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and a number of institutions at the United Nations such as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

When the world is experiencing the greatest hunger and famine crisis in a generation, cutting funding for these critical organizations and programs would impact hundreds of millions of lives, particularly women and children. 

This year, Bread led and joined successful efforts to fend off proposed cuts, including major amendments that would have cut entirely or severely walked-back programs that Bread members have supported for decades, and some policies designed to make foreign aid more efficient that Bread helped bring into being. 

As Congress again looks to finalize government funding for FY2025, Bread will urge lawmakers to ensure humanitarian assistance programs are adequately funded to at least 2024 levels and reject amendments that would cut funding for or otherwise hinder the lifesaving work of USAID, the UN, and other partner organizations. We will also continue to support and encourage the majority of House members who voted down many of the most harmful amendments that were offered, including amendments that would have defunded USAID and international disaster relief assistance. 

Child Tax Credit 

The House of Representatives passed a child tax credit (CTC) expansion in the bipartisan, bicameral Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act, and Bread worked to secure support in the Senate for a vote in that chamber. 

As a group, families with children are more likely to be food insecure than families without children. The risks are even higher for Black families, Latino/a families, Native American families, and families with single mothers, among others. In just the first year alone, an expanded CTC is projected to lift as many as 400,000 children out of poverty. It would benefit approximately sixteen million children whose families currently receive partial credit or no credit at all because their incomes are too low.

Bread advocacy contributed to the House passage of the bill and was instrumental to bringing it to the Senate floor through advocacy to key Senators, alone and with partners, and through more than 4,500 letters from Bread advocates. Though the bill failed to pass the Senate in 2024, Bread advocacy to center the child tax credit in congressional discussions this year has set a firm foundation for future action as Congress looks to negotiate a new tax bill in 2025.

Increased IDA Pledge 

President Biden pledged a record $4 billion to the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA). The commitment is 14 percent higher than the U.S.’ last contribution. 

Through grants and low-interest-rate-loans, IDA finances development projects in low-income countries that strengthen economies, promote child development, restore and expand access to quality early childhood services, and improve agricultural productivity. Many countries who receive these grants “graduate” from the program and become IDA donors to help other countries achieve similar success. A pledge to IDA is an investment to address the drivers of hunger and malnutrition. 

Bread engaged in policy analysis, public awareness-raising, and advocacy to encourage a strong U.S. pledge and celebrated the early commitments made by other countries. In the coming year, Bread will encourage Congress to fulfill the U.S. pledge.

Additional Efforts

Vote to End Hunger

In 2024, Bread encouraged anti-hunger advocates to center hunger in their voting decisions and provided a voting guide to help people discern among candidates in local and national elections. More than 1,500 people signed our Vote to End Hunger pledge. Bread activists met with forty-four candidates for office, where we shared our 2025 advocacy priorities and asked them what they would do, if elected, to help end hunger. 

As we head into the new year, Bread will revisit the candidates we met with pre-election who were elected. We will also reach out to every new member of Congress to introduce our anti-hunger priorities, begin relationships, and encourage action on hunger. Bread looks forward to working with the new Administration and Congress to ensure all children, both in the U.S and around the world, have access to the nutrition they need to flourish.

Summer EBT in Effect

This summer, a law that Congress passed last year went into effect: the Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer Program for Children (Summer EBT), which address the gap between the number of children served during the school year and those served over the summer. 

Access to Summer EBT can be the difference between children getting the meals they need to stay healthy and thrive or going hungry. Approximately thirty million children in the U.S. are eligible for the program. Thirty-five states, the District of Columbia, all five U.S. territories, and four Indian Tribal Organizations have adopted Summer EBT.

Bread members advocated for this program in 2023 and in previous years. We are delighted to see it go into effect and how it is impacting children across the country. Looking ahead, Bread encourages every state to take advantage of the program.

What’s Next?

Bread celebrates the thousands of Bread supporters and anti-hunger advocates who wrote emails and letters, made phone calls, met with their members of Congress, connected with partners, and spoke up in a hundred different ways in support of domestic and international nutrition programs this year. 

We underscore, and take as direction, that this year’s two clear victories were achieved on a bipartisan basis. Working in a bipartisan manner will be top of mind as we work with the new Administration and Congress next year. We are eager to connect with our newly elected leaders to see where we can address hunger together.

In 2024, we made progress in an election year. In 2025, we know that our persistence will continue to yield results that move us closer to the end of hunger. 

Next year we will celebrate Bread’s 50^th anniversary. We’ll center our efforts on Nourish Our Future, a campaign focused on child hunger. We invite you to join us in Nourish Our Future. 

At Bread, we “thank God every time [we] remember you” (Philippians 1:3). Thank you for being a part of Bread for the World. 

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Bread for the World’s value of human flourishing reflects these interconnected goals. Our top priority focus is SDG 2: ending hunger and malnutrition in all its forms by 2030. But with only five years remaining until the 2030 deadline, researchers project that if present trends continue, the goal will not be reached.  Even if the world cannot speed up progress and reach the goal by 2030, it is certainly possible to make meaningful progress and ultimately achieve SDG 2. 

Earlier this year, two key events took place in Brazil: the release of The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, the annual report commonly known as the SOFI report, and the announcement and official launch of the G20 Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty.

The SOFI Report

Each year, key international organizations focused on food security produce The State of Food Security and Nutrition (SOFI) report—an update on global progress, setbacks, and remaining barriers to ending hunger by 2030. The SOFI report focuses on chronic food insecurity—food insecurity that persists over time and is caused largely by broad structural problems. This year’s report, released July 24, specifically discusses financing for food security and nutrition.  

Hunger and food insecurity have been on the rise. According to the data, nearly one in 11 people in the world, about 733 million people, faced hunger in 2023. The region with the highest percentage of people facing hunger was Africa, with one in five people affected.

As mentioned earlier, if current trends continue, an estimated 582 million people (nearly 7 percent of the world’s population) will still be chronically undernourished in 2030. The data shows that there are more undernourished people now than in 2019 prior to the pandemic. With the level of chronic hunger back to that of 2008-2009, it is more important than ever for the world to mobilize sufficient effective financing—funding to tackle the drivers of food insecurity, hunger, and malnutrition. 

Nearly two-thirds of the low- and middle-income countries analyzed have limited or moderate access to financing. Perhaps not surprisingly, the research showed that the prevalence of undernourishment and child stunting is much higher in countries with limited access to financing. 

Further, the current levels of financing are insufficient to end global hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition, and in many instances, they are not being managed in the most cost-effective way possible. The SOFI report includes recommendations to improve how financing is implemented, making it more inclusive and equitable, emphasizing that estimating the gap in financing and “mobilizing innovative ways of financing” to narrow this gap must be a top priority. 

The report devotes time to defining the term “financing for food security and nutrition,” explaining that a common understanding of the problem is necessary in order to make progress. Such an understanding enables the global community to establish what the gaps in financing are, set realistic goals and establish what is needed to meet them, implement increases in resources, and track and monitor results. The SOFI report defines financing for food security and nutrition as “the public and private financial resources, both domestic and foreign, that are directed towards eradicating hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition.”

Bread for the World and other anti-hunger advocates know that hunger and malnutrition are solvable, which is why efforts to fill the gap in financing for food security and hunger should be scaled up. 

The Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty 

“Hunger is the most degrading of human deprivations.”  
– Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, July 2024, announcing the creation of the G20 Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty

The Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty, brings G20 members together for collective action based on current efforts that are proving effective to Brazil’s experiences in tackling hunger, and recognized best practices and approaches. Earlier this year, the Global Alliance  garnered unanimous support from G20 members, including the United States. On November 18, with progress against hunger at the top of the agenda, the initiative officially launched in Brazil at the G20 Leaders’ Summit.  

The launch of the Global Alliance is a pivotal effort, led by Brazil and other G20 countries, to create a shared responsibility among all stakeholders, including international financial institutions, to mobilize essential resources and knowledge, and advance successful policies and practices to end global hunger and malnutrition. As of November 2024, the alliance has 148 signatories: 82 countries, 24 international organizations, 9 financial institutions, and 33 philanthropic foundations and non-governmental organizations.

Joyce Y. Kang is senior international policy advisor, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

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This is certainly discouraging. It is not likely that global hunger as a whole will fall over the next several months. But that does not mean that conditions in some countries and regions cannot or will not improve significantly. People trapped in very difficult circumstances are nonetheless using their ingenuity and all available resources to provide food and shelter for their children and themselves. Countless brave humanitarian workers are serving people directly, and Bread for the World members and others are advocating for the assistance they need.

The purpose of the WFP/FAO updates is to give decision-makers, advocates, and aid workers timely information about what is happening. Beyond a list of countries facing hunger emergencies with estimates of how many people are affected, the updates describe which regions of a country have been struck hardest, offer reasons for what is happening, and report experts’ opinions on conditions in the short term. 

The new update identifies 14 countries/territories and two regional clusters comprising eight additional countries as Hunger Hotspots. The report states that it “focuses on the most severe and deteriorating acute hunger situations, but it does not represent all countries/territories experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity.” Words to that effect appear more than once in the update. 

The countries/territories “of highest concern” for the period from now through May 2025 are Sudan, Gaza, South Sudan, Haiti, and Mali. These are the same five that were of highest concern in the last update, which covered May 2024 through October 2024. These countries and territories require the most urgent attention since their situations can be described as famine or catastrophic. 

This means that, after doing everything in their power and receiving all available assistance, households still have an extreme lack of food. The update, like previous Hunger Hotspots updates, does not mince words, reporting that “Starvation, death, destitution, and extremely critical acute malnutrition levels are evident.” It is no surprise, then, that humanitarian officials are calling for urgent action to prevent “widespread death and total collapse of livelihoods.”

Without swift action to ensure that humanitarian assistance can reach people in these areas, coupled with efforts to secure immediate de-escalation of conflict, “further starvation and loss of life are likely in [Gaza], Sudan, South Sudan, Haiti, and Mali.”

A second group of Hunger Hotspots countries are considered “of very high concern,” meaning that large numbers of people—half a million or more—are facing or are projected to face critical levels of acute food insecurity. These are the conditions expected over the next six months in Chad, Lebanon, Myanmar, Mozambique, Nigeria, Syria, and Yemen. Conditions in these countries are deteriorating due to an escalation of the factors that produced the already life-threatening conditions.

Some of the remaining Hunger Hotspot countries have been carried over from the May-October 2024 update: Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Malawi, Somalia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Others have just been added to the list: Kenya, Lesotho, Namibia, and Niger. 

The report emphasizes that all Hunger Hotspots need immediate and expanded assistance to improve access to food and protect people’s ability to earn a living. Decision-makers should not wait until conditions deteriorate further. Earlier action—increasing funding for humanitarian assistance and intensifying diplomatic efforts to end conflict and allow humanitarian access—saves lives, reduces food gaps, and protects assets and livelihoods at a significantly lower cost than delayed action. 

However, based on data from August 2024, humanitarian funding appears set to decline for the second year in a row. The 2024 Global Humanitarian Overview requests $49 billion. By August 2024, $14.5 billion, or 29 percent of what is needed, had been received. This was $1.36 billion less than at the same time in 2023. 

Twelve humanitarian response plans and flash appeals face gaps of more than 75 percent in food security funding. Seven of these are Hunger Hotspots, among which are three countries of very high concern: Yemen, Syria, and Myanmar.

In addition to the 22 countries that are current Hunger Hotspots, the report lists an additional 11 countries that “merit close monitoring.” People may well be facing acute food insecurity in these countries, but, either food security conditions were not deteriorating as quickly as in Hunger Hotspots countries, or there was insufficient data. 

There is also a note that the need for close monitoring is not limited to these 11 countries, which are Afghanistan, the Cox’s Bazaar region of Bangladesh, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Madagascar, the Central African Republic (CAR), and Sierra Leone.

Michele Learner is managing editor, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

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It can be difficult to pause when we are busy thinking about work or family facing disasters. We find it difficult to pause when we know that others cannot pause. We find it difficult to pause because we might be overwhelmed by heartbreak if we do. But pausing is important. Our scriptures urge us to the practice of weekly Sabbath. Taking time to slow down is good for our souls and our bodies.  

It can be difficult to give thanks in these moments when the world is facing what is increasingly being called a poly-crisis—a series of crises whose cumulative effect is greater than the sum of the individual crises. We can get bogged down in what is going wrong around the world, in our communities, in our lives. It is easy to be filled with gloom and cynicism and to forget that there is much to be grateful for. 

Some people keep gratitude journals or gratitude jars. The idea is that you write at least one thing that you’re grateful for every day in a journal or on a slip of paper that goes into a jar. That daily practice fosters gratitude. One thought leads to two thoughts, and two lead to four. Gradually, instead of writing one thing you’re grateful for, you start writing multiple things each day. Before you know it, your jar is full. Writing out what we’re grateful for trains our brains to be able to see good in the world. The repetition literally remaps our neuropathways. 

It can be difficult to connect with loved ones during the holidays. Some of us feel so much isolation that we struggle to reach out. Some of us have strained relationships with our families. Some of us are living in situations where it’s challenging to connect with other people. But gathering as a community, particularly in this time of poly-crisis, is important for our mental health. Connection is what we long for. 

For these reasons and more, Bread for the World hosted a vigil last month. We gathered to pause, connect as a community, and to pray for our world. (If you missed it, you can watch the recording here.) 

Bread has also created resources for connection during Advent. The Sunday after Thanksgiving, December 1, is the start of our new liturgical year. Our Advent devotional guide, Seeking Peace in this Advent Season, features reflections from Lisa Sharon Harper, founder of Freedom Road; Bread’s own Eddie Kaufholz, director of communications; Kimberly Mazyck from the Georgetown Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life; and Fr. Nicholas Anton of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. They invite us into spiritual practices to help us experience God’s peace in this season. 

Our hope is that connecting with God’s peace will be a balm for our souls. 

It can feel overwhelming when we see how many people in our country and around the world are struggling with hunger and vulnerability. It can lead us to question if our efforts are making a difference. 

I want to remind you that Bread advocacy for programs such as D-SNAP (Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) ensure people recovering from disaster in the U.S. have access to nutrition assistance during times of crisis. Bread advocacy for programs such as the Global Food Security Act help developing countries become more resilient so that there is more food available locally when war breaks out. Bead advocacy for food aid funding and programmatic efficiency ensures that there is food available in hunger hot spots such as Gaza or Sudan. 

Your advocacy makes a difference. Your gifts to Bread for the World make a difference. 

We now have a new Administration and Congress. Bread advocacy will not falter, and we will work with our elected leaders on both sides of the aisle to advocate for the anti-hunger policies and programs that we know will make a difference. Please consider taking action today on the Farm Bill at bread.org/act. 

I want to end this message with a scripture that has guided us at Bread for the World for the last several years, Psalm 46. As we pray for our nation and our neighbors, as we pray for peace and for those working for peace, let us remember the words of the Psalmist (using the NIV translation): 

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day. Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts. 

The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Come and see what the Lord has done, the desolations he has brought on the earth. He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire. He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. 

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Industrialized countries and the wider global community now generally recognize that the countries and communities that have contributed the least to climate change are suffering the worst impacts. Families in the least industrialized countries, particularly lower-income families, have limited options to protect themselves from climate impacts and recover from shocks. For example, if a flood destroys the crops of a smallholder farmer in a rural area, she might not have savings to fall back on. She has suddenly lost an entire year’s income; how will she feed her family?

Many countries vulnerable to climate-related crises do not have sufficient resources to spend on programs that help their citizens prepare for, withstand, and recover from climate disasters. More than half of low-income countries are already in debt distress or at high risk of falling into it. This means that they cannot make the required minimum payments on their loans without slashing their budgets in other areas—such as programs that feed people. Ironically, some of these loans were originally intended to support borrower countries in adapting to or slowing climate change. This is why initiatives such as Bread’s new Nourish Our Future campaign emphasize that future assistance for climate adaptation or development must not incur additional debt.

Fifteen years ago, in 2009, world leaders recognized that lower-income countries needed additional resources to adapt to extreme and often worsening climate impacts. They committed to mobilizing $100 billion per year for climate action in lower-income countries. Official analysis from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) found that donor countries finally met that goal in 2022, providing $115.9 billion in climate finance. However, analysis by organizations such as the ONE Campaign and Oxfam has found that this amount is likely overstated and calls into question the quality of the climate finance provided. 

This experience and others make it clear that it is crucial to avoid the mistakes of the past. The next occasion to set a global financing goal to enable lower-income countries to adapt to climate impacts will be in November 2024 at the 29th Conference of Parties to the U.N. Climate Convention (COP29). Leaders there must ensure that the target amount will be made up mainly of grants (rather than low-interest loans), based on needs identified by affected communities, and easy to track. At least 50 percent of the funding must focus on helping countries adapt to the changing climate. Negotiating this target amount, to be called the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG), will be a major agenda item at COP29. It has the potential to reduce hunger in ways that are transformational.

Negotiators at COP29 should ensure that the financial goal is based on the comprehensive needs of lower-income countries. Numerous studies have aimed to determine the annual funding level needed. While there may be some differences in methodology, researchers generally agree that at least $1 trillion annually is needed to adequately respond to climate change and its impacts in lower-income countries. Such an amount will require contributions from all available sources, including national, international, and private sectors.

How the funding is made available and how it is spent are both very important. In 2022, nearly 70 percent of public climate finance was in the form of loans—adding to the debt of recipient countries. The NCQG should set an ambitious target for providing grants rather than loans. When loans are made, their terms should be concessional—very low or zero interest rates and extended repayment periods.

The latest data show that only 4 percent of climate finance supports agriculture and food systems, even though these sectors are particularly vulnerable to climate change—and are essential to human life and health. Climate change is making it harder for farmers, especially those farming small plots, to make a living, feed their families, and produce nutritious food for their communities. The NCQG should prioritize enabling farmers to access climate finance. A more significant portion of climate finance must be dedicated to helping farmers adapt to climate change, produce nutritious foods in the face of extreme weather, and safeguard their livelihoods. Ending hunger is possible; the NCQG is one piece of the puzzle that can make a genuine difference.

Jordan Teague Jacobs is senior international policy advisor, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

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Bread’s newest policy campaign, Nourish Our Future (NOF), centers ending hunger and malnutrition among children. Our international focus includes improving child nutrition as well as reducing the impacts of debt distress and climate change on young people’s nutrition security. The U.S. domestic areas of focus include the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), a Child Tax Credit expansion, and college hunger.

The work on debt distress, for example, continues Bread’s longstanding focus on debt, most notably our leadership role in the Jubilee 2000 campaign. The Jubilee year in the Bible was meant to happen every 50 years. It was intended to be a year of liberation – an economic, cultural, and environmental reset and an expression of God’s desire for all creation to flourish. The Year of Jubilee was a year for releasing people from their debts, releasing enslaved people, returning property to its owners, and resting the land. It honored the principle that God’s people have a part to play in setting things right. Pope Francis has declared 2025 a Jubilee Year of Hope. Bread’s value of human flourishing also reflects the spirit of Jubilee.

Between 2000 and 2015, the Jubilee campaign, including Bread and its coalition partners, won $130 billion of debt cancellation for developing countries. Faith groups were the main U.S. supporters of the Jubilee campaign. The role of faith leaders in encouraging their members to contact their elected representatives about debt relief was pivotal. According to experts, the Jubilee campaign was one of the most successful movements aimed at ending poverty among millions of people. 

But there is still work to do. According to the U.K. advocacy group Debt Justice, “The campaign did not prevent debt crises [from] recurring. The same structural causes that led to the crisis remain in place.”

In keeping with the NOF campaign’s focus on putting children at the heart of our advocacy, Bread calls on the United States and other countries that make financial contributions to international financial institutions (IFIs), such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to help alleviate debt burdens. This is particularly important in countries where child hunger is extremely high. The IMF defines debt distress as meaning that a country is unable to fulfill its financial obligations and debt restructuring is required.

The loans, their financing terms, and exactly who benefited from the borrowed money in the first place have for many years been sources of controversy. From Nigeria to Kenya to Bangladesh and everywhere in between, recent news reports have illustrated the efforts of young people to expose the impacts of debt on their lives, livelihoods, and futures. Public anger over budgetary cuts imposed so that debt payments could be made has sometimes spilled over into violence that endangers children and other civilians. The youth uprising that was in effect a “referendum” on proposed tax legislation in Kenya illustrates the risk of escalation and even violence in countries that are in or on the verge of debt distress. 

According to U.N. sources, 3.3 billion people live in countries that spend more money on debt service and interest payments than on education or health. More than 200 million children live in countries in debt distress or at high risk of falling into it. The IMF lists 10 countries where children are impacted by debt distress: Sudan, the Republic of Congo, Ghana, Grenada, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malawi, São Tomé y Príncipe, Somalia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

An additional 26 countries at high risk of debt distress are: Afghanistan, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Dominica, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Kenya, Kiribati, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Mozambique, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Tajikistan, Tonga, and Tuvalu. 

Bread is currently holding consultations with local and global policy experts to help make the Nourish Our Future policy platform as effective as possible. We are eager to learn more about which improvements in global financial policies are the most urgent and significant. These improvements will place children as the heartbeat of humane debt policies that prioritize nutrition and food security.

At a summit with international financial leaders, Pope Francis warned against what he described as the globalization of indifference. He encouraged the cancellation of debts that force unbearable sacrifices on millions of children who are mired in extreme poverty and lack food, housing, medical care, schools, electricity, drinkable water, and sanitation services. In a world of abundance, a country’s national debt cannot be seen as a higher priority than hunger and malnutrition among children. Bread joins with those who believe it is time to change that. 

Abiola Afolayan is director, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

The post Centering Children and Nutrition  appeared first on Bread for the World.

As we address the spread of hunger in our nation and our world, we must all leverage our power and resources to make hunger a thing of the past – and that starts with understanding the scope of the problem.

In this article, we will discuss:

• What is food insecurity?
• Does inflation impact food insecurity?
• What is the difference between food insecurity and very low food security?
• What does food insecurity look like in the U.S.?
• Which states are most impacted by food insecurity?
• Which demographics are most impacted by food insecurity?
• How can we help address food insecurity?

What is food insecurity?

Food insecurity is a limited ability to acquire adequate food due to a lack of money and other resources. Households experiencing food insecurity don’t have consistent access to enough nutritious food to live a healthy, active lifestyle. This can result in malnutrition and other health issues with lasting consequences.

Food insecurity is caused by a host of factors including the economy, household circumstances, and government policies. 

Does inflation impact food insecurity?

Inflation – an increase in prices and a corresponding decrease in the dollar’s purchasing power – is a major driver of food insecurity. The Consumer Price Index for food, which measures the average price of foodstuffs for consumers, increased 0.1 percent from July 2024 to August 2024 and remains 2.1 percent higher than in August 2023. It is expected to rise another 1.6 percent in 2025. 

Inflation boosts prices for consumers, making it harder to afford nutritious food. Even the cost of basic products, such as cereals and bakery products, has risen 0.4 percent. Further, inflation drives up almost all expenses, making money tighter than ever. For families already struggling to make ends meet, these increases can push them over the edge into food insecure situations.

What is the difference between food insecurity and very low food security?

While food insecurity limits the quality and variety of a diet, very low food security impacts households’ ability to eat any food regularly – or at all. 

Very low food security is defined as a reduction of food intake and disruption of normal eating patterns due to a lack of money or other resources. In 2023, 97 percent of households with very low food security reported not having money to buy food after their groceries ran out, 68 percent reported that they were hungry but didn’t eat because they couldn’t afford to, and 30 percent reported that an adult in the household didn’t eat for an entire day because there wasn’t enough money for food.

Very low food security can have an extremely damaging effect on physical and mental well-being. Children are especially susceptible to lasting developmental problems from not getting enough nutritious food or skipping meals entirely at an early age.

What does food insecurity look like in the U.S.?

Food insecurity continues to plague households across the country, threatening their physical and emotional well-being. Food insecurity in 2023 was statistically higher than in past years, indicating a concerning trend that must be addressed before more households are left to struggle with inadequate amounts of nutritious food.

Last year, 13.5 percent of American households – 18 million families – were food insecure. That means nearly 50 million Americans lived in a household without consistent access to food capable of supporting a healthy lifestyle. Moreover, food insecurity has grown every year since 2020, when there were less than 14 million households struggling with food insecurity. 

6.8 million of those families – more than 5 percent of all U.S. households – faced very low food security in 2023. These numbers are consistent with the last four years, indicating a lack of progress in helping millions of Americans consistently have food on their tables.

More than six million households with children faced food insecurity in 2023. While many of the adults in households with children bear the brunt of restricted access to food, such as choosing to eat less so that the children can experience mild or no effects, many children still do not have enough food. This can be especially damaging to young bodies that are rapidly growing and still developing. 

In 2023, nearly 10 percent of children lived in households where at least one child was food insecure and almost 850,000 children lived in households with very low food security among the children. 

Food insecurity in the U.S. is a rampant problem that impacts millions of households. It creates higher risks for many negative impacts, such as chronic health conditions, reduced performance, and greater mental health challenges. 

For instance, adults facing very low food insecurity are more than 10 percent more likely to suffer from hypertension or arthritis. In addition, the average predicted prevalence of cancer in food-insecure households is more than three times the average for highly food-secure households. Similarly, food-insecure adults are six times as likely to suffer a stroke. Food insecurity can also cause psychological stress and contribute to mental health issues. In particular, food insecurity was linked to a roughly 250 percent higher risk of anxiety and depression during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Food insecurity, which affects millions of households, has a far wider impact than simply what is in the pantry or on the table.

Which states are most impacted by food insecurity?

The rate of food insecurity varies by state. A state’s average wages, cost of housing, unemployment, and more all play a role in the prevalence of food insecurity and the number of residents impacted. Similarly, policies such as unemployment insurance and nutrition assistance programs impact the number of households experiencing food insecurity. 

As of 2023, the national average for food insecurity is 13.5 percent. However, seven states have significantly higher rates of food insecurity: 

• Arkansas: 18.9 percent
• Texas: 16.9 percent
• Louisiana: 16.2 percent
• Mississippi 16.2 percent
• Oklahoma: 15.4 percent
• Kentucky: 14.5 percent
• South Carolina: 14.4 percent 

Due to a combination of household- and state-level characteristics, residents of these seven states are more likely to experience restricted access to food. 

Factors such as unemployment and geography play a significant role in the prevalence of food insecurity. States with higher unemployment rates often experience greater food insecurity. Unemployment is linked to a 30 percent greater likelihood of food insecurity. Food deserts, defined as areas where it is difficult to buy affordable, nutritious food, also increase the risk of food insecurity. Southern states have a high concentration of food deserts which, coupled with weak safety nets, leave their residents especially vulnerable to food insecurity or very low food security.

Which demographics are most impacted by food insecurity?

Food insecurity can compound existing inequalities by disproportionately affecting already vulnerable populations. Additionally, in an economy still struggling to recover from ongoing inflation, rural and low-income residents are more likely to face food insecurity due to high prices and limited resources.

Children are especially vulnerable to the impacts of food insecurity or very low food security. Among all households with children, 17.9 percent face food insecurity. Moreover, nearly 35 percent of children with a single mom and 23 percent of children with a single dad face food insecurity. The rates are also high for very low food security: 11.8 percent and 8.6 percent, respectively. 

Food insecurity has an especially damaging impact on already marginalized communities. The food insecurity rate for Black and Hispanic households is 1.7 times higher than the national average, at nearly 23 percent and 22 percent, respectively; very low food security was around 9 percent and 8 percent, respectively. Additionally, people experiencing poverty or living in rural areas have higher rates of food insecurity and very low food security.

Inadequate access to food is affecting households throughout our nation. While some demographics have especially high food insecurity rates, the truth is that few groups are completely exempt from the threat of food insecurity in our current economy.

How can we help address food insecurity?

Food insecurity is a wide-ranging issue that touches millions of lives. Yet every year, there is enough food produced to feed everyone in the world. Ending hunger is about making sure that food goes to the people who need it most. Hunger is a huge problem, yet even a single individual can make a difference.

Simple but impactful steps that you can take today include:

• Writing a letter to your local representative about issues currently moving in Congress.
• Speaking up on social media and tagging your senator or local representative.
• Organizing community letter-writing efforts to Congress within your church or community.
• Praying for the end of hunger.
• Giving to organizations that are dedicated to ending hunger.

The Farm Bill

Federal nutrition programs are essential to addressing hunger. These programs give about 10 times as much food assistance as private churches and charities combined. Legislation such as the farm bill has a significant impact on any American who purchases and consumes food.

The farm bill is an expansive set of policies that includes programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which alone serves more than 41 million people and is shown to be an incredibly effective method of reducing food insecurity and stopping hunger. Other programs addressing domestic food insecurity that have been a part of the farm bill include:

• The Emergency Food Assistance Program;
• Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations;
• Commodity Supplemental Food Program;
• Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program;
• Seniors Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program;
• Healthy Food Financing Initiative;
• Community Food Projects; and
• The Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program.

The farm bill must be reauthorized by Congress every five years. While this gives Congress a chance to improve its food and nutrition security efforts, it also creates the potential for gridlock and devastating cuts to programs that address food insecurity. Failing to reauthorize the farm bill or pass an extension (which occurred in 2023) would shut down some programs while reverting key pieces of legislation that farmers rely on back to outdated laws from nearly seven decades ago. America needs politicians who will prioritize passing a farm bill with strong nutrition assistance programs. 

Passing the farm bill is vital to putting food on the table in millions of homes – and you can help. Experience has shown us that congressional leaders really do listen to their constituents, so adding your voice to those in favor of reauthorizing the farm bill can help move it up the priority list for your members of Congress. Simple efforts such as writing letters or speaking up on social media can help to turn the tide and ensure the farm bill is passed.

The post Rising Expenses and Food Insecurity: An American Reality appeared first on Bread for the World.

“Love one another, for love is of God.”
-I John 4:8

Recently, I celebrated the life and legacy of Bishop Elizabeth Anne Henning Byfield and Bishop Professor Dr. David D. Daniels III with many of you, globally. I was honored to know both well and worked with them for many years. They left profound contributions to the churches and many outside of the churches. Their lives testified to the power of living lives that demonstrated thanksgiving, courage, and the power of abiding love.

In my letters and remarks about them, I cited the following scripture as one of the texts that their lives answered “Yes” to! They knew that the Lord had commanded them to be strong and courageous and not discouraged in their faith. 

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”
– Joshua 1:9-11

Today, we come to another season of Thanksgiving and a holy-day season where we too are asked this same question they answered with their lives. The answer of yes to this question suggests a willingness to have an abiding love for others in our hearts, minds, and actions of thanksgiving to God and appreciation of others. Such suggests not only an abiding love for loveliness and a rejoicing of truth, hope, and kindness—but also honor, perseverance, long suffering, patience, and love as described in I Corinthians 13.

Our Indigenous leaders and communities of 90 Wampanoag people who hosted the white settlers in Plymouth (now in Massachusetts) in 1621 and Indigenous leaders who hosted settlers in Virginia in 1619 demonstrated these gifts at what is often referred to be the first “American thanksgivings.” 

Sadly, then and still today, Indigenous Peoples in the United States—and globally—are still not regarded in ways that fully uplift and celebrate their dignity and human rights despite the recent change of the U.S. holiday to recognize these nations and communities in October. Indigenous Peoples are global and include not only those who were already in North America before the settlers came from Europe but thousands of Indigenous African peoples who were forced to come to North America and those who have come later by choice. 

The new presidential and congressional leadership teams will come to power in 2025 in the United States. The election season has shown what is best and worse among us regarding “othering” and so much more. It will take courage, abiding love, and hearts of thanksgiving to move beyond the rancor, divisiveness, and violence in the United States and the world.

In 2023, 47.4 million people— including 13.8 million children, were food insecure in the United States, and these trends have contributed to this. Too often they too are “othered.” Bread for the World invites hearts and minds of thanksgiving, courage, and love so that our children can have a brighter future and not be “othered.” Please go here to be a part of our launch of our Nourish Our Future campaign on February 4, 2025.

Angelique Walker-Smith is senior associate for Pan African and Orthodox Church engagement at Bread for the World.

The post Your Life and Legacy of Thanksgiving, Courage, and Abiding Love appeared first on Bread for the World.

“It is dismaying that food insecurity in the U.S. has continued to rise over the past two years considering we have the tools and know-how to end it,” said Rev. Eugene Cho, president and CEO of Bread for the World. “We must elect candidates in November who will champion policies and programs that will end hunger.”

Bread’s Vote to End Hunger campaign encourages people to vote for candidates in the upcoming election who will make ending hunger a priority.

The report also found that certain households had higher rates of food insecurity than the national average, including:

• Households with children – 17.9 percent
• Households with children headed by a single woman – 34.7 percent
• Households with reported incomes below 185 percent of the poverty threshold – 33.5 percent  
• Black households – 23.3 percent, and Hispanic households – 21.9 percent, experienced food insecurity rates that are more than twice the rate of White households – 9.9 percent.

“As Jesus reminds us, whatever we do for the least of our brothers and sisters, we do as unto him (Matthew 25:40). The fact that so many children are experiencing food insecurity points to the need for lawmakers to pass effective policies such as another expanded Child Tax Credit that is distributed monthly and fully refundable and can put a dent in child hunger and poverty.  Likewise, we must further strengthen and fund critical programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) to ensure families struggling with food insecurity can put good, nutritious food on the table,” added Cho.  

The post Bread “Dismayed” by Rise in US Food Insecurity appeared first on Bread for the World.

Bread’s faith-based, anti-hunger grassroots network shines all year, but especially in August. It’s one prong of our time-tested advocacy strategy: in-district relationship building + in-DC advocacy + smart policy analysis + media and community/coalition engagement = political will that leads to policy change. 

Our impact against hunger simply would not be possible without grassroots activism across the country. Today, I want to tell you about Bread advocate Makensie L. Brown.

Makensie, from Jasper, Alabama, came to Bread’s June Advocacy Summit for the first time this year. She deeply connected with the issues, Bread’s theory of change, and the experience of meeting with her representative – and it inspired her to the point of action. When she sought a second meeting with her Congressman Robert Aderholt in August, this time in Alabama while he is in-district, she shared with him how much an expanded, permanent Child Tax Credit would change the conversations she has every day with families trying to stretch tight budgets at the Jasper Family Resource Center. Because of Makensie Brown, Representative Aderholt heard firsthand about the lived experience of people in his district and how the programs that Bread advocates for can help.

We have more than 75 in-district meetings planned for the end of summer.  

They aren’t just with members of Congress, like Makensie’s; some of the meetings are listening sessions, where Bread is seeking input into the Nourish Our Future campaign. 

Deeply understanding the needs, challenges, and aspirations of people across the United States who want to help end childhood hunger is the foundation for all our work next year. 

I’m grateful to Makensie and thousands of anti-hunger advocates and faith leaders like her across the United States who are moved by God’s grace to work for an end to hunger. 

Seven hundred and thirty-three million people experienced hunger last year, according to the just released State of Food Security and Nutrition report. That’s 1 in 11 people around the world, and 1 in 5 in Africa.

I don’t want to mislead you. Pursuing a world without hunger is not easy. It might seem unlikely that we might have the power to feed so many. But there is enough food, enough money, and the right experience-based know-how to get it done. We just need faith, courage to act, and the political will. 

If you haven’t yet, I encourage you to get involved in in-district advocacy today. In fact, I need you to get involved. Our elected officials make decisions that have a tremendous impact on people experiencing hunger – both in our country and around the world. Write your organizer or visit www.bread.org/vote to learn more. 

In the Bible, Old Testament law established a structure for society with deep, divine concern for people who experience poverty and disapproval of systems that do not dignify God’s people and places them in conditions of hunger and poverty. As Paul exercised his power as a Roman citizen, so too can Christians advocate for government to protect and provide for all its people (Acts 21-26).

I hope you will find a way to use your voice this fall to accept God’s invitation to gather and share the blessings of God’s table with all of God’s children. 

The post August Recess Is Not a Time to Rest for Bread appeared first on Bread for the World.

Clifford Tayong, a 59-year-old farmer from Cameroon’s troubled North-West region, recounted in an interview with the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) that in 2021, members of the Cameroonian military accused him of aiding separatist fighters and burned his one-hectare (2.5-acre) farm, leaving him and his family destitute. 

As Bread for the World has emphasized, hunger has been on the rise for the past several years, and a global hunger crisis continues unabated in 2024.

Although Cameroon, a lower-middle-income country, was not mentioned in the most recent Hunger Hotspots Outlook published by the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), growing numbers of people in Cameroon face acute food insecurity.

Cameroon has been included as a food crisis area in the Global Report on Food Crises since its first edition in 2017. In that 2017 report, about 16 percent of households in Cameroon, or 3.9 million people, were food insecure, and of these, about 1 percent of households, or 211,000 people, were projected to confront severe food insecurity. As of 2023, 3 million people were affected by acute food insecurity—about 11 percent of the population. 

Hunger in Cameroon is driven by several key factors: the arrival of an overwhelming number of refugees from neighboring countries, particularly Nigeria; the displacement of Cameroonians affected by conflict in other parts of the country; and climate shocks. 

Boko Haram is an Islamist militant organization based in northeastern Nigeria. It was founded in the city of Maiduguri in 2002 by Mohammed Yusuf, a prominent Islamist cleric from Nigeria’s Borno state. Originating as a faction of the Salafi movement, a branch of Sunni Islam, the group’s primary objective is to establish a fundamentalist Islamic state governed by sharia law.

Boko Haram has significantly worsened hunger in Cameroon’s far northern region. Attacks within Cameroon forced 70 percent of farmers in the hardest-hit areas—including the local departments of Mayo-Sava, Mayo-Tsanaga, and Logone and Chari—to abandon their fields, creating a drastic reduction in agricultural production. The violence has also shut down local markets and disrupted the movement of goods and people, both of which also damage the local economy and reduce the availability of food.

The influx of Nigerian refugees who, without access to their own land, rely on host communities for food, has strained the available resources. Additionally, government-imposed curfews have limited the time farmers can work their land, further reducing output.

The conflict known as the Anglophone crisis began late in 2016, stemming from grievances over marginalization. It is now marked by ongoing violent clashes between government forces and separatists in the North-West and South-West regions, as well as severe human rights violations. It plays a significant role in exacerbating hunger by displacing farmers, destroying food supplies, and disrupting agricultural efforts in key food-producing regions. The conflict has forced many to abandon their lands, leading to reduced food production and increased prices. Additionally, the ongoing violence and insecurity has caused economic instability and unsafe conditions, which make it difficult for people to access markets and farmlands. 

The combined effects of these factors and the presence of hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people have been severe disruptions of food security. A sizable portion of the population has been left acutely food insecure, and efforts by the government and humanitarian organizations to provide relief have been hindered. 

Shocks due to extreme weather, particularly heavy rainfall and flooding driven by climate change, are another factor that significantly exacerbates hunger in Cameroon. The flooding accelerates soil erosion and leaching, diminishing soil fertility and thus agricultural productivity. Farmers face substantial challenges in maintaining crop yields, working harder for minimal returns. This, in turn, leads to higher food prices. Vulnerable populations, especially women, are disproportionately affected due to their limited and insecure access to land and resources. The recurring nature of these climate shocks, exemplified by the 2020 floods that caused 64 deaths and displaced 160,000 people, further worsens the situation. These disruptions undermine years of efforts to strengthen agriculture, straining the sector and deepening food insecurity.

Cameroon is grappling with severe food insecurity, exacerbated by internal conflicts, external insurgencies, and climate shocks. Violence has left millions of Cameroonians, like farmer Clifford Tayong and his family, destitute. To respond to the problem, two approaches are needed: humanitarian assistance must be scaled up to provide immediate relief, while investment in sustainable agriculture and infrastructure is crucial for long-term food security. 

Resolving underlying conflicts, particularly the Anglophone crisis and the Boko Haram insurgency, is essential. Enhancing market access and implementing climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies are important responses as well. Bread advocates for global policies and programs to reduce hunger, emphasizing the need for both immediate aid and long-term development to build resilient communities.

Aicha Abdoulaye is a climate-hunger intern, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

The post Seeds of Despair: How Conflict and Climate Change Fuel Hunger in Cameroon appeared first on Bread for the World.

Bread for the World’s Hunger Hotspots project brings attention to the need for action on current global hunger emergencies. Bread members advocate for humanitarian assistance that saves lives, especially among children under 5.  Ensuring that the right nutrients are available at the right time also prevents lifelong damage to the health and development of the youngest survivors of hunger emergencies—babies and toddlers.  

South Sudan only became an independent country, separating from Sudan, in 2011, but by 2013, a brutal civil war had broken out.  A report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) noted that when a peace treaty was signed in 2018, one study found that nearly 400,000 people had died as a result of the war in a country of 11.5 million people.. 

The situation continues to deteriorate because the peace treaty did not definitively end the war. The main signatories have largely adhered to a ceasefire since the agreement went into effect. But many of the combatants are not parties to the agreement. The ongoing fighting, fueled by regional disputes and political rivalries, includes an insurgency in the southern part of the country.

Commissioner Afako’s statement and the CRS report were both published in the second half of 2022. The situation has since become worse still because of the outbreak of war in Sudan in April 2023. As Bread has explained, the war has created humanitarian emergencies in Sudan and in several neighboring countries as well, particularly the landlocked nations of South Sudan, Chad, and the Central African Republic (CAR).

In the most recent hunger hotspots update from the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), humanitarian officials designated five countries as “of highest concern” for the period June 2024 through October 2024. 

Both South Sudan and Sudan are among them. The others are Gaza, Haiti, and Mali. It is a stark indicator of the growing severity of the global hunger crisis-that people face famine conditions in all five countries. Famine has a specific definition: a situation of extreme lack of food and exhaustion of people’s coping capacities that leads to starvation, acute malnutrition, and death.  

According to UNICEF, an estimated 9 million people need humanitarian assistance. Famine is affecting people in South Sudan’s Pibor and Aweil East counties. The number of refugees in South Sudan, most of whom have fled the war in Sudan, continues to grow, with 447, 000 refugees projected to arrive by the end of 2024. Added to these numbers are an estimated 820,000 South Sudanese who are expected to return home. 

WFP and FAO identify the main drivers of hunger in South Sudan as conflict, flooding, and inflation. Bread consistently focuses on these key factors, including most recently in policy listening and learning sessions for our new campaign, Nourish Our Future. South Sudan has recently been ranked the second most susceptible nation to the effects of natural hazards, which include drought, flooding, and heat waves. The country is bracing for what is projected to be the worst flooding in 60 years. Inflation, including surges in the prices of basic staple foods, has soared since the war in Sudan began. South Sudan is landlocked and depends on access to Sudan’s port to import and export goods. 

The Humanitarian Response Plan developed by U.N. agencies calls for reaching 5.9 million people with humanitarian support—for example, food vouchers and cash transfers so that people can buy food. Another form of support is emergency livelihood support kits, particularly for women and other vulnerable communities. These are kits with supplies that enable people to produce more food—for example, kits for staple crops, vegetables, or fishing. Another important form of support is bolstering the health of livestock through vaccination campaigns and veterinary treatment.   

Bread’s recent work on Hunger Hotspots includes a panel discussion, “Building Resilience in Global Hunger Hotspots: The Cases of Gaza, Sudan, and Haiti.” We will continue to lift up the urgent need to take action to save lives in global Hunger Hotspots.

Michele Learner is managing editor, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

The post Hunger Hotspots: South Sudan  appeared first on Bread for the World.

Because of its economic and political power, the United States has had the responsibility and honor of leading the world in ending hunger. Churches and food banks are invaluable in feeding our neighbors here at home in immediate need, but federal nutrition programs provide roughly 10 times as much food assistance as private churches and charities. Feeding our neighbors longer-term, both in the U.S. and on the other side of the world, requires faith-driven advocacy.

It’s easier to understand how we can support those who are vulnerable and marginalized through our congregations, on social media, and by using our resources. But there’s another way to impact hunger that’s often overlooked: how you vote. 

While nearly everyone agrees that hunger is a problem, not all politicians see it as a priority. In November, Americans will vote for the next president of the United States, 33 Senate seats and all 435 House seats. Your vote will decide whether or not the world moves closer to the end of hunger. Every person who votes plays a part in this future.

The problem of hunger.

Approximately 735 million people around the world suffer from chronic hunger. In the United States, one in eight households struggles to put food on the table. 

Hunger doesn’t always look the same. Some people are hungry because food is in short supply in their area, or due to weather events, conflict, or economic factors. Others can’t afford to buy enough food. Some have a “hunger season” every year, when the previous harvest is gone and the next harvest is not yet ready. 

In the United States, many people who look healthy are hungry because they do not get enough nutrients. This is called hidden hunger. People who suffer from “hidden hunger” often have access to enough calories, but they chronically struggle to access food with sufficient vitamins and minerals. This prevents them from living a healthy, active life. Children who suffer from hidden hunger are not able to learn and focus as well in school, and adults who suffer from hidden hunger can struggle to lead productive lives.

God has ordained the government to play a significant role in the protection and development of people.

Romans 13 emphasizes the role and responsibility of leaders, noting that “governing agencies” are “God’s agent for your good” (NRSV). For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good” (NRSV). Voting has biblical precedence as well; Acts 14:23 describes that the early Christians elected elders by voting.

God tasks leaders with serving and protecting their people, whether or not they acknowledge that their authority comes from God. And Jesus warns that people will be held accountable and judged for the ways they have treated the least among them (Matthew 25:31-46).  

We love God by loving our neighbors. The Scriptures speak to the role and responsibility of leaders in caring for the poor. Proverbs 31:8-9 says, “Speak out for those who cannot speak, for the rights of all the destitute” (NRSV). In the Gospels, Jesus displays a particular heart for those who experience poverty, hunger, and vulnerability in our nation and in our world. 

There are some issues that are not “right and left” issues – they are right and wrong issues. Hunger is one of them. Hunger is an issue that is important to God, and therefore, it should be important to us and to our leaders. 

How can the U.S. government address hunger? 

According to the United Nations, the world produces enough food annually to feed 10 billion people, in a current population of just over 7 billion people. The problem is that as much as 44 percent of agricultural production is never consumed.

What’s needed is the collective will and action to get the right food to those who need it and address the factors that cause hunger to exist in the first place. This means enacting policies and programs that create jobs, strengthen safety nets, invest in human capital development, support community-initiated public-private partnerships, and support international efforts to end hunger and poverty.

Here are some ways the U.S. government prevents and addresses hunger in the U.S. and abroad: 

1. Foreign aid:
   There are several types of foreign aid: When a crisis or disaster strikes, people overseas receive emergency humanitarian assistance from the United States. Our federal government also provides ongoing food aid to address the “silent disaster” of hunger and malnutrition around the world. In addition, the United States provides development assistance to help countries and communities globally meet their own needs and prevent humanitarian food crises. 
2. Domestic nutrition assistance: 
   The U.S. invests in programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which helps struggling families put food on the table. Today, about 42.1 million Americans per month are directly impacted by the increases in access, eligibility, and benefits that SNAP provides.
3. Climate change: 
   Climate change brings shifting weather patterns that destroy crops, homes, livestock, and possessions. While no country can solve the climate crisis alone, through actions at home and our leadership abroad, the United States can reduce emissions and help vulnerable countries adapt to  climate impacts. 
4. Conflict: 
   About 70 percent of people experiencing hunger around the world live in countries affected by conflict. It’s a vicious cycle: conflict fuels hunger, and hunger and food insecurity trigger violence. The U.S. has the power to respond to conflict through economic pressure and advance stability in areas vulnerable to conflict.
5. Low-wage incomes and unemployment:
   The people who make the least have to spend most of their income on food in order to survive. U.S. economic policies can address inflation, create good-paying jobs, and reduce unemployment. 
6. Racial and gender inequity: 
   Around the world, women are more likely to experience hunger than men and earn less than men for doing the same job. This is also true of people within a community who are marginalized because of their race or ethnicity. The U.S. can combat inequality through education, assistance for gender programs, addressing sexual violence and hate crimes, and more.  

United States politicians have made a historic impact on hunger.

The United States has long been a leader in addressing hunger. In just two generations, for example, the world made amazing progress against hunger. In 1960, one in three people was hungry. Today, chronic hunger affects one in every eight or nine people. Much of this progress is due to the passion and commitment of U.S. leaders who gave their voices, their platforms, and their votes to key policies. 

2020 marked a spike in world hunger because of the pandemic. This next election is critical to recovering the ground we lost, and more. 

Many notable politicians have tirelessly pushed for programs and policies to reduce hunger. For example:

• In the first-ever televised presidential address, President Truman talked about fighting hunger in countries still recovering from World War II.

• In the 1950s, Congresswoman Leonor K. Sullivan pushed Congress to pass food stamp legislation – which eventually became SNAP. 

• In 1960, President Eisenhower implored the United Nations to create a program that would provide food assistance to countries in need. South Dakota Senator George McGovern played an instrumental role in the establishment of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).

• In 2002, former Kansas Senator, Senate Majority Leader, and long-time member of Bread’s board of directors Bob Dole joined Senator McGovern to launch America’s first global initiative to feed school-aged children: the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program. The McGovern-Dole program has provided meals to more than 40 million children in 41 countries.

• In 2016, the bipartisan Global Food Security Act (GFSA), was signed into law. The GFSA, introduced by Representatives Chris Smith and Betty McCollum and Senators Jim Risch and Bob Casey, focuses on the nutrition of women and children and expanded farmers’ access to local and international markets.

• The policies and programs Bread advocates for – and the many political leaders who have prioritized these policies – have impacted 320 million Americans and more than 7 billion people around the world.

How do you know which candidates support policies that will end hunger? 

We must elect leaders who are committed to ending hunger. This doesn’t necessarily mean determining a candidate’s position on ending hunger – no candidate is going to be openly “against” ending hunger. It means identifying the candidates who prioritize hunger in their platform and in their actions. 

Here are some steps you can take: 

*Note: The content in any external resources and websites may not reflect the views or public policies endorsed by Bread for the World.

1. Use Vote.gov to register to vote. You can also visit USA.gov to find your polling place.  

2. See who is on your ballot. You can use resources like Vote.org to see which candidates will be on your ballot. 

3. MyFaithVotes and Vote.org can help you identify who your local candidates are and their positions on different topics. 

4. Review the candidates’ websites or follow their social media accounts to see if they have a position on ending hunger. If they don’t, write to them and ask. If they are sitting members of Congress, check how they voted in the past on bills related to hunger, such as the Farm Bill, SNAP, and the Child Tax Credit.  

5. Attend local town hall meetings to talk to congressional candidates in person. 
   • If elected, what will you do to end hunger, alleviate poverty, and create opportunity in the United States and worldwide?
   • Will you publicize your position on hunger, poverty, and opportunity on your website and on social media?

6. Pledge to vote for candidates who will make ending hunger a priority and encourage others to do the same. Bread for the World has a team of organizers ready to help you vote your values. Click here to reach out to the organizer assigned to your state. 

7. Visit bread.org/vote for more ideas and resources you can use to engage in the 2024 election.

Pray for our leaders – present and future. 

God listens to our prayers, and our prayers have the power to fuel the mission to end hunger. 1 Timothy 2 tells us to pray for “all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life” (NRSV).  

Ask God to grant our leaders the integrity and wisdom to focus on matters that protect the most vulnerable among us. Prayer empowers us to support those in authority with a spirit of love and advocacy. 

Pray for God to guide you in your decisions this election season, and pray for our future leaders – whatever the outcome of the election – to be inspired to prioritize the issue of hunger during their time of service. 

When you talk about politics, talk about hunger. 

Do not be discouraged by political dissension or media coverage.  Your vote matters more than ever. Victory for one candidate may be determined by just a few votes more than the other. Not voting is just as much a form of voting, because it can have an impact on the outcome.

Congress and the president will make decisions that will determine whether hunger will continue to exist. We can’t end hunger in the United States or globally unless we elect leaders – including the president, Congress, and state and local lawmakers – who will make it a priority.

As we approach the coming elections, politics will increasingly be the topic of dinner discussions, social media posts, and events. Don’t stay silent; share any information you learn about wise and just candidates with your friends, neighbors, or online. Write op-eds or letters to the editor for your local newspapers. Volunteer for candidates who have a position you support. Go to bread.org/vote for more ways to engage with candidates and share information you learn with others.

In the midst of political division and standstill, we as believers need to be guided by our values. Most importantly, do not sit out this election. We are fortunate to live in a country where our leaders have the power to make a significant, world-changing impact on hunger.

Voting is not just a part of civic engagement. It is a privilege not to be taken for granted, and it is an opportunity to use your voice as an influence for good and for God – to determine a future that will impact us, our children, and future generations. 

Pledge to Vote to End Hunger

Voting is one of the most important actions we can take to help alleviate hunger. The leaders we elect in the United States make decisions that will have a tremendous impact on people experiencing hunger – both in our country and globally. 

Pledge today to vote for candidates who will make ending hunger a priority.

The post What Does Voting Have to Do with Ending Hunger? appeared first on Bread for the World.

Event: Resilience in Global Hunger Hotspots

Bread for the World’s Policy and Research Institute continued its Hunger Hotspots briefing series in June 2024 during the annual InterAction Forum. 

Our session was entitled, “Resilience Building in Hunger Hotspots: The Cases of Sudan, Gaza, and Haiti.”

As many Bread members are aware, the ongoing global hunger crisis threatens the lives of people in dozens of countries. For the period June through October 2024, humanitarian agencies have designated five Hunger Hotspots as “of highest concern.” 

Three of these were represented at our briefing: Sudan, where 27 million people need humanitarian assistance and an estimated 10 million have been displaced; Gaza, where 1 million people face famine conditions and nearly the entire population has been displaced; and Haiti, where 1.6 million people are on the verge of famine and gangs control most areas of the country. The other two Hunger Hotspots of highest concern are South Sudan and Mali. 

A roomful of people listened as panelists discussed their work in and on behalf of Haiti, Gaza, and Sudan. —Dr. Lesly Michaud, M.D., Program Director for Haiti, World Vision, joining us remotely from Port-au-Prince, Haiti; Hiba Tibi, Program Director for the West Bank and Gaza, CARE International; Barrett Alexander, Director of Sudan Programs, Mercy Corps; and Kelsey Coolidge, Director of the War Prevention Initiative of the Jubitz Family Foundation. 

A prominent theme was the need to enable people to strengthen their livelihoods and networks so they can meet their family’s needs, even in extremely difficult circumstances. They also need support for their efforts to build their own and their community’s resilience, which simply means being as well-prepared as possible for whatever may happen in the future. 

Bread will continue to advocate for the needs of people caught in hunger emergencies. We also highlight the importance of respecting people’s individual agency and dignity in their efforts to survive and move forward. 

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The bond between water and humans begins in the mother’s womb. The amniotic fluid that surrounds and protects a fetus is its first experience of the life-giving power of water. It is a profound connection that starts before birth. Yet far too many babies are denied their fundamental human right: access to clean and safe water. 

Using food and water as weapons of war has been a common tactic throughout history. Yet in a world where all people are created equal, it is difficult to understand how anyone can justify depriving innocent children of access to these basic necessities.

In the Northern Gaza Strip, nearly one in three children younger than 2 is suffering from severe malnutrition, a life-threatening condition. Treatment for malnutrition has been interrupted for approximately 3,000 children in southern Gaza. “Horrific images continue to emerge from Gaza of children dying before their families’ eyes,” said Adele Khodr, UNICEF’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa. Ongoing violence and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people have put health care out of reach for most of Gaza’s families. 

Meanwhile, in Sudan, the conflict has entered its second year. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that 18 million people are facing acute hunger and 3.6 million children are suffering from acute malnutrition. 

The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) is the longest-standing and highest-level humanitarian coordination forum of the United Nations system, composed of leaders from 19 leading organizations. On May 31, 2024, this group of experts called for urgent action to help people in Sudan.

“Despite the tremendous needs, aid workers continue to face systematic obstructions and deliberate denials of access by parties to the conflict,” the IASC leaders said in their statement. “We have a rapidly shrinking window to get seeds to farmers before the main planting season ends… If we act in time, people – especially those in inaccessible areas – will be able to produce food locally and avert food shortages in the next six months.”

Both Sudan and Gaza already had significant levels of hunger before the surge in violence began, but conditions for people in both Sudan and Gaza became far worse as full-blown conflict erupted in April 2023 and October 2023, respectively. Very little progress toward ceasefires in either Sudan or Gaza has been made, despite truly heart-wrenching scenarios and global protests, advocacy, and hopeful expectations.    

Food, water, and respect for the dignity of people pushed to desperation are absolute necessities. In these situations, it is more critical than ever for the global community to uphold the principles of the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocols. These key international treaties are built on the principle of respecting civilians’ lives and dignity. They regulate the conduct of armed conflict and seek to limit its effects. According to the Geneva Conventions, the human rights of those not involved in hostilities must be respected and they must be shielded from the impact of war. Compassionate assistance and care must be provided to those in distress, without discrimination.  

We can see that the Geneva Conventions are too often breached, with indiscriminate violence against noncombatants, including babies and children. People have also been killed when the original intent was to help, such as in February 2024, when at least 112 desperate, frail people in Gaza were killed and 760 injured as they gathered to try to collect flour, a tragedy now known as the “flour massacre.” Shortly after this, at least five people were killed when airdropped aid packages fell on them in the Al Shati camp west of Gaza City. 

Saving lives and assuring that people have a future in Gaza and Sudan depend on achieving immediate ceasefires. “The people of Sudan are crying for help to restore their dignity and rights,” said Mohamed Chande Othman, Chair of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) for Sudan.

Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, stated that since April 2023, at least 14,600 people have been killed in Sudan and an additional 26,000 injured, including large numbers of children, women, and other civilians. Many humanitarian and healthcare workers have also been killed while bravely serving people in need. 

Bread for the World is actively advocating for humanitarian access to water, food, and dignity in both Gaza and Sudan. During Bread’s Advocacy Summit in June, grassroots leaders met with members of Congress and their staff to push for the passage of the next farm bill. The farm bill includes the Food for Peace program, which provides humanitarian assistance for people trapped in hunger emergencies. Bread will continue to urge Congress to enact additional legislation with policies and funding that contribute to a world where people can live in dignity, peace, and security.

Syeda Lamia Hossain is a global hunger fellow, Policy and ResearchInstitute, with Bread for the World.

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At Bread for the World, we envision a world without hunger. Ending hunger is not just about providing food; it’s about ensuring everyone has access to the nutritious food they need to lead healthy, active lives and fulfill their human potential. 

The climate crisis is a threat to food and nutrition security everywhere, but especially in low- and middle-income countries. May marks the 12th consecutive month of record-breaking global warmth, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Unfortunately, areas that already struggle with meeting food and nutrition security needs will also be disproportionately affected by climate impacts on food security—this despite contributing little to human-induced climate change. These areas include countries located in Africa, Central and South America, and Southeast Asia.

In addition to our analysis of studies that indicate that the available level of nutrients in some specific crops could fall, Bread has been paying attention to growing evidence that climate change could lower the yields, and therefore the availability and accessibility, of nutrient-dense foods. A recent Farm Journal Foundation (FJF) report compiles this evidence by analyzing major global food trends over 60 years.

One of the nutritional threats the FJF report identifies comes from a “misalignment” in current agricultural research priorities. Agricultural research and extension investments play an important part in finding and scaling up climate-resilient solutions that help farmers continue to earn a livelihood and help ensure food security. However, the report finds there is overinvestment in commodity crops like sugar and oil, and little investment in nutrient-rich crops like vegetables, fruits, and legumes.  

This presents a challenge for nutrition security in a climate crisis. Without sufficient research, nutrient fortification, resilience measures, technical assistance, and other adaptation measures, Indigenous and nutrient-dense crop varieties will be disproportionately impacted by climate shocks like drought or new varieties of pests or diseases. If a wide array of crop species and varieties go extinct, humanity loses valuable access to genetic information in these diverse varieties that may be important to improving nutritional quality and climate resilience. Further, traditional and diverse crops not only hold high nutrient potential but also contribute to protections against climate change found in natural ecosystems and environments.  

This finding from the FJF report comes out as the Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils (VACS) announces an expansion from the African continent to Central America. VACS is an initiative launched by the U.S. Department of State, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, and the African Union that works to fill research and nutrition gaps by using Indigenous or “opportunity” crops to restore soil health, withstand climate change, and create better nutritional opportunities. 

The VACS initiative has found that in countries like Malawi, over-reliance on commodity crops like maize has led to ecosystem degradation and nutrient-poor diets. Diversifying crop use has the double benefit of increasing the availability of nutrient-rich foods and sustaining the traits of traditional and Indigenous crops that contribute to ecosystem resilience and restoration during a climate crisis. In Malawi’s context, that means investing in crops native to the environment such as sorghum or yams.

After two years of operation in Africa, the VACS initiative is being launched in Guatemala and Honduras, two Feed the Future countries located in Central America’s “Dry Corridor.” The corridor is characterized by frequent droughts that may be exacerbated as the climate crisis worsens. It is also home to Indigenous communities that face high levels of hunger and malnutrition. In Guatemala, nearly 50 percent of children suffer from undernutrition, and in Honduras, the double burden of undernutrition and obesity cost the country $2.3 billion in 2017 (latest figures available).

Agricultural research plays an important role in finding solutions to climate shocks and developing ways of scaling these solutions up to meet the needs. The VACS initiative’s goal of improving equity when it comes to crop research could inspire other development and private sector institutions to engage more deeply in similar models of investing in food systems, such as in additional Feed the Future countries. 

Isabel Vander Molen is a climate-hunger fellow, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World. 

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Racial and gender pay inequities are an integral part of the U.S. economy. Just over 60 years ago, Congress prohibited pay discrimination based on gender by enacting the Equal Pay Act of 1963. Since then, there has been slow progress toward closing the pay gap. In 2022 (latest data available), women who worked full-time, year-round were paid 84 cents for every $1 paid to men. 

The United States needs to speed up progress as part of its efforts to end hunger. At the rate of progress toward pay equity over the past two decades (2000-2022), the United States will not close the gender pay gap until 2067.  Racial and gender pay inequities contribute to the fact that single mothers and their children have the highest poverty rates in the country. 

A poverty-level income is not enough for a family to pay essential bills. In 2021, for example, the poverty line for an adult and two children was just shy of $22,000 a year.  The fact that so many single mothers and their children have even less is shocking—and unnecessary in a wealthy country.

The nationwide poverty rate among single mothers and their children was 31.3 percent. It was higher among families of color: 35.9 percent of Latina families, 37.4 percent of Black families, and 42.6 percent of Native American families lived on $22,000 or less that year. Meanwhile, the poverty rate among all U.S. households was 11.6 percent.

In March 2024, the Center for American Progress published its Playbook for the Advancement of Women in the Economy. One of the 13 chapters focuses on shrinking the gender wage gap. 

The Playbook’s recommendations support and echo those of Bread for the World in its longtime advocacy work on gender equity as essential to ending hunger. For example, one of the key barriers to gender equity identified in Bread’s 2015 Hunger Report, When Women Flourish … We Can End Hunger, is unpaid work responsibilities. 

The fact that women still carry out disproportionate shares of child care, elder care, and household chores means that they have fewer hours available to work for pay. This is also true in reverse: the adult family member whose job pays less will cost the family less money if she or he assumes unpaid caregiving tasks. In the absence of available and affordable alternatives, women are more likely to work fewer hours or drop out of the labor force to take on caregiving responsibilities.   

Consensus on the way forward may be helpful in theory, but the Playbook’s recommendations show that not enough has changed since When Women Flourish… was published. They will help solve current problems that were described in Bread’s report back in 2015 as well.

These policy solutions include: 

• Invest in the care economy, including paid family and medical leave and sustained public investments in child care and elder care. Three other chapters in the Playbook discuss the benefits of these changes for women’s participation in the economy and for the economy overall. 
• Pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would strengthen the equal pay protections of the 1963 Equal Pay Act and add other protections, such as prohibiting retaliation against workers who challenge pay discrimination.
• Increase the minimum wage and eliminate the tipped minimum wage—for example by passing the Raise the Wage Act and emulating the many states that have enacted minimum wages higher than the federal minimum wage, which has been $7.25 an hour since 2009. 
• Enact salary range transparency laws: more states are now passing such laws to “help level the playing field in negotiations and reduce gender gaps in hiring wages….”
• Enact salary history bans, because “relying on the use of prior salary history perpetuates and exacerbates the gender wage gap.”

Increasing the wages of women and closing the gender wage gap will help create economic security and stability for women and their families, providing economywide benefits as women can spend, save, or invest more and are more likely to remain in paid employment.

Women’s wages are not just critical for them and their families but also for U.S. economic growth. Higher wages boost spending and investment, two of the fundamental drivers of economic growth. 

Churches, faith-based organizations, and civil society organizations such as charities, bar associations, labor unions, or environmental rights activists can advance food security and help end hunger by making the connections between these goals and gender equity. It is the just and right thing to do.

Michele Learner is managing editor, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

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The United States has been a leader in global humanitarian assistance for more than 50 years. Since its beginnings in 1954, Food for Peace has provided nutrition assistance to more than four billion people worldwide, and policymakers in both parties have worked together to support people who are confronting hunger.

Over the past several decades, the world made significant progress against hunger. However,  since the late 2010s, armed conflict, climate change, and economic shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic have raised hunger rates and threaten to reverse more hard-won progress. It is essential for the global community, national governments, and communities to keep working to save children’s lives, meet people’s basic needs for food and health care, and enable them to recover and rebuild. 

The 2024 Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) reported that in 2023, more than 700,000 people, the highest number on record, lived in famine conditions. The most recent update from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) identified 18 hunger hotspots and highlighted the most urgent humanitarian actions in each country or region. It described conditions in the hotspots of highest concern: “In Palestine, South Sudan, Mali, Sudan, and Haiti, humanitarian action is critical to prevent starvation and death.” 

Donor countries can, by providing sufficient funding for emergency food aid, save the lives of countless babies and toddlers. This is an achievable goal.

U.S. humanitarian assistance is provided through several programs that are administered by federal agencies such as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Each method of providing people with food has advantages and disadvantages. An effective approach would be to tailor aid methods to best serve each community. 

Some assistance is given in the form of U.S. commodities that are shipped to the sites of hunger emergencies. This is a good choice in cases where there is not enough food in the immediate area—for example, if there is widespread harvest failure. 

But often, shipping commodities can be harmful to local markets. It is important to consider the potential impact on local farmers of introducing large quantities of free food. This could effectively put market sellers out of business; they may not be able to buy seeds and other essential supplies for the next planting season.

In other cases, U.S. funding is used for local and regional purchase (LRP), meaning that food is purchased from markets in nearby areas and distributed where it is needed. Local and regional purchase is an effective strategy when markets nearby have sufficient food to meet the need. As with U.S. commodities that are shipped to the area, however, it is important to avoid distorting local markets.

In still other cases, families are given cash or cash vouchers, often electronically transferred, so they can buy food locally. Cash transfers work well when local markets have sufficient food, but people can’t afford to buy it; when people are scattered over a wide area; or when individuals or groups are moving in search of a safer area.  

Cash and vouchers have the advantages of enabling people to buy familiar foods that best suit their needs and support local markets. It is faster and less expensive to make them available. They also help people in difficult and often unfamiliar situations regain a sense of agency in their own lives. 

Despite our country’s long history of providing support to people vulnerable to hunger, U.S. agricultural and shipping interests have advocated for policies that would limit the effectiveness of that mission. 

Regulations now in place make food delivery more expensive by requiring that much of the funding be used to purchase U.S. commodities. There is also a requirement that 50 percent of all aid shipments be sent on a U.S. flagship. Because there are relatively few of these ships, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that shipping costs were 23 percent higher on average than they would otherwise have been. Shipping from the United States can also take months.

Understanding the nuances of particular humanitarian emergencies allows us to promote support tailored to local markets and people. It is important to enable agencies such as USAID and USDA to provide aid that promotes sustainability and self-sufficiency in hunger crises. Bread for the World supports food aid policies that allow flexibility so that lifesaving food aid can reach malnourished children and others in need as quickly as possible. Prioritizing policies that make the best use of U.S. funding can save lives, empower people in vulnerable communities, and help local economies recover.  

Jack Wallis is an international hunger intern, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

The post Maximizing Flexibility in International Food Aid to Feed More People appeared first on Bread for the World.

The most recent Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC), released April 24, 2024, does not include every country in its analysis of acute hunger—in some cases because there was not enough data available. It is striking that even with this limitation, the report identifies 59 countries where people are facing high levels of acute hunger.  

The Global Network Against Food Crises, which produces the annual GRFC, brings together the World Food Programme, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and 14 other humanitarian organizations. 

The information in the report ranges widely, from details of the food security situation in regions and individual countries, to lists of countries with the most severe emergencies. These lists may be quite different from each other because they use different definitions of “severe” according to their specific focus. The lists include, for example, the largest absolute number of people facing hunger, the highest rates of childhood malnutrition, and the largest shares of displaced people. 

In addition to making information available on a variety of hunger-related topics, the report speaks plainly about what it means when humanitarian assistance officials use terms like “emergency” or “catastrophe.” While it is clear that hunger is a problem anywhere it exists and for anyone who suffers from it, it is also true that funding for humanitarian assistance—whether from global donors or a country’s own resources—is limited. Funding shortages have made it necessary to divide hunger crises into “phases” according to severity, so that those in the most urgent need can be identified in time to help them.   

The GRFC draws special attention to the fact that in calendar year 2023, more than 700,000 people were in Phase 5, the most severe phase of hunger emergency, otherwise known as Catastrophe or Famine. This is nearly double the number in 2022 and the highest number in the history of the GRFC. Most people facing these desperate conditions live in the Gaza Strip. Others are primarily in three African countries: South Sudan, Somalia, and Burkina Faso. Not mincing words, the report explains, “People are facing extreme lack of food and exhaustion of coping capacities leading to starvation, acute malnutrition, and death. They require urgent action to avoid more widespread extreme outcomes.”

A very large number of people in Phase 4, which Bread often describes as “on the verge of famine,” raises concerns that still more communities will fall into famine conditions. The GRFC’s description makes it clear that the situation is an emergency when: “Households have large food consumption gaps resulting in very high acute malnutrition and excess mortality or face extreme loss of livelihood assets or resort to emergency coping strategies.”

At the time the GRFC was written, early in 2024, data through the end of 2023 indicated that about 36 million people in 39 countries or territories were in Phase 4 of a hunger emergency. This was an increase of 4 percent over 2022. More than a third of the total lived in Sudan or Afghanistan. 

As one might expect, large-scale hunger crises usually overlap closely with countries suffering from high rates of acute malnutrition among young children. The 10 countries with the largest number of people facing high levels of acute food insecurity in 2023 were: Democratic Republic of the Congo (topping the list with 25.8 million people affected); Nigeria; Sudan; Afghanistan;  Ethiopia; Yemen; Syria; Bangladesh; Pakistan; and Myanmar (the10th largest food crisis in the world, with 10.7 million people affected). 

Data show that 60 percent of acutely malnourished children, and about 65 percent of pregnant or breastfeeding women with acute malnutrition, lived in these same 10 food crisis countries. 

Three main causes of hunger identified in the report may be familiar to Institute Insights readers. The first is conflict and insecurity (e.g., violent crime by gangs or other groups that may not have been accorded the status they felt they should have). This was the main cause of hunger crises for 135 million people in 20 countries and territories. 

The second was economic shocks, considered the main cause in 21 countries and territories with 75 million people affected. Food prices in many areas have fallen as the world begins to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated supply chain problems. But continuing high inflation meant that lower-income people could not afford to buy much nutrient-dense food, and high levels of foreign debt meant that their governments had limited resources with which to respond. 

Third, weather extremes were the main cause of hunger crises in 18 countries with 72 million people. The report explains, “Many countries were grappling with prolonged recovery from drought or flooding. The El Niño event and climate change-related weather phenomena made 2023 the hottest year on record.”

For more on hunger crises, please see Bread’s short articles on specific countries or regions or Bread’s response to hunger hotspots around the world. 

Michele Learner is managing editor, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

The post The Global Report on Food Crises of 2024 appeared first on Bread for the World.

Editor’s Note: This is one in a series of essays based on Laura’s conversations with people who work with communities to help improve nutrition. This essay includes the voices of people from Brazil and the United States. 

In Bread for the World’s advocacy to end hunger, we emphasize not only the importance of identifying and resolving the root causes of hunger and malnutrition, but the immediate and essential task of simply finding ways to get food, or money to buy food, into the hands of people who need it.

When Thiana, born and raised in Brazil, considers how to respond to hunger in her community, she remembers her childhood: “The government and businesses helped people by providing a ‘monthly basic box’ to low-income families. My grandma received these for a while. In the beginning of the month, the government would send her a big box with rice, beans, oil, sugar, flour, pasta, tomato sauce, and coffee. If I am not mistaken it even included toothpaste and soap. That really helps the families. She only had to buy the meat and vegetables.” 

Dreaming of further ways to improve the situation of people struggling with food insecurity in Brazil, she says, “If I could, I would build community gardens. Then they would only have to buy the meat.” 

A related nutrition program in Brazil, Bolsa Familia, sends a cash payment to more than 13 million of the country’s lowest-income households on only one condition: the children in the family must attend school regularly. The money is sent directly to families through the mail, bypassing possible avenues of corruption. The program is financed by the World Bank. 

Studies show that the money is being spent first on food, and then on school supplies, clothes, and shoes. The poorest 40 percent of Brazil’s population receives 94 percent of program funds. Since Bolsa Familia began more than a decade ago, nearly 20 countries have established adaptations of this successful model, including Chile, Mexico, Indonesia, and Morocco. 

Even here in the United States, programs linked to education are among the most effective efforts to get food to people who need it. One of these is summer meals for children who receive free and reduced-price breakfast and lunch during the school year. 

As recently as 2018, the federal government required kids who participated in summer meal programs to travel to schools or other designated group sites and eat their meals there. Lack of transportation, especially in more rural districts, kept many children from accessing these much-needed meals. 

Jeremy Everett, director of the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty and Bread for the World’s board chair, worked to come up with a solution. In 2019, Meals-to-You was tested in 20 largely rural counties in Texas where group meal sites are not practical. The idea of sending food boxes directly to children was so successful that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Baylor Collaborative was asked to help scale up the effort to most of the country, including Puerto Rico. Children who received free meals before the pandemic had food delivered to them throughout the pandemic.

Bread members advocated successfully for the enactment of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, which widened the scope of free meals for schoolchildren during the summer months. Kids nationwide may now have food boxes delivered.

Universal school meals—providing free school meals to all students, just as public school itself is free—would have an even wider impact on hunger. It is important to do more to prevent hunger from impacting the education of each individual child. Making nutritious meals easily accessible to all and removing any stigma attached to accepting school meals would help accomplish this. 

Laura Joseph earned her master’s degree in Theology, Ecology, and Food Justice at Truett Seminary of Baylor University. She was a nutrition fellow at Bread for the World in 2023.

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“We need food,” is the first thing Gazans say upon meeting James Elder, spokesperson for UNICEF, the U.N. children’s agency. 

“[Gazans] are saying that because their assumption is the world doesn’t know, because how would this be allowed to happen if the world knew?” Elder said in an interview.

In the seven months ending April 5, 2024, more than 33,000 people had been killed, including 14,500 children. The deaths are the result of an ongoing Israeli military attack that began in response to an attack on Israel by Hamas. On October 7, 2023, members of Hamas crossed the border from the Gaza Strip into Israel, killed hundreds of Israeli civilians, and abducted more than 230 people. 

“The number of children reported killed in just over 4 months in Gaza is higher than the number of children killed in 4 years of wars [elsewhere in] the world combined. This war is a war on children. It is a war on their childhood and their future.” Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General, U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees 

Several months later, the entire population of the Gaza Strip, 2.23 million people, are living on the verge of famine. Conditions for many are expected to deteriorate even further. By mid-July 2024, half of the population (1.11 million people) will face catastrophic conditions, the most severe level of food insecurity, “in the most likely scenario and under the assumption of an escalation of the conflict, including a ground offensive in Rafah,” according to an analysis by food security experts. 

 More than 50,000 children are believed to be suffering from acute malnutrition, a condition that is frequently fatal if not promptly treated, and 73,000 injuries have been reported.  Yet, only 10 of 36 main hospitals are “functioning to some extent,” according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

“Hunger and disease are a deadly combination,” said Dr. Mike Ryan, Executive Director of WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme. “Hungry, weakened, and deeply traumatized children are more likely to get sick, and children who are sick, especially with diarrhea, cannot absorb nutrients well. It’s dangerous, and tragic, and happening before our eyes.”

“I feel like my children will die in front of my eyes. What can I say? I don’t know what I am to do. I can feel them dying before my eyes. This is my daughter. It’s been five days she is without food or drink. I don’t know what to do for her.” Khuloud al-Masri, Gazan mother of two.

Extremely limited humanitarian access to border crossings and within the Gaza Strip continues to impede the provision of urgently needed assistance. Humanitarian workers, both Gazans and citizens of many other countries, continue to do their best to deliver food to desperate people. But their jobs are incredibly dangerous: as of April 11, 2024, according to the United Nations, a total of 203 aid workers have been killed in Gaza, including seven workers from the U.S.-headquartered World Central Kitchen. All warring parties should change course to respect the neutrality of humanitarian workers and work to coordinate their safe passage.

The vast majority of Gazans, about 85 percent, have been forced to flee their homes. These 1.9 million displaced people are largely without shelter, because more than 70 percent of all buildings in the north, and half of all buildings in the whole country, have been either damaged or destroyed. 

The scale of destruction is almost unimaginable. This is why the International Crisis Group reported last month that famine cannot be prevented solely by providing food, because so much of the infrastructure needed for basic services like clean water and sanitation has been destroyed. Johns Hopkins University’s projections suggest that even in the most optimistic ceasefire scenario, thousands of “excess” deaths are inevitable.

Top priorities—that can nonetheless only begin after a lasting ceasefire is in effect—include restoring the infrastructure needed for clean water and sanitation; building temporary shelters so that people are protected during the longer process of rebuilding homes and schools; rebuilding and reopening hospitals and clinics; and reestablishing the capacity to provide basic health care and treat malnutrition. 

This daunting list of even the most urgent tasks points to both the importance of funding UNRWA, an agency with the experience and local knowledge to provide effective assistance, and the need for other humanitarian assistance programs to continue to do all they possibly can. Every hour and every day are critical to a human being.

Humanitarian action is guided by four principles: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, and independence. Humanitarians are committed to alleviating human suffering, protecting life and health, ensuring respect for human beings wherever they live, and prioritizing the most urgent cases without discrimination.

International humanitarian law strictly prohibits using starvation as a weapon of war. People who are living in a territory under occupation have additional rights. Specifically, humanitarian law holds the occupying authorities responsible for ensuring sufficient civilian access to food and essential medical care. If there are shortages, the occupying authorities are required to import supplies or authorize relief efforts. 

Bread for the World is calling for diplomatic efforts towards a ceasefire, the release of all hostages, the allocation of sufficient humanitarian assistance, the access needed to deliver assistance, and safety and security for aid workers.

Syeda Lamia Hossain is a global hunger fellow, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

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Chronic hunger continues to affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide, but even within one country, hunger and food insecurity are more common and more severe in some communities than others. 

Bread for the World has long emphasized what, in the words of the United Nations, is the “central, transformative promise” of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals: “Leave no one behind.” Ending hunger means ending hunger for everyone. Achieving this goal requires centering the needs of people who are at higher risk of hunger.  

Hunger and related problems do not respect borders. There are people facing hunger in every country, including wealthy countries like the United States. Every year more than 40 million people in the United States are food insecure, meaning that they don’t have regular, reliable access to nutritious food in quantities necessary for a healthy, active life. It is not surprising that people who live in communities with high poverty rates are more likely to be food insecure. 

One such community is made up of people who live in the U.S. without documentation. From 2007 to 2021, the size of this group was largely stable at about 11 million people. There has likely been an increase since 2021, but researchers reported in March 2024 that more recent data was not available. 

One major barrier to food security for undocumented people is that they are generally excluded from federally-funded nutrition programs. In times of need, people born in the U.S. and naturalized citizens are usually able to access federal nutrition programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to help put food on the table. But undocumented individuals generally do not qualify for these programs. 

It is difficult to obtain national-level statistics on the level of food insecurity among undocumented people compared with U.S. citizens and permanent residents, since data on whether people are undocumented is not routinely collected by the federal agency that measures food security. However, some information is available from community and state-level efforts to determine the severity of the problem and seek effective solutions.

A study of food security among immigrants was conducted in Massachusetts in July 2020, with interviews available in 16 languages. Families who were immigrants but not undocumented were less likely to report running out of food or grocery money than families with at least one undocumented member – 59 percent among documented immigrants, compared with 78 percent among undocumented immigrants. It goes without saying that both of these rates are far too high. Clearly, other factors continue to put immigrants at much greater risk of hunger, regardless of their immigration status.

Thankfully, a variety of organizations are working to prevent or reduce hunger among undocumented people. They are located in areas with large immigrant populations – mainly metropolitan areas and along the U.S. border with Mexico. 

For example, 10 years ago in San Diego, the International Rescue Committee established its “New Roots” food security and agriculture program network with the goal of supporting immigrants in accessing land and agribusiness opportunities. It has since grown to 10 locations and offers a variety of programs that support immigrants, particularly refugees, in food access, nutrition, and agriculture. It now reaches about 13,000 people annually. 

California has a program that provides benefits similar to SNAP for some people who would otherwise qualify for SNAP but are not eligible because they are undocumented. The California Food Assistance Program (CFAP) keeps almost 700,000 Californians, including more than 300,000 children, above the poverty line each year. 

Nonetheless, much more needs to be done, even in states that have taken steps to help. A recent report based on data from UCLA found that  45 percent of California’s undocumented immigrants are food insecure and that 64 percent of children 17 and younger live in food-insecure households.

A related issue concerns immigrants who are in fact eligible for some safety-net programs. The Urban Institute conducted a study that found that one in seven eligible immigrant families did not enroll in programs like SNAP or Medicaid. One group of people with decisions to make about applying for benefits are parents in so-called “mixed status” families, where some members of the family are U.S. citizens or legal residents and others are undocumented. Most often, they themselves are undocumented, but one or more of their children are U.S. citizens by birth and qualify for SNAP benefits.

Why do people decide not to apply for government nutrition or healthcare programs?  Researchers in one study summed up many of the reasons as lack of access to resources, social vulnerability, and/or economic uncertainty. 

The “public charge” rule is used to exclude immigrants who are considered likely to become unable to support themselves in years to come – public charge is a synonym for “welfare recipient.” People who are considered likely to be “public charges” may be denied legal permanent resident status or U.S. citizenship. The Biden administration has reversed the changes to the rule made by the Trump administration. Social service agencies try to provide reassuring facts—for example, receiving SNAP benefits does not affect one’s immigration status—but not everyone has heard about these changes from sources they trust. As a result, many potential applicants for safety-net programs worry that receiving benefits could jeopardize their immigration cases. 

There is also still a significant amount of shame or stigma attached to the idea of asking for or receiving assistance. Another factor is that, over the last decade, there have been several changes in the laws that determine who is eligible for SNAP and who is not. People who are uncertain about their eligibility may decide not to take that chance. Finally, many undocumented people work in the “gig” economy. This type of work very often means inconsistent and unreliable pay, which in turn creates much more difficulty filling out federal government applications proving that one is low-income or otherwise eligible. 

Bread’s advocacy to end hunger in the U.S. looks closely at the details of how hunger affects different communities so that we can help identify policy improvements that work for everyone.

Florencia Makk is a policy intern in development finance, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

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Después de décadas de progreso, el hambre en el mundo comenzó a revertir su curso en 2014. Sigue en aumento, y los conflictos, el cambio climático y las crisis económicas impulsan el mismo. Sin embargo, sabemos que el hambre tiene solución. En conjunto, el mundo ya produce suficientes alimentos para alimentar a todos, y el gobierno de los Estados Unidos tiene el poder y los recursos para lograr un impacto histórico en la lucha contra el hambre. Es por eso que Pan y nuestros colaboradores trabajan incansablemente para instar a los que toman las decisiones de nuestra nación a dar prioridad a políticas y programas que terminen con el hambre.

En 2022, el hambre crónica, medida por no consumir suficientes calorías para llevar una vida activa y saludable, afectaba a alrededor del 9.2 por ciento de la población mundial: casi 1 de cada 10 personas. Esto es mucho más alto que la tasa de 2019, antes de la pandemia por COVID-19, que era del 7.9 por ciento.

Esto significa que alrededor de 735 millones de personas se enfrentaron al hambre en 2022. Se estima que la pandemia obligó a pasar hambre a unos 122 millones más en todo el mundo. Los investigadores estiman que en 2022, casi 3,100 millones de los 8,000 millones de habitantes del mundo no podían costear una dieta saludable. Es probable que esta cifra haya aumentado desde entonces porque los precios mundiales de los alimentos incrementaron cuando Rusia invadió Ucrania.

La inseguridad alimentaria tiene en cuenta el acceso de una persona a alimentos seguros, nutritivos y asequibles, no solo tiene en cuenta las calorías. Existen importantes disparidades regionales en las tasas de inseguridad alimentaria. En 2022, más de 1 de cada 2 personas padecía inseguridad alimentaria en el África subsahariana, mientras que casi 1 de cada 3 personas padecía inseguridad alimentaria en Asia, América Latina y el Caribe.

En 2022, más de 250 millones de personas experimentaron inseguridad alimentaria a nivel de crisis en 58 países. Estas familias necesitaban asistencia alimentaria urgente para sus necesidades de salud y nutrición, y más del 40 por ciento vivía en solo cinco países: la República Democrática del Congo, Etiopía, Afganistán, Nigeria y Yemen.

“1,000 días” es una forma breve de referirse al tiempo transcurrido entre el embarazo y el segundo cumpleaños de un niño, el período más crítico para la nutrición humana. Cuando los niños sufren de hambre crónica y carecen de nutrientes esenciales durante este período de la primera infancia, los resultados pueden ser fatales.

En 2022, casi el 7 por ciento de los niños en todo el mundo se vieron afectados por la emaciación infantil, también conocida como desnutrición aguda grave, el resultado potencialmente mortal de una nutrición deficiente o enfermedades recurrentes. Esto es casi 1 niño de cada 15, la mayoría de los cuales vive en África y Asia.

Quienes sobreviven al hambre durante los 1,000 días corren un alto riesgo de sufrir retraso en el crecimiento, un daño permanente a su salud y a su desarrollo físico y cognitivo que, según los expertos, es en gran medida irreversible. Más de una quinta parte de los niños menores de cinco años del mundo, aproximadamente el 22 por ciento, se ven afectados por el retraso en el crecimiento. Casi todos los niños afectados por retraso en el crecimiento viven en África y Asia.

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Aquí en los Estados Unidos, pocos niños sufren malnutrición grave, pero muchas familias se preocupan por su próxima comida o se quedan sin dinero para comprar alimentos. En conjunto, el mundo ya produce suficientes alimentos para alimentar a todos, y el gobierno de los Estados Unidos tiene el poder y los recursos para lograr un impacto histórico en la lucha contra el hambre. Es por eso que Pan y nuestros colaboradores trabajan incansablemente para instar a los que toman las decisiones de nuestra nación a priorizar políticas y programas que terminen con el hambre.

En 2022, el 12.8 por ciento de todos los hogares estadounidenses padecían inseguridad alimentaria. Esto incluye el 7.7 por ciento con “baja seguridad alimentaria” y un 5.1 por ciento con “muy baja seguridad alimentaria”. Estos aumentos se debieron en gran medida al fin de los programas de asistencia pandémica, incluido el Crédito tributario por hijos ampliado y un mayor acceso y beneficios en el Programa de asistencia nutricional suplementaria (SNAP, por sus siglas en inglés) y el Programa especial de nutrición suplementaria para mujeres, bebés y niños (WIC, por sus siglas en inglés). La inflación y el aumento de los precios de los alimentos también son factores que contribuyeron a esta situación.

La inseguridad alimentaria prevalece en las zonas rurales. En 2022 afectó al 14.7% de los hogares rurales, es decir, a 2.7 millones de familias. Aunque las zonas urbanas tienen una tasa de inseguridad alimentaria menor, del 12.5%, esto supone un número mucho mayor de familias (14.3 millones), ya que las zonas urbanas están más pobladas.

Los hogares negros y latinos experimentaron inseguridad alimentaria a una tasa más del doble que los hogares blancos en 2022, un 22.4 por ciento y un 20.8 por ciento, respectivamente.

En hogares con muy baja seguridad alimentaria (más de uno de cada 20 hogares estadounidenses) hubo momentos durante el año en que la ingesta de alimentos de las personas se redujo y sus patrones alimentarios normales se alteraron porque el hogar carecía de dinero para comprar alimentos. En hogares con muy baja seguridad alimentaria:

• Al 98% le preocupaba que se les acabara la comida antes de tener dinero para comprar más.
• El 97% descubrió que los alimentos que compraban simplemente no duraban y no tenían dinero para adquirir más.
• El 96% no podía permitirse el lujo de comer comidas balanceadas.
• El 96% se saltó comidas o comió menos porque no había suficiente dinero para adquirirla.
• El 65% sufrió hambre, pero no comió porque no tenía dinero para comprar alimentos suficientes.
• El 29% no comió, por lo menos en una ocasión durante todo un día, debido a que no había suficiente dinero para comprar alimentos.

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Here in the United States, few children are severely malnourished, but many families worry about their next meal or regularly run out of grocery money. Collectively, the world already grows enough food to feed everyone, and the U.S. government has the power and resources to make a historic impact on hunger. That is why Bread and our partners work tirelessly to urge our nation’s decision-makers to prioritize policies and programs that will end hunger.

In 2022, 12.8 percent of all U.S. households were food insecure. This includes 7.7 percent with “low food security” and 5.1 percent with “very low food security.” These increases were largely due to the end of pandemic assistance programs including the expanded Child Tax Credit and increased access and benefits in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Inflation and rising food prices are also contributing factors.

Food insecurity is more common in rural areas. In 2022, it affected 14.7 percent of rural households, or 2.7 million families. Although urban areas have a lower rate of food insecurity, at 12.5 percent, this adds up to a much larger number of families—14.3 million—since urban areas are more populous.

Black and Latino households experienced food insecurity at more than twice the rate of white households in 2022, at 22.4 percent and 20.8 percent, respectively.

In households with very low food security—more than one in 20 U.S. households—there were times during the year that people’s food intake was reduced and their normal eating patterns were disrupted because the household lacked money for food. Of households with very low food security:

• 98 percent worried that their food would run out before they had money to buy more.
• 97 percent found that the food they bought just did not last, and they did not have money to get more.
• 96 percent could not afford to eat balanced meals.
• 96 percent skipped meals or ate less because there was not enough money for food.
• 65 percent had been hungry but did not eat because they could not afford enough food.
• 29 percent did not eat for a whole day because there was not enough money for food.

The post Facts About U.S. Hunger appeared first on Bread for the World.

After decades of progress, global hunger began to reverse course in 2014. It is still on the rise, with conflicts, climate change, and economic downturns driving the increase. Yet, we know hunger is solvable. Collectively, the world already grows enough food to feed everyone, and the U.S. government has the power and resources to make a historic impact on hunger. That is why Bread and our partners work tirelessly to urge our nation’s decision-makers to prioritize policies and programs that will end hunger.

In 2022, chronic hunger, as measured by not consuming enough calories to lead an active and healthy life, affected about 9.2 percent of the global population—nearly 1 in every 10 people. This is far higher than the rate in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, which was 7.9 percent.

This means about 735 million confronted hunger in 2022. The pandemic forced an estimated additional 122 million people around the world into hunger.

Researchers estimate that in 2022, nearly 3.1 billion of the world’s 8 billion people will be unable to afford a healthy diet. This number is likely to have increased since then because global food prices surged when Russia invaded Ukraine.

Food insecurity takes into account a person’s access to safe, nutritious, and affordable foods—not just calories. There are significant regional disparities in food insecurity rates. In 2022, more than 1 in 2 people were food insecure in sub-Saharan Africa, while nearly 1 in 3 people were food insecure in Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

In 2022, over a quarter of a billion people experienced crisis-level food insecurity in 58 countries. These families required urgent food assistance for their health and nutrition needs, and more than 40 percent lived in just 5 countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Yemen.

“1,000 Days” is shorthand for the time between pregnancy and a child’s second birthday—the most critical window for human nutrition. When children suffer from chronic hunger and lack essential nutrients during this period of early childhood, the results can be fatal.

In 2022, nearly 7 percent of children globally were affected by child wasting, or acute malnutrition— the life-threatening result of poor nutrition and/or recurrent illnesses. This is nearly 1 child in every 15, most of whom live in Africa and Asia.

Those who survive hunger during the 1,000 Days are at high risk of stunting— lifelong damage to their health and their physical and cognitive development that experts believe is largely irreversible. More than one-fifth of the world’s children under 5, an estimated 22 percent, are affected by stunting. Nearly all children affected by stunting live in Africa or Asia.

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This aid is critical because the situation in Gaza has dramatically escalated. The entire population of the Gaza Strip is facing severe food insecurity right now. 2.2 million people. Half—more than one million souls—are in famine-like conditions. This is the highest proportion of catastrophic hunger in any area since the UN started recording.

In Sudan, which is on track to become the world’s largest hunger crisis, one-third of the population (18 million people) face acute food insecurity. War has created the worst displacement crisis in the world along with restricting humanitarian access to populations in need.

The whole world is experiencing the worst hunger and famine crisis in a generation and conflict is a leading driver. In fact, 8 out of 10 of the world’s worst hunger crises are caused by conflict. And it is innocent people, particularly children, who suffer the most. At the same time, USAID was facing a 35 percent overall shortfall in their base funding.

I know I am not alone in feeling heartbroken – by these situations of crisis and the acts of violence that precede and stoke them.

This is why Bread for the World members and activists have been advocating so passionately and diligently for the emergency supplemental funding bills. As Christians, addressing the distress of our neighbors is woven into the very essence of our faith. We are compelled by the teachings of Jesus to offer help – and we must act.

Getting this humanitarian assistance passed is significant. We thank Congress – and I want to especially convey my gratitude to Speaker Mike Johnson and Leader Chuck Schumer. I also want to thank Bread for the World members, board, and staff.

Bread for the World members have written thousands of letters and made hundreds of calls to members of Congress in response to action alerts.

Our DC-based staff have hosted numerous briefings and had countless visits and conversations with the House and Senate members and staff about the supplemental. They have led our efforts in coalitions that have sent letter after letter and organized visit after visit with members of Congress.

This is truly a community effort and a win for the humanitarian efforts.  

I also want to respond to a concern that has been shared with me by some of our constituents, members of our board, and staff: the attachment of this humanitarian aid to military spending.

Our leadership team has wrestled with this tension. As fellow humans who grieve the tragedies of war and as followers of Christ, we take the words of Christ to heart: “Blessed are the peacemakers.”

I want you to know that Bread has not advocated for military funding and spending. Our mission is to help our nation’s decision-makers to move towards a world without hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition. But this work is complex and challenging. While our mission is clear, we don’t get to decide how Congress passes funding for humanitarian aid. While we were disappointed to learn that humanitarian aid was attached to a military aid package, we chose to continue to advocate for humanitarian assistance because the need is so great in places like Gaza, Sudan, Haiti, Yemen, Burkina Faso, and so many others.

Bread for the World has called on the White House and Congress to do all they can to bring about an end to the violence in Gaza and ensure that humanitarian aid can be safely delivered to all those who need it.

We continue to pray for peace in the region, for hostages to be returned home safely, for relief for Palestinians from war, violence, and starvation. We pray for peaceful resolution to the conflicts in Sudan and Ethiopia and Haiti and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Thank you again for being part of Bread for the World.

Thank you for your questions and pushback.

Thank you for your support and partnership.

Thank you for taking Jesus’ invitation to peacemaking, compassion, and justice to heart.

Onward,
Rev. Eugene Cho

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Earth Day– April 22—is a day to mobilize people around the world to pursue environmental justice on behalf of all creation. Bread for the World has emphasized that healthy food systems are essential to ending hunger. In turn, strong food systems depend on the well-being of the Earth, its inhabitants, and its environment and climate.

Yet problems within food systems are the main cause of biodiversity loss. Food systems are also a significant cause of pollution and resource degradation, both of which accelerate climate change. Transforming food systems is a key part of meeting three important goals: protecting the planet, improving people’s nutrition, and ending hunger.  To end hunger caused by climate change, U.S. and global leaders must take action to improve food systems and accelerate their environmental stewardship efforts. 

Worldwide, food systems are responsible for 70 percent of all biodiversity loss on land. This is because most large-scale farming operations practice monocropping – the practice of repeatedly planting just one type of crop per season—so that the natural plant and animal variety in a given area is replaced by a single homogenous group. Out of the thousands of edible plant varieties on the planet, just 10 crops provide 83 percent of all harvested food calories.

These commodity crops include corn, soy, and wheat. Most of what is grown is used in the industrial, export, or processing sectors and as animal feed, rather than going directly to feed people—and the share of land used to grow crops directly for human consumption is decreasing. While animal-based foods can be valuable sources of protein, the growing demand for them has made the agriculture and livestock sector the main cause of deforestation. This sector is also the source of 26 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions produced by the food system. 

Commodity crops also have implications for human nutrition. Because they are grown in such large quantities, they are the most readily available and least expensive foods. They are usually high in calories and low in nutritional content. Thus, nutritious foods become an unaffordable luxury for many families. There is a clear link related to overproduction of less nutritious crops, lower prices for meat and for foods made from these crops, and their overconsumption, which is associated with higher risks of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. 

Commodity and monocrop-based food systems contribute to environmental degradation and climate change. Diverse and healthy ecosystems provide a sustainable landscape for farming by filtering freshwater, replenishing soil nutrients, and pollinating a variety of plants. However, commodity-driven and monocrop farming reduce the effectiveness of the many roles played by healthy ecosystems in maintaining conditions necessary for farming, such as revitalizing the fertility of the soil.

Additionally, farmers begin to rely more heavily on stronger pesticides, fertilizers, and industrial inputs to keep their businesses and crops afloat. These inputs contribute to further air and water pollution, other forms of damage to resources, and overall ecosystem fragility. It is therefore important to support improvements in food systems that will align them with nutritional and ecological wellness goals, so that all components reinforce each other. 

Empowering farmers to diversify their businesses by investing in different types of crops and farming methods that complement and work well with natural ecosystems is critical to delivering the best nutritional outcomes and choices for consumers. It is also crucial to ensure that farms and agribusinesses can continue to operate even during a crisis caused by climate change, resource shortages, or other problems. A U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization report on reaching zero hunger while limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius recommends that governments adjust crop subsidies and food taxes so that producers and consumers are encouraged to grow and eat more foods that are nutritious and good for the environment but not yet grown in large quantities. 

Similarly, the 5^th National Climate Assessment, a study of climate change impacts in the United States, recommends diversifying diets to include more produce and nutrient-rich foods to meet national food security, health, and climate goals. These changes could be facilitated by policies in the U.S. farm bill, which governs much of federal food and farm policy.

Adapting farming techniques is just one component of ensuring that food systems are healthy for people and the environment, but it is an essential one. Other important steps to ending hunger include boosting farmers’ access to markets, improving purchasing decisions, and raising consumer awareness. 

Caring for creation means caring for all of creation—human, animal, and plant. The benefits of doing so stem from the fact that their interconnections are symbiotic. Taking actions to make our food systems more biodiverse and to prevent further degradation of resources will ultimately enable our food systems to improve the condition of natural ecosystems and expand people’s access to nutritious foods.

 Isabel Vander Molen is a climate-hunger fellow, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

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According to the U.S. Strategy to Prevent Conflict and Promote Stability Plan for Haiti, the country does not have a Women Peace and Security National Action Plan, and gangs target women and girls as a weapon of war, contributing to a rise in sexual and gender-based violence (GBV). Women and girls disproportionately face hunger and malnutrition worsened by danger to their physical safety. The people of Haiti and the world know that inaction can never be a viable option in the face of hunger, malnutrition, and physical and sexual violence. 

Bread for the World acknowledges, along with the rest of the global community, that the larger context in Haiti is heartbreaking. On March 22, 2024, humanitarian officials published an update on the extent of the hunger emergency in Haiti, titled, “Gang Activity Drives Nearly 5 Million People Into High Levels of Acute Food Insecurity.”  Additionally, an estimated 1.4 million people are living on the verge of famine. 

The same day, March 22, CNN reporters in Haiti’s capital published disturbing videos and photos with a headline beginning “Carnage on the Streets of Port-au-Prince…” The language is unusual for a news report: “Haiti’s capital has been trapped in a gory cycle… An insurgent league of heavily armed gangs is waging war on the city itself… Much of the Haitian state has disintegrated, its courts occupied by gangs, its prisons left open, the prime minister effectively exiled…”

The most recent spate of violence means women and girls will be affected by the violence and destruction. According to the U.S government, civil unrest, political instability, failure to respect the rule of law, and lack of economic opportunity are contributing to high rates of GBV in Haiti, with one in three Haitian girls and women ages 15 to 49 reporting physical and/or sexual violence. Reports indicate that rape, sexual assault, and harassment occurred with impunity even before the recent rise in gang activity, and survivors are frequently blamed for the rape and abuse they endure.

As it relates to women, peace, and security integration into the political infrastructure of Haiti, women are chronically underrepresented in decision-making roles and have been left out of key judicial, administrative, legislative, and democratic systems, with only 11.5 percent of the judiciary and 3 percent of parliament seats currently filled by women. Haiti ranks 187th out of 190 countries in terms of women’s political representation (190 is the lowest). The lack of Haitian women having a seat at the leadership table imperils peace and security for everyone. Insecurity traumatizes people and communities.

However, local women’s groups remain a major pillar of resilience in Haiti, notwithstanding the dangerous and chaotic situation around them. It is critical to center the rights of women and girls and provide them with essential forms of support, including economic, psychosocial, nutrition, relocation assistance, and other necessities. UN Women is working with various local organizations, with the support of the UN Peacebuilding Fund, to carry out this work.

The Peacebuilding Fund has supported projects in Haiti that reached thousands of women and girls, connecting them with the tools they need to build stronger livelihoods, such as training in agricultural best practices, running a business, gender equality, and women’s leadership. Support from the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund and local partners also brings hope and has given some women an opportunity to rebuild their lives after surviving gender-based violence, hunger, and other traumas. 

One such initiative is the Strategic Support Unit for Agricultural Development (CASDA) program, which focuses on empowering women who have survived gender-based violence. The program provides counseling, workshops on empowerment and women’s rights, and training aimed at strengthening their resilience and economic independence.

One program participant explained, “My life was filled with fear and uncertainty. The violence I suffered left me without hope,” she said. “But thanks to the opportunity provided by CASDA, I was able to start my own small business. Today, I am proud to say that I am financially independent and that I can provide for the needs of my family.” 

“This project has given me confidence in myself and in the future,” she said. “I am grateful to all those who have made this possible.”

These stories of hope where women thrive and enable their families and communities to thrive, even in the most difficult circumstances, remind us that programs that promote food security, personal safety, and resilience remain important. Inaction is never a viable option. 

The World Food Programme (WFP), with the support of Food for Peace and other supplemental humanitarian resources, provides lifesaving food aid in Haiti. However, WFP indicated that it needs financial and other support from leaders such as the United States to help meet funding needs. In order to continue to implement its lifesaving operations in Haiti, WFP is seeking at least an additional $95 million.

Haiti is a near neighbor of the U.S., and saving the lives of people who are unprotected from extreme violence and acute food insecurity is key for our national and economic interests, and it is a bipartisan moral imperative. 

Abiola Afolayan is Co-Director, Policy and Research Institute, at Bread for the World.

The post Women and Girls in the Beautiful Island of Haiti Need Food, Peace, and Security  appeared first on Bread for the World.

At the end of February 2024, the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Somalia projected that of Somalia’s 17 million people, 4.3 million children and 2.1 million women will need lifesaving humanitarian assistance in 2024. 

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA) is seeking support for its 2024 plan to target assistance to those most in need, which will cost $1.6 billion. As of March 10, 2024, only 8.2 percent of the needed funding had been received. 

Approximately 1.7 million children aged 6 months to 5 years may face acute malnutrition before the end of the year. A shocking number of young children in this group—430,000—are at high risk of developing Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM), which is fatal if not treated in time. 

Somalia’s recent history of hunger crises, near-famine conditions, and famine makes this estimate truly frightening. In 2011, the world’s first famine of the 21st century occurred in Somalia. According to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (Fews Net), the death toll was approximately 260,000, of whom half were children younger than 5. Researchers found that in the central and southern parts of the country, 10 percent of all children under 5 died. In the hardest-hit areas, the death rate rose as high as 18 percent. 

The last time regions of Somalia were united under a central government was in 1991.Thereafter, residents suffered through years of conflict among many armed factions. The fighting has forced tens of thousands of people to leave their homes to avoid being trapped behind one of the front lines, unable to access food. Most of the displaced people—80 percent—are women and children. They face what the United Nations calls “significant protection risks,” which others may call the constant fear of attacks from armed men who perpetrate physical violence, sexual assault, and/or murder. 

Qumaan, a resident of Kaharey camp in Doolow District, expressed her concern about the risk of crocodile attacks while she and her companions fetched water from the river. The country’s ongoing severe drought forced Qumaan to leave her home in Wajiid District in Bakool, southern Somalia, and come to the displaced persons’ camp for assistance. Flooding as well as drought has affected her home region. Many wells are now contaminated as a result of the flooding. 

In the Fragile States Index (FSI)’s 2023 analysis, Somalia was ranked the most fragile state in the world. The tool uses twelve indicators to measure a country’s fragility, ranging from whether the government exercises control over its territory to its capacity to provide public services, to demographic pressures. Some of the indicators of fragility are similar to aspects of two of the main causes of hunger—climate change and conflict. 

Analysts who monitor hunger crises to help humanitarian organizations prepare their responses noted, “Despite funding constraints and scaling down, humanitarian assistance has continued to play a critical role in preventing the worsening of food security and nutrition outcomes in many areas throughout 2023. However, high levels of food insecurity and acute malnutrition will persist through at least mid-2024 if additional funding is not secured to scale up and sustain humanitarian assistance.” 

Despite the many problems the country has faced, Somalia has had successes as well. In December 2023, the country completed its Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative process. The creditor nations, including the United States, Japan, and Russia, cancelled more than $2 billion of Somalia’s debt, which equates to 99% of the total amount owed. 

“Through our enabling reforms, we have consistently raised domestic revenue, strengthened public financial management, improved good governance and central banking operations, and enhanced the capacity of our national institutions. We will build on these successes going forward.”- Somalia’s Minister of Finance, H.E. Bihi Iman Egeh

Somalia has also been accepted into the East African Community (EAC) after years of advocating. The EAC’s eight member states are Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Uganda, and Tanzania. One-fourth of the population of Sub-Saharan Africa now lives in the EAC, which has established a free trade zone and promotes economic development.   

Bread for the World hosts a Hunger Hotspots Briefing Series as part of its education and advocacy to end hunger. The series enables participants to hear directly from humanitarian assistance workers in some of the countries hit hardest by the global hunger crisis, as well as to learn more about the root causes of hunger. In September 2024, UNICEF will discuss its work in Somalia and describe some of its successes and challenges. Please stay tuned for more information on the briefing. 

Syeda Lamia Hossain is a global hunger fellow, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

The post Somalia Confronts Food Security Challenges, But Builds Resilience Through Debt Relief and Partnerships   appeared first on Bread for the World.

Hunger in the United States is primarily caused by economic inequality, which is a driver of poverty, and the lowest-paid American workers are far more likely to face food insecurity than those who are paid more. 

Over the past few years, Bread for the World’s U.S. anti-hunger advocacy has included support for several policies that would help lower poverty among specific groups of workers. For example, Bread called for an end to the “tipped minimum wage,” which allows employers to pay workers such as restaurant servers as little as $2.13 an hour with the expectation that tips would bring the hourly wage up to the standard minimum wage. Under federal law, employers are responsible for making up the difference if tips alone do not, but workers report that this does not always happen. 

Tipped workers are disproportionately women, especially women of color. Bread has also been working to promote racial and gender equity in the workplace. Restaurant servers and cashiers are among the lower-paid workers who would benefit from stricter enforcement of existing laws against pay discrimination on the basis of race or sex. But racial and gender inequities are very broad causes of poverty that affect millions of people around the country. These forms of inequities are tied to essentially permanent aspects of people’s identities, such as race, gender, and age, rather than to factors such as occupation or level of education that are easier to change. 

Pay disparities based on race and/or gender are entrenched in the American economy. They are one of many visible signs of long-term societal ills such as racism and sexism. But this does not mean we have to accept that poverty, or the idea that racism and/or sexism, will inevitably be present. In fact, we cannot accept these things, because doing so means giving up on Bread’s mission of ending hunger in this country.

The changes needed to make lasting progress on pay disparities, let alone the deep-seated biases that cause the disparities, call for proactive leadership. Leaders can be almost anyone who is committed to finding ways of achieving part or all of the goal. Local community groups and organizations like Bread have been able to get proven policy improvements enacted into law. 

Landmark legislation often requires an “all hands on deck” approach, with members of Congress, the administration, and the courts working to get something completely finished. One such critically important achievement was the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 

Another was the Equal Pay Act of 1963. It was the first federal legislation that specifically prohibited pay discrimination based on gender—an important step along the path to gender equality that had also featured, not so long before, thousands of women mobilizing for decades to secure the right to vote.

Data for 1963 indicate that the Equal Pay Act was undoubtedly needed: women who worked full-time year-round were paid 59 cents for every dollar paid to men. 

Nearly 60 years later, in 2022, women who worked full-time year-round were paid 84 cents for every $1 paid to men. The next part of this series will assess how significant the progress has been and consider next steps.

Michele Learner is managing editor, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

The post Reducing U.S. Hunger by Closing the Gender Pay Gap appeared first on Bread for the World.

These are not the only passages that address the challenges of people who face hunger and poverty or Jesus’ mandate to care for our neighbors.

As you consider the actions you might take in advocating for an end to hunger, you are invited to find inspiration or motivation in a favorite Bible story or verse or to explore the Bible on your own.

Use this brochure as a guide for finding your own basis as a Christian for answering this call.

Brochure Downloads:

The post The Biblical Basis for Advocacy to End Hunger appeared first on Bread for the World.

In 2022, Bread for the World launched its Hunger Hotspots initiative with the goal of improving advocacy for the hundreds of millions of people trapped in the ongoing global hunger crisis.  The Hunger Hotspots initiative explores the main causes of hunger emergencies and offers briefings that enable people in the United States to hear directly from front line workers providing emergency and development assistance. One of this year’s briefings will focus on Sudan.  

The sudden outbreak of conflict in Sudan on April 15, 2023, immediately made the country’s already dire humanitarian situation worse. The hostilities started in the capital city of Khartoum, which meant that both sides—led by men who had been allies just days before—were using heavy explosive weapons in densely populated areas. Urban warfare is catastrophic for civilians.

Millions of Sudanese had already been confronting hunger and malnutrition at the time the war began. Now the numbers are far larger. Sudan is among five “countries of highest concern” in the most recent update from the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), meaning that severe aggravating factors are causing the situation to deteriorate toward potential famine. The report, for the period November 2023 through April 2024, indicates that about 18 million people are living with acute food insecurity, and an estimated 3.8 million children under 5 are malnourished. 

About 8 million people have been displaced since the war began. Most people have fled to camps for displaced people and refugees, while many of those who had been in Sudan as refugees from South Sudan fled the fighting to return home. Sudan’s seven neighboring countries are already struggling with hunger, malnutrition, and large numbers of refugees, so the war poses additional hardships to the entire region. Chad, Egypt, and South Sudan host the largest number of Sudanese refugees.

The number of young children suffering from life-threatening malnutrition has increased sharply in the 10 months since the war started. Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières–MSF, from its French acronym) is the only healthcare provider in Zamzam camp in Sudan’s North Darfur state. At least 300,000 people displaced by the fighting from surrounding communities have gathered there to escape the violence. 

An MSF assessment in January 2024 found an alarming rate of acute malnutrition among children ages 6 months to 2 years –almost 40 percent. Approximately 15 percent suffered from Severe Acute Malnutrition, and about 40 percent of pregnant and breastfeeding women were malnourished. MSF warned that a devastating number of children are dying from malnutrition. 

“What we are seeing in Zamzam camp is an absolutely catastrophic situation,” said Claire Nicolet, head of MSF’s emergency response in Sudan. “Our current estimate is that there are around 13 child deaths each day. Those with severe malnutrition … are at high risk of dying within three to six weeks if they do not get treatment.”

In Zamzam camp and elsewhere, women, girls, and young children are bearing the brunt of the suffering imposed on noncombatants. UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) staff at the border between Sudan and Chad, for example, reported that an estimated 90 percent of arriving refugees are women and children. Since the war began, gender-based violence has increased significantly. Advocates for victims say that widespread gender-based violence is part of an even bigger problem—the complete breakdown of protections for civilians since the outbreak of conflict. 

This is a problem that deserves more attention, especially as the world celebrated International Women’s Day on March 8, and Bread plans to revisit the topic in a later piece. This year’s theme for International Women’s Day was “Inspire Inclusion.” It emphasized recognizing and sharing with others the value of fully including, in all parts of society, women and girls from all walks of life. Marginalization based on gender is the polar opposite of inclusion. The whole world can see its devastating consequences in places like Sudan.  

Urgent humanitarian aid is crucial. But WFP reported in February 2024 that it faces an alarming funding shortfall of nearly $300 million for the upcoming six months. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has requested $2.7 billion to deliver essential humanitarian assistance to 14.7 million people in Sudan in 2024. As of February 23, 2024, the appeal was only 3.5 percent funded.

It was a step forward when, in February 2024, the Senate passed an emergency supplemental funding bill that would provide $9 billion for people overseas who need humanitarian assistance. But at this writing, the House has yet to approve supplemental funding, despite the reality that it is urgently needed to save millions of lives around the world. 

Syeda Lamia Hossain is a global hunger fellow, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World. 

The post Hunger Hotspots: War in Sudan Means Millions of Malnourished Children  appeared first on Bread for the World.

Afghanistan was among the first countries featured in Bread for the World’s series of Hunger Hotspots briefings. The briefings are part of Bread’s efforts to raise awareness of today’s global hunger crisis by providing context and enabling people who work in humanitarian emergency situations to communicate directly with U.S. decision-makers. 

Speakers at the September 2023 briefing included a nonprofit worker speaking from Kabul, who described a barely functioning economy and very high levels of hunger and malnutrition. Another speaker discussed efforts to ensure that people are fed despite daunting barriers such as heavy damage to infrastructure essential to producing and distributing food.

More than 42 million people live in Afghanistan. For the period November 2023 to April 2024, humanitarian agencies describe Afghanistan as a hunger hotspot of “very high concern.” Large numbers of people face critical levels of hunger; moreover, life-threatening conditions are expected to worsen over this six-month period. According to the Global Humanitarian Overview, in 2024, an estimated 23.3 million people will need humanitarian assistance to survive.   

In November 2023, the U.S. Institute of Peace reported that after more than two years of Taliban rule, Afghanistan remains one of the world’s poorest countries. The economy is expected to continue its decline, and conditions in the country make up a “recipe for increased humanitarian need over the longer term in the absence of major structural and political reforms.”

Decades of violence and destruction have stymied Afghanistan’s economic development and caused immeasurable human loss. For example, Afghans were caught up in the so-called Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, fueling a 9-year war that cost the lives of an estimated 1 million civilians. Additionally, the U.S. military fought in Afghanistan for two decades following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

In the first half of 2021, Taliban fighters moved swiftly across the country. The Taliban seized control of the Afghan government on August 15, 2021. It is not recognized as the national government by the international community, but it is the de facto government.

At the time the Taliban came to power, nearly 40 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and 75 percent of the government’s entire budget, was composed of foreign assistance. Much of this aid was suspended when the government changed hands. The U.S. position has been that humanitarian assistance should continue but should not go through the de facto authorities, here the Taliban. Nonetheless, international assistance was disrupted for several months, deepening the crisis of hunger, life-threatening malnutrition, and the collapse of the public health sector. 

No country can develop a healthy economy without the contributions of every adult who is able. The Taliban has prohibited women from working in most occupations and does not allow girls to attend school beyond sixth grade. Women report that their most urgent need is a way of earning a living. Other restrictions prevent women from participating in public life, accessing health care, and traveling without a male “guardian.”

Afghanistan’s economic crisis is also exacerbated and complicated by climate change. The primary climate impact is desertification. The country is becoming a desert. Droughts that affect 75 percent of Afghanistan’s northern, western, and southern regions—and two-thirds of the population—have degraded the land and dried up water sources, leading to failed harvests. According to UNICEF, an entire generation of children is suffering from malnutrition, cholera, and forced displacement.

The U.S. and other high-income countries continue to provide life-saving humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan. In fiscal year 2023, the U.S. contribution was $844 million. Bread has also joined with partner organizations in urging Congress to pass supplemental funding for humanitarian assistance. It is urgently needed to save lives, especially those of children under 5, who are far more likely to die of malnutrition than older children or adults. 

The global hunger crisis makes it impossible to ignore the need to resolve the root causes of hunger: conflict, climate change, and economic inequities. Only when we address these root causes can countries where people face hunger emergencies move beyond today and tomorrow toward greater food security.    

Syeda Lamia Hossain is a global hunger fellow, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

The post In Afghanistan, Families Struggle to Survive appeared first on Bread for the World.

The World Bank’s fund for the lowest-income countries, the International Development Association (IDA), finances development projects in low-income countries through either grants or loans with very low interest rates. This means that IDA’s continued operation requires significant support from donors, who pledge contributions to its replenishment every three years.  During the last replenishment, in 2021, Bread for the World and our partner organizations advocated for and won a significant increase in the U.S. pledge to IDA. The U.S. committed $3.5 billion over three years, a $500 million increase from its previous pledge. 

This year is IDA21, the 21st replenishment. Bread will again advocate for additional resources to enable low-income countries to strengthen their economies. The world seems to be at a tipping point. Making progress against the solvable problem of hunger depends on action and funding. Right now, the world is not doing enough. It is off-track to end hunger and malnutrition, which is one of the Sustainable Development Goals the world committed to achieving by 2030. 

This is why leaders are calling for increases in IDA’s funding.  World Bank President Ajay Banga says this needs to be the largest replenishment of IDA of all time. A high-level expert group commissioned by the G20 has called for a tripling of IDA’s resources, from $93 billion to $279 billion, by the next replenishment. Bread joins these calls to increase IDA’s ability to provide funding to low-income countries for their development needs.

IDA works. The World Bank tells the story of Volatsarasoa, who lives in southern Madagascar in the village of Malangy. She participated in IDA’s Fiavota Program at the height of the country’s 2016 drought. Volatsarasoa received financial assistance from the program as well as training on how to manage money. She also learned agricultural practices that make her livelihood more resilient to droughts. Raising livestock and growing drought-resistant crops have made her income less dependent on rainfall. Volatsarasoa reported that she was able to put her children back in school because of IDA’s Fiavota Program and that the training and funding she received saved her, her children, and also future generations from hunger. 

Volatsarasoa is now helping others. The elected leader of 25 young women and girls, she is teaching them her skills and “rebuild[ing] dignity in the hard-struck community.”  The group maintains a communal garden and is saving money to repair essential infrastructure such as the community well. 

IDA funding is also currently being used to “promote child development, restore and expand access to quality early years services, including maternal and nutrition services” in at least 30 countries, and to improve agricultural productivity in 15 countries. 

A successful IDA replenishment will require the U.S. and other donors to increase their pledges for the next three-year cycle. This is a good investment, one that produces real results for people living with hunger and extreme poverty in the lowest-income countries. IDA is a key piece of the puzzle as we work together to solve hunger.

Jordan Teague Jacobs is co-director, Policy and Research Institute, at Bread for the World.

The post Increasing IDA to Reduce Hunger appeared first on Bread for the World.

“Bread for the World is troubled by the politicization of humanitarian aid and access to crucial food aid when millions of children, elderly people, women, and men remain in dire need of emergency assistance. We are optimistic about the Senate measure which included more than $10 billion of humanitarian aid to families in need. At a time when global food insecurity is on the rise, we urge the House and Senate to work together expeditiously to pass a bill which includes an emergency supplemental package that addresses the ongoing USAID shortfall and provides lifesaving humanitarian assistance.

“’We must not withhold good from those whom it is due, when it is in our power to act,’ (Proverbs 3:27). It is incumbent upon the United States to do everything in its power, including providing humanitarian assistance and putting in place economic policies that will avert the further deepening of the global hunger crisis.”

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Additional resources from Bread for the World on the supplemental humanitarian aid request:

Bread Urges Congress to Pass Supplemental Humanitarian Aid Request

The post Bread Statement on the Emergency Humanitarian Aid Request appeared first on Bread for the World.

Also known as Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM), wasting is significant and sudden weight loss caused by illness and/or eating less food. Children weigh far too little for their height. Children with acute malnutrition have weakened immune systems, making them more vulnerable to childhood diseases and other illnesses that are unlikely to pose a risk to well-nourished children. 

In fact, children with severe wasting are 12 times as likely to die as a healthy child. The famine in Somalia in 2011, for example, led to the deaths of an estimated 130,000 children under 5. The top causes of death were diarrhea and measles. 

The Global Action Plan on Child Wasting was first released in 2019, but in January 2023, with child malnutrition still on the rise, five UN agencies called on the global community to step up the implementation of the plan. 

The plan focuses on the 15 countries most affected by child wasting, aiming to prevent and treat acute malnutrition, which affects more than 30 million children in these countries. They are Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Yemen.

Experience has shown that it is essential to use a “multisectoral” approach, which means simply working with agencies from different parts of the government—for example, health, food, water and sanitation, and social protection. This is because the issues are interconnected. 

As Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of the World Health Organization explained, “The global food crisis is also a health crisis, and a vicious cycle: malnutrition leads to disease, and disease leads to malnutrition.” 

This is evident in Haiti, one of the 15 countries targeted for efforts to reduce wasting, where cholera killed an estimated 10,000 people in 2010. A resurgence of the disease began in October 2022.

In its most recent version, covering November 2023 through April 2024, the Hunger Hotspots update produced by humanitarian agencies describes Haiti as of very high concern. Conditions are deteriorating, and an estimated 1.4 million people are projected to be living on the verge of famine during the months March through June 2024. In some parts of the country, 30 percent of the population is severely malnourished. 

The hunger crisis in Haiti is driven by violence, disasters due to the country’s vulnerable location as well as accelerating climate change, and weak government capacity. Violence has soared since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July 2021. Noncombatants are frequently the target of attacks or caught in the crossfire between warring factions. 

Haiti’s food production efforts have been significantly damaged by the fighting itself and by uncertainty about where fighters are located and what they might be planning to do next. In many cases it is too dangerous for farmers to work in their fields. Crops and stored food are sometimes seized or destroyed. Women and girls, even traveling in groups, are terrorized by mass rape. 

The fall 2023 upsurge in violence in Artibonite, Haiti’s main rice-growing region, has worsened hunger still further. UNICEF said that at least 115,000 children in Haiti are believed to be suffering from life-threatening malnutrition in 2023—an increase of 30 percent over 2022. In Artibonite, the number of children who are estimated to need lifesaving treatment has more than doubled since 2020. 

Humanitarian workers reported that insecurity has made it extremely difficult, and in some cases impossible, to access six of the department’s 17 communes. They include Saint Marc, Verrettes, and Petite Rivière. 

Cholera is a water-borne disease, so it is especially concerning that two of the three major water treatment plants in Artibonite have shut down due to insecurity, and the third faces distribution challenges. 

 “No human being, and certainly no child, should ever have to face such shocking brutality, deprivation, and lawlessness. The current situation is simply untenable,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. 

Bread for the World has long advocated for U.S. policies that both save lives in the short term and end hunger in the medium term—in hunger hotspots, and in all other countries where children suffer from malnutrition and wasting. The “whole of government” approach to reducing acute malnutrition—with the engagement of the ministries of health, social protection, food, and water and sanitation—has the potential to make lasting progress against wasting. 

Bread also supports the efforts of UN agencies to speed up implementation in 15 countries of the Global Plan—the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP), and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Michele Learner is managing editor, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World. 

The post Hunger Hotspots: 45 Million Children with Acute Malnutrition appeared first on Bread for the World.

Another sign is that unusual weather patterns, including more severe natural disasters, are more common. Communities around the world are at greater risk of floods, hurricanes, droughts, wildfires, and other catastrophes. 

As Bread for the World emphasizes, it is lower-income nations, most of whom produce very low levels of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change, that are suffering most. The United States is not immune, however. For example, many western states experienced severe drought in 2021 and 2022.

The world, particularly countries that are among the top producers of greenhouse gases, has done too little to stop or slow climate change. Countries and communities will continue to face climate impacts. Agriculture and food systems—which are often dependent on climate conditions like rainfall—are particularly vulnerable to these impacts. This is why Bread advocates for increased support for climate adaptation in lower-income countries, especially for communities dependent on farming. Climate adaptation includes a wide range of activities to help ensure that, despite facing climate impacts, people are able to feed their families, protect their health, earn a living, and otherwise thrive.  

One promising way of enabling farmers to adapt is to invest in the research and development of seeds and crops that can survive and thrive under drought conditions. These are often called “climate-resilient” varieties. For example, maize (corn) is an important basic food in many countries. The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), headquartered in Mexico, has been studying ways of formulating maize seeds that are climate resilient. As a result of the research, there is now a breed that has produced a harvest of between 5 percent and  25 percent more than standard maize, even under drought conditions.

CIMMYT is one part of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), a global partnership aimed at conducting research for a food-secure future. The goal is to improve basic crops such as maize, wheat, and sorghum, so that smallholder farmers will have more secure livelihoods and their communities’ food systems will be more productive and inclusive.  

Farming has always been an uncertain way of making a living. Even without climate change, so much is beyond human control. The majority of people in many lower-income countries—including the majority of people living with hunger—still work in agriculture. Agricultural insurance is a tool that can help farmers when climate extremes disrupt their crops or livestock. As with other types of insurance, farmers pay premiums, and later their insurance compensates them for climate-related losses. This ensures that farmers are able to keep feeding their families. They are also more likely to have what they need to farm in the next growing season. 

Farming and other human endeavors have changed the landscape of many parts of the world, often in ways that make extreme, highly destructive flooding more likely. For example, in 2022, flooding in the Sindh Province of Pakistan was expected to destroy 80 percent of the rice harvest. 

Deforestation, mainly to expand the land available for cattle ranching, has claimed about 17 percent of the Amazon Rainforest over the past 50 years. Trees and shrubs help prevent flash floods since more rainfall is absorbed into the ground. This is why planting or replanting trees and shrubs and integrating them into farmed lands—known as agroforestry—can help reduce the damage caused by the increased likelihood of flooding.

Climate-resilient agriculture, agricultural insurance, and agroforestry are just a few of many strategies for adapting to climate change that could potentially help smallholder farmers keep producing food for themselves and their communities, despite climate change. 

But all of them require funding, and the world is not doing enough. Only about 1.7 percent of all climate finance goes to help smallholder farmers adapt to climate change. The U.S. and other high-income countries should increase funding for efforts that are so essential to ending hunger.

Jordan Teague Jacobs is co-director, Policy & Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

The post How can smallholder farmers adapt to climate change? appeared first on Bread for the World.

Bread for the World’s new campaign Nourishing Our Future emphasizes preventing and ending hunger among children. It is extremely important to take action to minimize the harm that climate change is currently causing children because, as Bread has pointed out, climate change is a leading cause of global hunger among children and adults alike.

Nearly half of the world’s children live in countries that are at extremely high risk from climate change. Whether climate change takes the form of a sudden disaster (such as a hurricane) or a slow-onset climate shock (such as drought), it affects hundreds of millions of children. It is not difficult to see how, when climate impacts are combined with preexisting social and economic problems, the most vulnerable children can be pushed into deeper hunger, malnutrition, and poverty. 

Losing access to essential resources can easily create a cycle of vulnerability, because these are the things that enable children to build up their resilience and their capacity to adapt to difficult circumstances. As the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) points out, the climate crisis is a children’s rights crisis. UNICEF describes the multitudes of ways the climate crisis can impact children specifically and has created a Children’s Climate Index. Already, for example, the education of an estimated 40 million children is disrupted every year, whether from physical destruction of schools or impassible routes to walk there, or less directly from being forced to drop out of school to earn even minimal extra income to help their families survive because of the impact of climate change. 

The families most at risk of being forced to leave their homes in search of food are those who had the fewest material resources to begin with, especially those whose governments have little capacity to meet their emergency needs.  The quickening pace of climate-induced displacement and migration is because increasing numbers of people are caught in desperate situations with few options. 

Approximately 32 million people were internally displaced by disasters in 2022. In displacement contexts, children are at increased risk of family separation, trauma, loss of access to education, exploitation and abuse, and violence.

Acting to Protect Children

Bread recommends actions that the United States can take to help reduce the toll of climate change on children. Some are included here, while others will be discussed in future articles on child hunger and climate change.

As most people now understand, the U.S. and other top producers of greenhouse gas emissions must reduce them as quickly as possible, reaching net zero emissions by 2050 at the latest. The consequences of not doing so are, in one word, grim. Exactly how climate change will affect migration depends, of course, on the world’s success in reducing emissions, but the U.N. International Organization on Migration (IOM) reports that by 2050, as many as 216 million people could be forcibly displaced within their own countries.  

The U.S. can contribute to closing funding shortfalls for low-income countries. As Bread and many others have argued, the communities suffering the most from climate change are those who have contributed the least to greenhouse gas emissions. A good example is Madagascar, whose 2022 hunger crisis was caused largely by climate change, although its greenhouse gas emissions are less than 0.01 percent—that’s one in 10,000—of the world total.

One fund established recently is the Loss and Damage Fund (LDF). Countries that are eligible to receive resources from the LDF are developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change.

But the needs far outweigh the projected funding available. Climate adaptation includes a wide range of actions taken to build resilience to climate change impacts—for example, using drought-resistant seeds or improving weather advisory systems. The cost estimate to build resilience sufficiently to protect the populations of low-income countries is more than $194 billion annually.

The United States could also facilitate debt relief for low-income countries that urgently need to take climate adaptation measures. Enabling governments to spend more on social safety systems would help build children’s resilience to climate shocks. According to UNICEF’s model, improved health and nutrition services could considerably reduce overall climate risk for 460 million children. 

Isabel Vander Molen is a climate-hunger fellow, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

The post Children Pay the Price of Climate Change  appeared first on Bread for the World.

Conflict is a top cause of global hunger. It embodies a complete failure to build and maintain a civilized society. Not allowing people to starve each other is a bedrock principle of building the collective will to end hunger.  

War is the opposite of what communities need to thrive economically and socially, beginning with its complete lack of regard for human life. Even beyond death, injury, and trauma, armed conflict often means the destruction of crops and stored food, farm equipment, roads, and markets. Many people are forced to flee their homes, and those who remain cannot grow nearly enough food. 

Worst of all, it is increasingly common for armed groups to use hunger as a weapon of war, deliberately cutting communities off from food sources. People are trapped, and hunger, malnutrition, and illness soar.

On August 3, 2023, the UN Security Council held an open debate on conflict-induced food insecurity and famine. In her briefing for participating government leaders, UN Famine Prevention and Response Coordinator Reena Ghelani was straightforward: ending conflict-induced hunger requires, as an absolute minimum, ending the use of starvation as a weapon.

The August 3 event marked five years since the UN Security Council unanimously adopted UN Resolution 2417, which strongly condemns both starving civilians as a method of warfare and denying humanitarian access to civilian populations. 

As Lise Gregoire van Haaren, representing the Netherlands, noted at the time, “For the first time, this Council unequivocally condemns starvation as a method of warfare.” Resolution 2417 recognized the need to break the vicious cycle of conflict and food insecurity and placed the world’s most vulnerable people firmly at the center of the Security Council’s agenda. 

However, it is impossible to ignore the fact that using food as a weapon continues unabated. Does Resolution 2417 have any practical effect, or is it just another document, one of many every year that are passed and then ignored? 

No one would say that it is easy to change global norms surrounding war. Any effort to do so, however modest, runs straight into both the age-old debate over whether people are fundamentally good or evil, and the fact that most societies throughout history have engaged in warfare. Far too often, people act as though they believe that “we” must defeat “them” – in any way possible. Another barrier to improving the treatment of civilians during conflicts is that Resolution 2417 has no enforcement mechanism. 

Still, humanitarian leaders with decades of experience in conflict zones have argued that the very adoption of the resolution is progress. Halting it is a step toward holding warring factions that deliberately starve civilians accountable for their crimes. 

Margot van der Velden, head of the Emergencies Department at the World Food Programme (WFP), said that one key is evidence. The resolution “might not be a silver bullet that changes the whole scenario, but now you have evidence being brought to the Security Council.”

“Evidence is essential to find ways of mitigating and pushing for solutions… because evidence can help drive policy engagement and humanitarian diplomacy.”

At the August 3, 2023, meeting, the Security Council reiterated its commitment to ending conflict-induced hunger. The U.S.-led communique notes that, in 2022, armed conflict was the most significant driver of high levels of acute food insecurity for roughly 117 million people in 19 countries and territories.

Hunger must have political solutions because it is fundamentally a political problem. Examples such as the successful effort to cut extreme poverty in half—a goal reached in 2010—show what humanity can accomplish with the right collective will.   

Not allowing armed groups to starve people with impunity is the embodiment of the concept of “back to basics” in responding to hunger emergencies. 

Michele Learner is managing editor, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

The post Hunger Hotspots: Starvation Must Not Be a Weapon of War  appeared first on Bread for the World.

“Resilience” is both a powerful concept and an increasingly familiar term in international development, where organizations often mention resilience-focused policies, frameworks, and strategies. 

Why build resilience? The goal is, broadly, to enable and equip people, including those in the most marginalized groups of their society, to cope with what the future brings. In practice, building resilience serves to make people less vulnerable to shocks, whether natural disasters, economic recessions, or any of a host of other problems in human life. 

Bread for the World emphasizes that in order to end hunger for good, everyone needs workable ways of feeding themselves and their children when the unexpected becomes reality. Some of these “plan Bs, Cs, and Ds” are individual or family strategies. Examples might be keeping supplies on hand to produce a different food crop if the first one is failing, or developing a skill such as sewing that can supplement one’s income if needed. Other strategies are community-based or nationwide, ranging from neighborhood food pantries and community cooperatives to crop insurance and free school meals. Strategies at both the individual and society levels are needed. 

Government or donor-supported programs to strengthen resilience are usually aimed at people who have few options open to them. They have done little or nothing to generate greenhouse gas emissions or support the rise of armed factions—but this also means that they have little or no power to spur broad, transformative solutions. For families and communities, developing resilience often comes down to making the best possible use of the resources available and trying to find ways of accessing additional resources. 

Resilience may look quite different in different contexts. The most pressing problems and the most promising paths forward may change over time. Global organizations, donor countries, and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) often have specific goals and priorities for their resilience programs. 

The United Nations’ definition strives to be complete. In addition to listing the parties that may be involved and verbs that describe their efforts— “the ability of individuals, households, communities, cities, institutions, systems, and societies to prevent, resist, absorb, adapt, respond, and recover positively, efficiently, and effectively”—the UN definition also names some conditions that define success. These include “when faced with a wide range of risks,” “while maintaining an acceptable level of functioning,” and “without compromising long-term prospects for sustainable development, peace and security, human rights and well-being for all.”

But where does the world stand in building resilience today? Bread has often discussed the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that were adopted in 2015 by nearly every country. Goal 2 is to end hunger as well as malnutrition in all its forms. Efforts to enable people to build resilience embody the key SDG principles of “leave no one behind” and “reach the farthest behind first.” The deadline to meet the goals is 2030. 

But since the SDGs were adopted, the world has seen new armed conflicts break out, more widespread and severe climate change impacts, and a global pandemic that led to a near-complete shutdown of the global economy. Conflict, climate change, and economic shocks are the leading causes of hunger today. The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2023 describes the status of the goals as “Promise in Peril.” If current trends continue, the SDG deadline of 2030 will arrive with more than 600 million people still facing hunger and a similar number, 575 million, still living with extreme poverty. 

At Bread, we believe access to nutritious food with dignity is a human right. The keys to building resilience are effective systems, structures, and policies that affirm equality and advance equity among all people. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) describes what resilience means when applied to food and agriculture . It includes “protecting, restoring, and improving livelihoods systems in the face of threats that impact agriculture, nutrition, food security, and food safety.”

Bread emphasizes the need to incorporate efforts to enable people to build resilience into emergency humanitarian assistance. This is because considering these as part of development assistance, to be added later, can mean neglecting early actions that will help people begin to rebuild their lives a few weeks or months later. Bread also focuses on sustainable solutions that respect the agency of individuals. It is important, for example, that people have what they need to begin or resume growing their own food.

One example applicable to many pastoralist groups in Central and East Africa is the importance of providing “emergency livestock assistance” along with humanitarian assistance. In Kenya, an estimated 1.5 million cows, sheep, and goats died in the latter part of 2021 alone, mainly due to drought. Each is the loss of a valuable resource to a family. It is far more expensive to buy new animals than it is to supply the basic needs of those already there, and it is much harder for a family that has been displaced to start over and rebuild their lives without their animals.

There is much more to say about strengthening resilience—what people in different situations identify as their priorities, what has and has not worked well for different groups who have been facing hunger emergencies, how U.S. and global financial support for “resilience” has been affected by other types of policies, and more. Please stay tuned for discussions of additional key questions. 

Syeda Lamia Hossein is a global hunger fellow, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.   

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Bread for the World has consistently sought to draw attention to the hunger crisis affecting millions of people in Mali and neighboring countries. According to the latest hunger hotspots update from the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Mali and neighboring Burkina Faso are a regional hunger hotspot “of highest concern,” two of five top-priority countries for humanitarian workers for the period November 2023 through April 2024. 

Learning a little more about Mali and its 21 million people can help Bread members and other advocates better understand the factors that endanger the lives of Mali’s people, especially its children. Mali is a landlocked country in Africa’s Sahel region, which stretches across the continent just south of the Sahara Desert. For centuries, the Mali Empire was a key player in trans-Saharan trade. Mali became a French colony late in the 19^th century and won independence from France in 1960. 

Mali’s development has been hindered by colonial rule and then by the military dictatorships that controlled the country for more than three decades after independence. In 1992, Mali held elections and transitioned to a multiparty democratic system. But the past decade has been one of political instability, including three coups in 2012, 2020, and 2021.

A web of interconnected factors has produced a very tense political situation and a continuing hunger crisis. Some of these factors are persistent poverty, corruption, weak government capacity, and natural disaster, particularly drought. Northern Mali borders the Sahara Desert, and with climate change, the pace of the desert’s encroachment into inhabited areas has quickened. Such “desertification” reduces farmers’ and herders’ ability to produce food, leading directly to food shortages.

Armed conflict is a top cause of global hunger, and Mali is among many lower-income countries struggling with ongoing insecurity. Struggles over political power in the capital city, Bamako, play out in violence across the country. Participants in the current fighting include government forces that are controlled by a disorganized military regime, armed separatist factions in the north, intervention by regional non-state actors that cross Mali’s borders, and fighters who are part of an ongoing rebellion.

According to data from the UN International Office on Migration (IOM), more than 375,000 Malian citizens were internally displaced as of April 2023. Humanitarian workers struggle to provide the food, medical care, and other basics people need because of insecurity and restrictions on movement. 

In Mali, an estimated 27 percent of children younger than 5 suffer from chronic malnutrition and/or from stunting–permanent damage to their health and development seen in people who survived severe malnutrition before the age of 2. The Ministry of Health and Social Affairs receives support for nutrition programs from the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, in partnership with WFP, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the World Health Organization (WHO). These programs prioritize the “1,000 Days,” the most critical human nutrition window which lasts from pregnancy to a child’s second birthday. 

These and other nutrition initiatives facilitated by WFP, including delivery of packaged meals, school feeding programs, and cash support, are essential. Their impact could be expanded by supporting community-based humanitarian agencies in producing nutritious local specialties. Local women could also provide substantial assistance to international humanitarian organizations by facilitating food purchases from nearby regions with lower levels of hunger. There is also potential to expand local production of foods—based on corn, wheat, and rice—that are suitable for very young children.

Female-led households are twice as likely to suffer from hunger as those with an adult male present. Women have no choice but to be resilient, innovative, and resourceful since there’s not enough outside humanitarian assistance available. In addition to using their cooking skills and advanced knowledge of locally-sourced foods to feed their own families and manage community gardens and kitchens, women can give even young children essential survival skills such as how to preserve food using drying, fermentation, and underground storage.

Support for women’s leadership in politics and conflict resolution—particularly in groups also attended by men—could help communities use a fresh lens to find holistic solutions. The global community can help by initiating contact with leaders of the many splintered factions, using dialogue not only to emphasize the necessity for peace, but also to acknowledge and begin to understand their problems. 

Sia Gevao is an international hunger intern, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

The post Ongoing Hunger Crisis in Mali: Why is This Happening? appeared first on Bread for the World.

The United States is often called the wealthiest country in the world, yet 13 million children are food insecure. Thirteen million young boys and girls across this country cannot be sure that they will get regular meals, sometimes do not know when or where their next meal will be, and do not have access to an affordable, nutrient-dense diet.

While food may be seen as a given for many well-off Americans, the reality is that it has become harder to obtain for others. Food should not be difficult to access – especially for children. 

Hunger in children and teens in America carries a myriad of consequences. Teachers and administrators have reported that hungry students have less energy in class, are more easily distracted when it comes to schoolwork, score lower on exams, and come to school late or miss school entirely. Researchers have had data that confirms such impacts for at least a decade, and Bread staff has been in communication with pediatricians at Children’s HealthWatch in Boston about the health consequences of child hunger since 2011.

Early childhood hunger, even for relatively brief periods, carries especially severe consequences for children’s development. Especially for those in the critical human nutrition period known as the ”1,000 Days,”  from pregnancy to age 2, hunger can cause devastating damage to the developing brain. Clinically diagnosed stunting is rare in the U.S. This is a condition that includes lifelong health problems and developmental delays. It indicates that a person has survived early childhood malnutrition. 

Researchers are learning more all the time about the impacts of early life experiences. For example, there is now a list of “Adverse Childhood Experiences” (ACE) which, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), can have a “tremendous impact” on lifelong health and opportunity. 

The most heartbreaking consequence of all is not even listed among the serious physical and mental consequences associated with hunger, but something even greater: childhood hunger strips away dreams, hopes, and futures. The U.S. is known as a country where dreams become reality, where you can achieve anything you set your mind to, and where children are told they can grow up to become presidents, astronauts, and anything else they can think of. 

Hunger can not only affect your physical and mental health, but also make it harder for you to dream of the future. As a country, and as individual parents, teachers, mentors, elected leaders, and people of faith, we must respond to childhood hunger for the emergency it is. 

As Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) put it in his support for the Universal School Meals Program Act of 2023: “No child in America should be hungry – period, end of story. In the richest country in the history of the world, every child that does not have enough to eat is a policy failure and a moral outrage. We have a responsibility not just to teach kids reading and math, but to ensure they have healthy, nutritious food at school.”

It is good news that there are currently initiatives and legislative proposals aimed at ending child hunger in the U.S. Many Bread members have devoted special time and effort to advocating passage of the Universal School Meals Program Act.

This vital piece of legislation offers a permanent solution to ending child hunger in America “by offering free breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack to all students, preschool through high school, regardless of income, eliminating all school meal debt, and strengthening local economies by incentivizing local food procurement.” The bill was introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), along with Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM), and in the House by Representatives Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Gwen Moore (D-WI) and Jim McGovern.

The Universal School Meals Program Act is a more comprehensive, permanent long-term version of the highly successful free school meals program that Congress approved during the COVID-19 pandemic. The initial program, which provided free school meals to all U.S. students through high school, led to significant positive outcomes, including higher rates of participation in school meals, reduced levels of perceived stigma affecting lower-income students, and an end to school meal debt. 

Unfortunately, the program was temporary. It expired in September 2022, leaving millions of children who relied on free meals under strain and uncertainty.

The Universal School Meals Program Act will not only bring unprecedented relief to low-income students, but to all schoolchildren. This new act imagines a country where food is freely given to children at school, and no child enrolled in an American school goes hungry. The act provides for not only free food, but free healthy, nutritious food that provides the diet needed for children to thrive.

The evidence that this approach works includes data from the nine U.S. states that already provide free school meals. California led the way and was followed by Maine, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Massachusetts, New Mexico, and Vermont. A number of other states are planning to take steps in school year 2024-2025 that will bring them closer to universal school meals.

Teachers are noticing the difference. Just one example: Lowell Elementary in Albuquerque, New Mexico, has reported a significant decrease in hunger-related issues for several of their students who “used to suffer stomach cramps or would feel dizzy because they didn’t have enough to eat.” Albuquerque Public Schools have also seen “an immediate increase in participation. And in the first seven days of the school year that started this month, the numbers increased by 1,000 per day for breakfast and lunch.”  

It is very good news that the leaders of nine states are now ensuring that children in their states get enough to eat.  But we cannot stop there. It is time for Congress to finally end child hunger with universal free school meals.

Izzy Koo is an intern on U.S. and global hunger issues, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

The post Ending Child Hunger in America through the Universal School Meals Act appeared first on Bread for the World.

Another article in this hunger hotspots series discusses the impossible decisions necessitated by this year’s significant shortfalls in humanitarian funding.

The most recent Hunger Hotspots outlook, prepared by the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), is for the period November 2023 through April 2024. 

The hunger hotspots designated as “of highest concern” currently are South Sudan, Sudan, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Palestine. In all five countries, urgent humanitarian action is critical to prevent additional starvation deaths.

You can read more about South Sudan and Sudan in the Hunger Hotspots series.

In the Sahel regional hunger hotspot, which includes Burkina Faso and Mali, more than 45,000 people are already facing famine, while millions of others are on the verge of famine. Violent conflict is driving acute hunger and malnutrition in both countries. Between July 2023 and September 2023, 22 percent of all conflict-related deaths worldwide were in the Sahel region.

Palestine was added to this list after conflict escalated sharply in October 2023. Ongoing hostilities in the Gaza Strip are expected to further exacerbate the already urgent and severe humanitarian needs of the population. As in Sudan, there is potential for the conflict to widen and affect others in the surrounding region. 

Another group of eight countries that are currently considered hunger hotspots “of very high concern” includes Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen. They are described as countries that have both at least half a million people on the verge of famine, and “critical deteriorating conditions.” Because conditions are expected to worsen over the next several months, urgent action is needed to prevent hundreds of thousands of people from suffering extreme hunger in situations that are life-threatening.

Conditions in Haiti illustrate what humanitarian agencies mean by a hunger hotspot “of very high concern.” Rising levels of violence and insecurity and a protracted economic crisis, combined with poor harvests and the potential impact of hurricanes, make it likely that already critical levels of acute food insecurity will worsen. Between March 2024 and June 2024, it is expected that an an estimated 1.4 million people in Haiti will be living on the verge of famine. In some parts of the country, 30 percent of the population is severely malnourished. 

Along with five hunger hotspots of highest concern and eight hunger hotspots of very high concern, the following five regions or countries complete the list of 18 hunger hotspots:  Central America (Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua), Central Sahel (Niger and Chad), Djibouti, Malawi, and Zimbabwe. 

The WFP/FAO update notes that high levels of acute food insecurity impact not only the hunger hotspots but a number of additional countries. Earlier hunger hotspot reports also mention acute hunger situations apart from those on the list of hunger hotspots. But the new update includes, in its list of countries that are not currently hunger hotspots, yet “also require monitoring,” several that had been hunger hotspots recently. 

The “to be monitored” list is composed of the Cox’s Bazaar area of Bangladesh, Myanmar, Colombia, Venezuela, Timor-Leste, Lebanon, Nigeria, and Uganda. 

The main distinction between this group and the current hunger hotspots, the report explains, is that hunger and malnutrition in the countries in this group do not appear to be rapidly worsening. It is the hunger hotspots that are expected to suffer significant deterioration in food security conditions this coming winter and spring. Moreover, the report data makes it clear that when a country is no longer considered a current hunger hotspot, this does not necessarily mean that the hunger crisis is “over” or even improving.   

It is not hopeful that people in so many countries are trapped in hunger and malnutrition crises. Still, solving a problem is not possible without an understanding of its extent and causes, and Bread for the World remains steadfast in our advocacy for policies that will end hunger—for everyone, leaving no one behind.  

Michele Learner is managing editor, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World. 

The post Hunger Hotspots: There Is Not Enough to Go Around appeared first on Bread for the World.

Similar to the agenda at COP27 last year, there will be a Food, Agriculture, and Water Day on December 10. This and other thematic days are meant to unite COP participants around solutions to the climate crisis. We expect and pray that the negotiations that day will focus on solutions to the global food crisis, which continues to worsen in 2023. Negotiations would include solving problems in the areas of nutrition, water management, conservation methods in agriculture, climate-smart agriculture, and food waste.

COP28 will also feature the first “Global Stocktake” moment, a chance for the global community to assess progress—or lack thereof—toward meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement of 2015. A Global Goal on Adaptation to reduce communities’ vulnerability to climate change was established as part of the Paris Agreement, and this year is a significant turning point for progress toward this goal because 2023 is the halfway point. After the information and analysis presented at COP28, we will have a better understanding of progress on global adaptation to the impacts of climate change, as well as the gaps that need to be filled.

Another significant step forward expected at COP28 will be concrete recommendations and plans for implementing the Loss and Damage Fund that participants agreed to during last year’s negotiations. A “transitional committee,” comprised of high-income and lower-income countries and including the United States, has been working for the past year to develop these recommendations and plans.

The Loss and Damage Fund is meant to assist lower-income countries in responding to climate change-induced losses and damage to their people’s lives and livelihoods as well as to their infrastructure and natural resources. This fund is one part of a comprehensive approach to addressing climate change. The other two pieces of the puzzle are mitigation (efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions) and adaptation (efforts to adjust to the impacts that climate change is already having). Loss and damage financing is needed when mitigation and adaptation efforts fail, or as is more often the case right now, the response is too little, too late.

This all matters because climate change makes our aim of ending hunger virtually impossible. Small family farmers produce a third of the world’s food, yet they are uniquely vulnerable to shifts in climate. Climate impacts can force people, including farm families, to move from their homes and communities, disrupting their livelihoods and food security. By 2050, more than 140 million people in lower-income countries may be displaced by the impacts of climate change. This figure does not include communities in our own country, such as entire Indigenous Alaskan villages being forced to relocate due to erosion and permafrost melting.

COP28 must make progress on addressing climate change and helping countries adapt. The end of hunger depends on it.

Jordan Teague Jacobs is co-director, Policy & Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

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Bread for the World attributes this significant rise, in part, to the end of pandemic assistance programs including the expanded Child Tax Credit and increased SNAP and WIC access and benefits. Inflation and rising food prices are also contributing factors.

The following statement can be attributed to Rev. Eugene Cho, president and CEO of Bread for the World:  

“As many of us in the anti-hunger community anticipated, the end of pandemic assistance programs coincided with a significant rise in food insecurity in the U.S. Programs such as the expanded Child Tax Credit, and increased access to SNAP and WIC, have again been proven to reduce hunger – especially among families with children.

“Now that Congress is poised to focus on the FY 2024 budget following the election of House Speaker Mike Johnson, Bread urges lawmakers to take these lessons to heart and support programs like the expanded CTC, SNAP, and WIC, which help families experiencing hunger.

“We know how to reduce hunger in the U.S. What’s needed is the collective will to do it.”

———————-

According to the report, in 2022:

• In the U.S., 44.2 million people lived in food-insecure households compared to roughly 34 million in 2021.
• 11.7 million adults lived in households with very low food security.
• 7.3 million children lived in food-insecure households in which children, along with adults, were food insecure.
• 783,000 children lived in households in which one or more child experienced very low food security.

Bread for the World is a Christian advocacy organization urging U.S. decision makers to do all they can to pursue a world without hunger

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The update describes conditions in Yemen and other countries most severely impacted by hunger in grim terms: large numbers of people are facing starvation, are projected to face starvation, or are confronting critical food insecurity in a context of aggravating factors that are likely to worsen situations that are already life-threatening. Communities trapped in such emergencies are urgently in need of help to prevent additional deaths and relieve suffering.

Nearly 17 million people in Yemen—53 percent of the entire population—need lifesaving humanitarian assistance. Of these, 6.1 million people are on the verge of famine. Only South Sudan and Syria have higher percentages of the population in need.

According to the WFP/FAO humanitarian update, “Acute food insecurity will remain at critical levels amid elevated fuel and food prices and an anticipated funding shortfall.”

The 2023 Humanitarian Response Plan for Yemen calls for $2.2 billion for food security and agriculture and $398 million for nutrition programs. But WFP reported in August 2023 that its needs-based plan for the six-month period October 2023 through March 2024 is only 15 percent funded.  

As a result of this resource shortfall, most of WFP’s Prevention of Acute Malnutrition program has been suspended since August 2023. The program serves 2.4 million young children and pregnant or lactating women and girls across the country. The financial crunch comes at a time when WFP staff are reporting an increasing number of patients admitted to clinics with severe and moderate acute malnutrition.

A disproportionate number of those who die from causes related to hunger and malnutrition are very young children. According to Doctors Without Borders (known by its French acronym, MSF), acute malnutrition is the main cause of death among children under 5 in Yemen. In August 2023, MSF reported that 2.2 million Yemeni children were suffering from acute malnutrition, citing data from the World Food Programme.

What are the causes of the humanitarian emergency?

The key drivers of hunger and malnutrition in Yemen are conflict and economic crisis.

Yemen has endured civil war since late in 2014. Soon thereafter, neighboring countries began to support one side or the other. Saudi Arabia has been conducting airstrikes for years in Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is another nation that has intervened.

The war has disrupted agricultural production since its beginning. Conflict has exacerbated the impact of food shortages during the so-called “lean season,” when food from one harvest has been consumed but the next harvest is not yet ready.

A truce was in effect from April 2022 through early October 2022. Outbreaks of violence have become less frequent since then, although the truce itself expired a year ago.

Still, the war has not ended. There were clashes between factions in March 2023, and efforts to negotiate a formal ceasefire continue. The latest humanitarian update indicates that access constraints caused by the conflict “remain a key impediment to humanitarian operations” and “the security situation remains highly volatile.”

A “protracted emergency”

Perhaps the saddest part of the almost unimaginable humanitarian tragedy in Yemen is that people are trapped in a so-called protracted emergency. We tend to assume that an “emergency” has an ending point. There is an urgent problem, but solutions are identified and implemented, and then conditions improve. The situation may return to normal, or it may be a “new normal,” but it is no longer an emergency. A protracted emergency, however, does not stabilize—people simply continue to endure emergency conditions.

The war and humanitarian crisis in Yemen are now almost a decade old. Increasingly around the world, conflicts and the hunger emergencies they create do not end with a formal agreement or peace treaty. Rather, countries or regions remain in some form of limbo, often for years.

Each conflict and its aftermath (or purported aftermath) has unique features. Civilians in one country may remain vulnerable to attacks by armed groups, whether these are rebel or separatist factions or just gangs. The continuing violence interferes with farmers’ ability to produce food. Another country may be largely peaceful, yet still have outbreaks of what some may call “contained” violence, meaning that they subside without major casualties rather than ignite a larger conflict.

It is difficult for any country emerging from conflict to rebuild its physical infrastructure and its economy. This is even harder when people cannot be confident that the conflict is over.

Since the war in Yemen began in 2014, Bread has worked to draw attention to the horrific conditions facing civilians and to recommend how the United States can help. In 2019, for example, Bread organized a letter signed by 100 faith organizations from all 50 states that called on the U.S. government to promote peace rather than supply arms to combatants.

Michele Learner is managing editor, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

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The proof is apparent via some depressing news, unfortunately. In 2022, the Census report shows, the child poverty rate more than doubled, rising to 12.4 percent, compared to 5.2 percent in 2021. The increase in child poverty was caused mostly by the expiration of improvements to the Child Tax Credit made in 2021 in the American Rescue Plan. As many of our supporters know Bread for the World has been a persistent advocate for these improvements.

Between July and December of 2021, the Child Tax Credit increased from a maximum of $2,000 per child to $3,600 for children under age six, and to $3,000 for children between ages six and 17. Moreover, the credit was restructured to be delivered in monthly installments, rather than a lump sum payment during tax season: $300 per month to the families with children under age 6 and $250 to those with children 6 to 17. Hard to overstate this improvement to what resulted in similar dramatic progress against child hunger in 2021. 

But the most important improvement of all was that the credit was made refundable, allowing it to become available to millions of families who previously earned too little income to qualify. It meant some 18 million children were newly eligible for the full tax credit, including 40 percent of all Black and Latino children, nearly half of all children in single-parent households, and more than one-third of rural children.

As a result of these changes, the Child Tax Credit became a form of universal basic income. You can call it anything you want; universal basic income is simply a recurrent payment—often delivered monthly—and is available to all members of a community with no work requirements or other conditions imposed on the recipients. That’s worth noting because work requirements became the main sticking point in negotiations to extend the improvements to Child Tax Credit beyond 2021.

Hence, it was a short-lived experiment, lasting only six months during the second half of 2021, but it led to an unprecedented reduction in child poverty and child hunger. And then it ended. What members of Congress giveth in 2021, they voted to taketh away in 2022—not all of them, but a majority was all it took to undo. Those 18 million children who benefited in 2021 were no longer eligible for the full tax credit in 2022. 

The postmortems following release of the report emphasized how policies can make a difference in achieving progress against poverty and other hardships. In an op-ed published by Religion News Service, David Beckmann, Bread for the World’s president emeritus, lays this out as well as anybody has. 

Another outcome revealed by the Census report also merits attention. It used to seem axiomatic to call “a job” the best anti-poverty program. (We don’t want to understate the value of steady employment. Earnings make up most of household resources, including for families that are in poverty). Jobs remain necessary to escaping poverty, but they clearly are not always sufficient—and haven’t been for some time. No year tests that theory better than 2022, when the unemployment rate was near historically low levels. Yes, inflation took a bite out of paychecks, but wages were rising for workers at the bottom of the income ladder faster than for workers on rungs higher up. 

It is sad that policymakers for whom work requirements dominate their thinking about addressing child poverty won’t do more to improve jobs for parents who clearly want to provide for their kids. Here are a few examples of policy inaction: The federal minimum wage hasn’t received a raise since 2009, childcare policy lags behind other wealthy countries, and there remains no federal law guaranteeing a right to paid family and medical leave. There are many others, but those alone are enough for an evidence-based indictment of inaction.

So then, it’s not just that policies matter in addressing child poverty. It’s a very particular policy: a form of universal basic income delivered through the Child Tax Credit. 

Public outrage over harmful government actions has a fleeting half-life. The best time to make an issue of the harm done to children by reversing improvements made to the Child Tax Credit is now.

Todd Post is senior domestic policy advisor, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

The post The Best Anti-Poverty Program: Give Them Money appeared first on Bread for the World.

“Highest concern” means that a large number of people are facing starvation, are projected to face starvation, or are already contending with critical food insecurity levels along with aggravating factors expected to further worsen life-threatening conditions.

In Afghanistan, 15.3 million people, 35 percent of the population, face acute food insecurity. Among them are 2.8 million people on the verge of famine, who need help urgently to prevent additional deaths and relieve suffering.

Between November 2022 and April 2023, more than 3.2 million children and 804,000 pregnant or lactating women were acutely malnourished. Almost every province had a rate of global acute malnutrition higher than 10 percent, the emergency threshold established by the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR).  If this threshold is reached, it is essential to take prompt action both to treat children suffering from malnutrition and to prevent others from becoming malnourished.

According to WFP and FAO, the 2023 humanitarian budget for Afghanistan is $287 million for nutrition support and $2.7 billion for food security and livelihoods. But this budget has not been fully funded.

As a result, funding shortfalls beginning in April 2023 have forced WFP to cut 10 million people from its nutrition support programs. Only about a fifth of those in need are now receiving assistance. WFP Afghanistan country director Hsiao-Wei Lee said that with already very high levels of hunger and malnutrition, “We are obliged to choose between the hungry and the starving, leaving millions of families scrambling for their next meal.”

Why is this happening?

According to Yasmin Faruki, senior policy advisor at Mercy Corps, Afghanistan’s humanitarian emergency is primarily an economic crisis. Afghanistan has long been a low-income country. During the armed conflicts that have raged for much of the past 50 years, economic development was stalled and sometimes reversed by loss of life and destruction of infrastructure.  More recently, Afghanistan, like most countries, has faced high food and fuel prices, inflation, and supply chain problems. Some of these economic problems are caused by the ongoing consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while others are primarily due to the global pandemic and its aftermath.

In 2021, the collapse of the Afghan government enabled the Taliban, an unelected force that is not recognized by the international community, to seize power. This caused most global donors to impose sanctions and/or cut off their assistance. Much of the country’s budget came from foreign assistance, so the abrupt withdrawal of financial support had a devastating impact.

Climate change also contributes to hunger in Afghanistan by causing more frequent, and more severe, natural disasters. A 5.9 magnitude earthquake in June 2022, for example, added more than 300,000 people to the number of Afghans in need of humanitarian assistance. Prolonged drought in 2022 damaged or destroyed crops as well as grazing pasture for livestock. Bread for the World continues to emphasize that effective climate action is essential to ending hunger.

Even setting aside the funding shortfalls for a moment, donors and humanitarian workers face an ongoing dilemma because of policies enacted by the country’s rulers. Sweeping human rights abuses include continued refusal to allow girls to attend school beyond the elementary grades and a near-total ban on paid employment for women. This leaves many women, particularly those without husbands, with no means of supporting themselves and their children.

Most recently, the Taliban has refused to allow humanitarian organizations, including U.N. agencies, to employ female staff. This decree erects a barrier to reaching women and children in urgent need of nutritional support and medical care. Women often cannot leave their homes in search of essential items or health care, and male aid workers and healthcare providers are not able to meet with them freely. As the update by WFP/FAO notes, “The ban on women’s participation in the humanitarian response poses a huge challenge to the delivery of quality humanitarian assistance.”

It is important to note that unless gender equity is promptly restored, Afghanistan faces a future of continued hunger and malnutrition. The absence of half the workforce prevents the economy from growing and, ultimately, making it possible for people to afford the food they need. Denial of gender equity inflicts long-term economic damage: as professionals who were educated under previous governments retire, there will not be enough younger people with the skills and experience needed to take their places, fulfilling essential roles such as educators and healthcare providers.

Michele Learner is managing editor, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

The post Hunger Hotspots: Funding Shortfalls Are Costing Lives in Afghanistan appeared first on Bread for the World.

Haiti is among the hunger hotspots designated “of highest concern” for the period June 2023 through November 2023. In Haiti and other hunger hotspots at the most severe level, large numbers of people are facing starvation, are projected to face starvation, or are confronting critical food insecurity in the context of aggravating factors that are likely to worsen already life-threatening situations.

People trapped in these emergencies are urgently in need of help from humanitarian organizations and the global community at large to prevent additional deaths and relieve suffering. A disproportionate number of those who die from hunger-related causes are very young children.

In addition to Haiti, the most critical hunger hotspots are Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Sudan, and the Sahel, a regional hotspot that includes Burkina Faso and Mali.

Haiti’s current situation:

• An estimated 4.9 million people need humanitarian assistance. Of these, 1.8 million are on the verge of famine.
• More than 259,000 children need nutritional support.
• The 2023 humanitarian response plan includes a global appeal for $420 million for food security and $31.7 million for nutrition interventions.
• Humanitarian workers are implementing a range of lifesaving activities once they reach affected communities. Examples include treating acute malnutrition; setting up systems to detect malnutrition in children at earlier, more easily treatable stages; providing seeds and fertilizers for urban community gardens; and introducing drought-tolerant crop varieties.

The most immediate key drivers of Haiti’s hunger emergency are organized violence, economic deterioration, reduced rainfall, and hurricanes. An understanding of how colonialism and subsequent historical inequities contributed to today’s circumstances must be part of any lasting solution.

• Longstanding political turmoil has worsened since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021.
• Gang violence continues to increase. It is a significant cause of hunger as armed groups fight for control of territory
• The WFP/FAO update describes the situation in stark terms: such disputes are “likely to expand … The associated violence is expected to disrupt market supplies, access to markets, basic services, and humanitarian assistance, while triggering new displacements.”
• The report continues, “Agricultural activities will also be affected by the presence of armed groups, increasing farmers’ difficulties in producing and selling crops.”
• Haiti’s geographical location makes it more prone to natural disasters, chiefly earthquakes and hurricanes. The most recent major earthquake, in August 2021, caused thousands of deaths, destroyed at least 130,000 homes along with schools and clinics, and put more than a million people in need of access to food, clean water, and shelter.
• The country’s most devastating earthquake of modern times, in January 2010, killed at least 220,000 people, and impacted up to 3 million more. The country continues to struggle to recover and rebuild.
• Climate change has exacerbated already challenging weather, and Haiti is generally at or near the top of the list of countries most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
• Below‑average rainfall and higher-than-average temperatures may affect the maize and bean crops usually planted during the second rainy season of the year.
• The Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused siginficant increases in the prices of basic foods in Haiti and other importing countries, increasing the number of families who cannot afford to buy enough food.

Bread for the World’s Connection to Hunger Hotspots:

Bread’s ongoing advocacy for robust humanitarian food and nutrition assistance is essential to an effective response to the hunger crisis in Haiti. Bread for the World members are longtime faithful advocates for people in hunger emergencies. Last year, for example, members helped to win much-needed additional humanitarian funding. This is part of Bread’s efforts to persuade Congress to allocate funds that save lives, prevent irreparable harm from early childhood malnutrition, and ease suffering. Bread members also champion U.S. development assistance, which helps prevent hunger emergencies by enabling and equipping people to build resilient communities.

Michele Learner is managing editor, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

The post Hunger Hotspots: “Highest Concern” Countries Include Haiti appeared first on Bread for the World.

Bread for the World recognizes the role of climate change as a top cause of global hunger through impacts such as more frequent and prolonged droughts and floods; reduced food quantity and nutrient quality; and a loss of livelihoods that forces people to abandon their homes. Confronting climate change is essential to ending hunger in Africa since farming employs about half of sub-Saharan Africa’s workforce, and parts of the continent, particularly the Sahel countries just south of the Sahara, are among the world’s most vulnerable areas to climate change and hunger. 

The inaugural Africa Climate Summit, held September 4-6, 2023, in Nairobi, Kenya, set out to draw attention and attract international investment to African climate solutions and innovations. During the summit, stakeholders from the United States, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Germany joined other governments in announcing commitments to invest in new climate programs. The United States announced that it would provide an additional $20 million to the African Adaptation Initiative (AAI) Food Security Accelerator, which is intended to increase private sector investments in food security innovations. The Nairobi Declaration presented Africa’s common positions and calls to action in the lead-up to COP 28 in late 2023.

At the same time as its accomplishments have been noted, the Summit has also received criticism for problems with equity and ownership. At the conclusion of their side event held during the Climate Summit, interfaith leaders from across Africa released an Africa Climate Summit Statement of Faith in response to the Nairobi Declaration. The Faith Statement highlighted issues that faith leaders believed had not been sufficiently addressed, among them equity in financing for climate adaptation and food security in Africa. 

According to faith leaders, despite the large numbers of farmers and farm laborers in Africa and the ongoing threat to food security posed by climate change, there was minimal discussion of these issues in the Nairobi Declaration. The language in the Nairobi Declaration on climate change solutions related to food and agriculture lacked specificity. In response, the faith group called for African leaders to  “prioritize climate change coping strategies featured in various agricultural methods such as agroecology, conservation, and adaptive agriculture.”  Prominent faith-based organizations such as Tearfund, Christian Aid, and ClimateYES joined in support of the urgent need to promote food sovereignty and ensure that agricultural policies prioritize local communities and environments to make Africa more resilient to climate shocks and resulting hunger crises. 

The faith leaders stated that global north leaders should “move past announcements to delivery on commitments made.” Notably, there are previous climate finance commitments to developing countries that have not been met. These include European and U.S. commitments to mobilize $100 billion annually to fight climate change as well as lagging U.S. investments in the Green Climate Fund.

Equitable funding and local leadership in inclusive efforts are both essential for true collaboration with African communities to end hunger. Funding commitments for agriculture and climate resilience, such as the investment in the AAI Food Security Accelerator announced by the United States, must be honored.  Further, including the voices of the African faith community is critical for just, equitable, and sustainable development, because these leaders align with and represent local communities.  

African organizations, both faith-based and secular, are demanding to be more involved in international climate change talks. For example, an Africa People’s March after the Climate Summit brought together more than 500 local civil society organizations and was joined by the faith leaders who had convened during the Summit. The march was held to protest the insufficiency of the climate solutions discussed at the Climate Summit. 

The legacy of colonialism, racism, and unjust global financial structures continues to hinder efforts to end hunger and enable communities to adapt to climate change. During the faith leaders’ meeting, Ezekiel Lesmore from the All Africa Conference of Churches argued that climate change issues shouldn’t be politicized or reduced to economic justifications; instead, they must be treated seriously, as a matter of life and death. 

Bread continues to advocate for holistic hunger solutions and equitable climate finance for countries facing hunger and climate change crises. The recent Faith Leaders’ Summit in Nairobi exemplifies the role faith groups are playing as representatives of local communities in international discussions of climate change and hunger. At the same time, governments and other global actors need to consciously include faith groups in such discussions. 

In the words of the Faith Statement released at the conclusion of the Africa Climate Summit, thoughtful adoption of such principles will help ensure that we can together “have the power to restore what has been destroyed” and “heal what has been wounded.”

Isabel Vander Molen is the Climate Hunger Fellow, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) began to measure food security in 1996. Before that, anti-hunger advocates had only a rough proxy—data on poverty from the U.S. Census Bureau. In most years, hunger rates do track closely with poverty rates, but there are times when they do not. 

Access to data on food security has been an improvement since it includes information at the household level about people’s access to food each month.   

In 2022, USDA announced that it would begin to track nutrition security alongside food security. What is nutrition security, and how does it differ from food security? 

Food security itself is a formal term for what most people might call having enough money for food or not going hungry. By definition, all members of a food secure household, at all times, have enough food for an active, healthy life. This is not just any food—it is nutritionally adequate food that is safe to eat and has been obtained in a socially acceptable way.

 Nutrition security includes the elements of food security plus access to foods that prevent disease and, if needed, treat disease. Disease associated with poor dietary quality—including high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease—is the leading cause of premature death in the United States. Altogether, disease associated with poor diet consumes almost 20 percent of all healthcare spending.

The announcement that USDA is beginning to track nutrition security alongside food security has been welcomed by many healthcare professionals, especially those who treat the consequences of poor diets. Much of the damage to human health of a poor diet is caused by lack of access to foods that promote good health, often due to lack of resources. Diet-related diseases are more prevalent in low-income communities. There are fewer healthy food choices, and to stretch every food dollar as far as possible, families often resort to purchasing less healthy or unhealthy foods.

While USDA had previously paid some attention to nutrition security, the 2022 announcement signaled its intention to update the way it evaluates nutrition programs’ effectiveness. 

The largest of these programs is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP. 

In July, Sen. Corey Booker (D-NJ) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) introduced the SNAP Nutrition Security Act of 2023, which calls for:

• Measuring and reporting annually on nutrition security and diet quality, as USDA currently does for food security. 
• Adding reporting on food and nutrition security to annual state SNAP-Ed reports. 
• Collecting and reporting every four years on national and state SNAP sales data. Data will be collected in the aggregate and the privacy of SNAP shoppers and retailers will be protected.
• Adding improving nutrition security and diet quality to Congress’s declaration of policy, or congressional rationale, for SNAP.

The bill is not universally popular among anti-hunger advocates. The main concern is that it could open the door to limiting the food choices of SNAP participants. SNAP, unlike other federal nutrition programs, does not prohibit the purchase of ultra-processed foods or foods with no nutritional value. 

Some advocates, mindful of the need to protect the freedom of SNAP participants to make their own food purchase decisions just like everyone else, argue that tracking nutritional security could help make the case for restrictions. The bill does not contain proposed restrictions on purchases, nor does it state that restricting SNAP-approved foods is a goal. But uncertainty about policymakers’ intentions could be a valid concern. 

Yet everyone, especially SNAP participants, could potentially benefit from insights into nutrition security. For example, the additional knowledge could help improve the U.S. food system. The information may not come as welcome news to everyone, but diet-related disease is a significant problem leading people to premature death, and information is needed to understand and solve it. 

This article began by pointing out that the United States did not measure food security until 1996. Data on poverty was an imprecise proxy. There is no proxy at all for nutrition security, so collecting more information is an important step toward developing new strategies to protect our population’s health.  

Todd Post is senior domestic policy advisor, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

The post A Step Forward on Nutrition Security appeared first on Bread for the World.

The NSLP is second only to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in the number of people it serves. In 2022, the program provided healthy meals to 30 million children, two-thirds of them free or at a reduced price. 

Children are eligible for free school meals if they live in households with incomes of 130 percent of the federal poverty level or less. In 2023, this means a family of three that earns $29,940 a year or less. Children in households that earn between 130 percent and 185 percent of the poverty level are eligible for reduced-price meals.

The NSLP was established in 1946, making it the longest continually operating federal nutrition program. It has always had a rationale based in national security concerns. More than one-third of potential Army recruits for World War II were rejected because they had health problems associated with poor nutrition. As the U.S. military shifted its focus from winning World War II to waging the so-called Cold War against the Soviet Union, civilian and military leaders became increasingly alarmed about poor nutrition among children and teens. 

Military leaders continue to support the school lunch program wholeheartedly as a vital component of national security. The NSLP provides most children, especially those growing up in low-income families, with some of the healthiest food they are likely to eat on a given day. 

The COVID-19 global pandemic meant that the U.S. government needed to respond to the population’s needs in new ways. For two school years, all children, regardless of family income, were eligible for free meals at participating schools. This was a radical change: before the pandemic, universal free school lunch and breakfast were not White House or congressional priorities. 

It was a blow when, before the start of the 2022-2023 school year, Congress allowed universal access to free school meals to expire, which Bread and other advocacy organizations fought to prevent. Since then, policymakers in several states have worked to establish universal access. At this writing, seven states have enacted legislation that provides free meals for all students: California, Maine, Colorado, Minnesota, New Mexico, Vermont, and Michigan. Several others are making progress towards such legislation. 

Children in other states, however, are being left out. Making school meals available to all children is the original objective of NSLP and the School Breakfast Program. U.S. taxpayers fund school meal programs, and it is the responsibility of the federal government to ensure that all children have equitable access to them.

The next best thing to universal school meals is a policy known as the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP). This allows schools with 40 percent or more of their students eligible for federal nutrition assistance to offer free meals to all their students, and more than 82 percent of the eligible schools did so during the 2022-2023 school year. 

The 40 percent eligibility threshold is too high, however. Reducing it would enable the community eligibility provision to benefit more children. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has proposed lowering the minimum percentage of eligible students to 25 percent. Bread for the World, noting USDA’s definition of a “high poverty” area as one where 20 percent or more of the households have incomes below the poverty line, suggests reducing the percentage to be consistent with the rate the agency considers high poverty in similar contexts.

Congress could take up this question of expanding which children are impacted by living in high poverty areas in the next Child Nutrition Reauthorization (CNR). The community eligibility provision was itself new in the most recent CNR, which made other major improvements as well. However, the most recent reauthorization was in 2010, meaning that a renewal—with opportunities to include policy improvements in all child nutrition programs —was due in 2015. The start of a new school year is a good time to point out that Congress is eight years late, and counting, to reauthorize child nutrition.

The COVID-19 pandemic spurred another transformational change that benefited the country’s low-income children. In 2021, an expansion of the Child Tax Credit (CTC) had an unprecedented impact: child poverty dropped by 30 percent. CTC expansion no doubt contributed to sizeable reductions in child hunger as well.

Despite this remarkable progress—and to the astonishment of many anti-hunger advocates who have been working toward significant steps forward such as this—Congress let the CTC expansion expire after six months. We will know more about the impacts of this decision on children and families later this year when USDA publishes Household Food Security in the United States in 2022. 

Todd Post is senior domestic policy advisor, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

This article appears in the August 2023 edition of Bread for the World’s Institute Insights newsletter. Institute Insights provides an in-depth look at the causes of hunger and malnutrition and offers potential solutions to address them. Click here to sign up for the monthly Institute Insights newsletter.

The post Free Lunch at School: A Win for the United States and Its Children appeared first on Bread for the World.

Humanitarian assistance providers such as the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) were among the many members of the global community, regional organizations such as the African Union, and other groups who expressed alarm at the outbreak of armed conflict in Khartoum, the capital city of Sudan, on April 15, 2023. 

This is because what happens in Sudan has implications for the entire region.  Sudan shares borders with seven countries: Libya and Egypt in North Africa, Ethiopia and Eritrea in the Horn of Africa, South Sudan in East Africa, and Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR) in Central Africa. Both the regional economic impacts and the potential for the conflict to spread beyond Sudan’s borders are significant.

Before the war in Sudan broke out, hunger and malnutrition were already at very high levels in most of these countries. All except Libya and Egypt have been designated by the United Nations as “low-income countries confronting severe structural impediments to sustainable development.” Special development assistance and trade support is reserved for the 46 countries in this group.  

In the projections of the global humanitarian community for June through November 2023, four of the eight countries are among the 18 identified hunger hotspots. Sudan and South Sudan are “at the highest level of concern,” while Ethiopia and CAR are also of high concern. According to the World Food Programme, more than 19 million people, about 40 percent of the Sudanese population, are at risk of slipping into hunger in the next few months. 

Before the war broke out, Sudan was hosting more than 1 million refugees, mainly from South Sudan (800,000) and Eritrea (135,000), but also including many people from Ethiopia, the Central African Republic, and Syria. 

On August 2, 2023, humanitarian agencies said that the estimated number of recently displaced people has topped 3 million. More than 1 million additional people, about two-thirds of them Sudanese, are refugees outside Sudan.

The sudden presence of hundreds of thousands of new arrivals, many of whom have only the possessions they could carry, would create humanitarian challenges for most countries. Levels of acute food insecurity are high among both refugees and residents of Sudan’s neighboring countries. Rapid changes in the composition of local communities in a context of extremely scarce resources also raise the risk of political tension and possibly violence. 

The political implications of the war in Sudan—like the politics of the region more generally—are complex. Because colonialism created national borders that were often arbitrary, the country where people hold citizenship may be less important to them than ties based on ethnicity or a common language. Many people, including national elites, have extended family on the other side of a border. For example, leaders of one of the warring factions in Sudan are related to politically powerful figures in Chad. 

The economic impacts of the war are particularly dire in Chad and South Sudan. Both countries are landlocked and heavily reliant on Sudan’s ports for access to essential supplies, including humanitarian assistance. 

Helga Dickow, a specialist in ethnic and religious conflict at the University of Freiberg, Germany, said in June 2023 that the war in Sudan might ”bring the already weak Chadian economy to a standstill.” 

The country is no longer able to access export markets for its few non-oil exports—cotton and livestock. It must import most goods, including raw materials and food. 

The prices of goods and services in Chad rose by up to 70 percent in the first month of the war. A pre-existing fuel shortage meant that fuel prices soared even higher, rising by as much as 300 percent by June 2023. 

USAID Administrator Samantha Power visited Chad in mid-May 2023 and met with recently arrived Sudanese refugees as well as government and aid officials. She announced an additional $17 million in humanitarian aid.  

Raouf Mazou, Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said that in the first month after hostilities broke out, an unexpectedly high number of refugees from Sudan—about 90,000—arrived in Chad. “It is 90 percent women and children arriving and in very, very difficult conditions.

“Adding another 100,000 refugees in a very poor part of the country is going to be extremely difficult. But what has to be underlined is … the extraordinary solidarity and generosity of people who have very little and yet are prepared to welcome people who are fleeing danger and provide them with the little that they can. So that solidarity is essential.”

Michele Learner is managing editor, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

The post Hunger Hotspots: The Impacts of War on Neighboring Countries appeared first on Bread for the World.

August 19 is also a celebration of the courage and resilience of people trying to survive a war or rebuild their lives after a natural disaster as well as those who risk their own safety to help them. Each year, WHD focuses on a theme to bring together communities to advocate for the well-being of people affected by crises and for the safety of aid workers. This year’s theme is “It takes a village.”

Through the biblical story of the Samaritan, we learn that mercy, compassion, generosity, and hospitality can restore the human dignity of an anonymous girl, boy, woman, or man abandoned at the side of the road and urgently in need of help. WHD celebrates today’s Samaritans—people around the world who sacrifice time with their loved ones and often put their lives at risk to bring lifesaving assistance and hope to people who are suffering. 

Bread members’ commitment to act, pray, and give helps ensure the passage of U.S. policies and programs aimed at ending hunger. Bread supports measures that enable people living with hunger and humanitarian workers to continue to look ahead and see a path to food security, dignity, and peace.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) manages the events around World Humanitarian Day, which was established to commemorate the 22 humanitarian workers killed in an attack in Iraq on August 19, 2003. Among the dead was Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq.

Humanitarian work remains dangerous. Several factors contribute to the higher death and injury tolls among aid workers that we see today. The first is a matter of numbers: more armed conflict around the world has led to record numbers of people who need assistance. This, in turn, puts more humanitarian workers in the field, often in isolated areas. Second, armed groups often splinter into smaller and smaller factions, each of which poses a threat to civilians and aid workers. 

Third, there is growing disregard for international humanitarian law and principles. Historically, humanitarian organizations have been seen as neutral parties that should be respected because they are there to help people regardless of “whose side they’re on.” Today, sometimes the reverse seems to be true: hospitals and food distribution sites are targets, seen as enabling the enemy to continue fighting.  

Attacks on aid workers in 2021 (the most recent data available) were deadlier than in any year since 2013: 141 reported fatalities. In addition, 203 humanitarian workers were wounded and 117 were kidnapped. South Sudan remained the most violent context for aid workers, followed by Afghanistan, Syria, Ethiopia, and Mali. In April 2023, several aid workers were killed in the first month of the war in Sudan, including three WFP employees on the second day of the conflict. 

Humanitarian assistance groups reported that fighting erupted in Sudan’s capital city, Khartoum, on April 15, 2023. Armed conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces quickly spread across the country. Nearly a million people were displaced in just the first month of the war–730,000 people within the Sudan and more than 200,000 in neighboring countries. By August 2, displaced people and refugees exceeded 3 million.

Through an ongoing breakfast briefing series at Bread, we have been listening, learning, and lifting up the voices of humanitarian workers and the people they serve in hunger hotspots such as Haiti, Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, Honduras, and Mali. As we have heard, humanitarian workers in-country are faced with challenges that include resource constraints, risks to their personal safety, and the emotional toll of witnessing widespread human suffering. 

We hope to continue to lift up voices from the 18 current hunger hotspots, which include 22 countries. Their stories inspire Bread members and coalition partners to continue our advocacy for policies, such as those in the U.S. farm bill, that will save lives and help people rebuild their communities.

Learn more about how all people can celebrate World Humanitarian Day 2023—before, on, and after August 19—on the campaign’s website. Materials include suggested actions, updates, and more.  

Abiola Afolayan is co-director, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

The post World Humanitarian Day Celebrates Samaritans Around the Globe appeared first on Bread for the World.

Los discípulos obedecieron las instrucciones de Jesús. Trajeron lo que tenían, y Jesús se encargó del resto. La tarea de poner fin al hambre parece más desafiante que alimentar a 5,000 hombres, sin contar mujeres y niños, con solo 5 panes y dos peces. Nos cuestionamos si nuestras voces serán suficientes. La respuesta es afirmativa. Podemos actuar con fe y confiar en que Dios completará la obra.

Oremos.

Dios de abundancia,

Nos resulta complicado confiar

en que baste actuar con fe,

como Tú nos invitas a hacerlo.

Te imploramos que actúes a través de nosotros

para levantar un mundo libre de hambre.

Te lo rogamos en el nombre de Jesús,

Amén.

The post Milagro de los Cinco Panes y Dos Peces appeared first on Bread for the World.

This month, we think back to the March on Washington, which occurred 60 years ago this August, along with some other significant Pan African moments from 1963. Tradition suggests that the diamond is the symbol for 60^th anniversaries, which causes us to reflect on the Greek root of diamond—adamas, meaning unconquerable and enduring. 

The epigraph from Deuteronomy suggests that remembrances of generations past can provide lessons for our todays and tomorrows about being unconquerable and enduring. 

We draw one such lesson from the story of Moses and the deliverance of the Israelite people from bondage. It is a story about newfound freedom and discovering a new way to live. This was not an easy task. This was illustrated when they were hungry in the wilderness after their release: 

In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in Egypt!” (Exodus 16:2-3)

And God heard their plea and provided food for the people to eat. 

This biblical text of God’s faithfulness to the Israelite people comes to mind during this month of Black August. This is a time for recognizing the enduring faithfulness of Pan African peoples in their resilient advocacy.  

This year’s Black August includes a remembrance of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington. A commemorative event will take place at the Lincoln Memorial on August 26. 

August 31 will be another date to commemorate, as it marks the third International Day of People of African Descent. That date will be complemented with recommendations from the United Nations 2^nd Permanent Forum of People of African Descent. 

On August 29 Bread will have a hybrid event to celebrate and commemorate both of these significant dates.

We will also be thinking about two 60^th anniversaries from earlier this year. May 25, 1963, marked the founding of the Organization of African Unity, now called the African Union. And the All Africa Conference of Churches held its first assembly on April 20, 1963 in Kampala, Uganda. 

Bread for the World has partnered with these Pan African partners and continues to do so with its mission and vision to end hunger and to address the wealth and income racial equity gap. 

In this moment, Bread believes the reauthorization of the farm bill is a policy that addresses equity, nutrition, and sustainable life—vital issues for Black August.

Pan African communities can and will continue to speak out, advocate, and show their historic resilience and resolve to address these issues from a faith perspective. Bread celebrates Pan African leadership as we partner to end hunger. 

Please visit www.bread.org/offering-letters/ to learn more about the farm bill and to advocate for it. 

Angelique Walker-Smith is senior associate for Pan African and Orthodox Church engagement at Bread for the World.

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The 2023 SOFI report embodies Bread’s values of human flourishing across the globe as it provides insights on how policy makers should invest in local agrifood systems. This global call to action is very timely in light of the suspension of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey to help move grain, fertilizer, and other important staples out of Ukraine and Russia. Bread addressed the impact of the initiative when the first ship carrying Ukrainian grain departed from the port city of Odesa following Russia’s invasion. 

According to the SOFI report, global hunger is still higher than it was before the pandemic. In 2022, 2.4 billion people did not have access to nutritious, safe, and sufficient food all year round. Additionally, 148 million children under age five were stunted, 45 million suffered from wasting, and 37 million were overweight. Stunting and wasting were higher in rural areas, while overweight children were more prevalent in urban areas.

The 2023 SOFI report is themed “Urbanization, Agrifood Systems Transformation and Healthy Diets Across the Rural-Urban Continuum.” Agrifood systems involve transforming food systems for sustainability and inclusivity, through a holistic approach involving stakeholders and activities related to the production, processing, distribution, consumption, and disposal of food products.

As the SOFI report theme suggests, an evaluation of food security in urban parts of the world should be a global priority. According to experts, bold, targeted actions to build resilience against food insecurity in rural communities is important. However, policy makers should also pay close attention to important trends such as urbanization, the affordability of healthy diets, and implications for food security and nutrition, which have not been fully explored in past SOFI reports. 

According to experts, by 2050, almost seven in ten people are projected to live in cities. Considering urbanization will shape and transform the needs in agrifood systems, policy makers are urged to address global food security through a rural–urban continuum lens as opposed to a rural-urban divide lens. This policy approach includes and anticipates various activities from farm to fork, including but not limited to food production, food processing and distribution, marketing and procurement, and consumer behavior in both rural and urban communities. 

Due to population growth, small and intermediate cities and rural towns are increasingly bridging the space between rural areas and large cities. The 2023 SOFI policy recommendations are geared at preparing and empowering countries on proposed programs, investments, technologies, and actions that can be effective and innovative for meeting the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 (zero hunger) targets in both urban and in rural communities. 

Abiola Afolayan is co-director, Policy and Research Institute, at Bread for the World.

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It is becoming increasingly clear to national governments, civil society organizations, and—most importantly—those experiencing hunger and poverty that today’s global financial system is not working. The system should help resolve the root causes of food insecurity and improve the lives of people who face hunger and malnutrition. Since both of these are essential parts of Bread for the World’s mission of ending hunger, Bread members have been drawing the attention of other stakeholders to the evidence that the system needs to be improved, which includes rising hunger, extreme poverty, and debt distress. 

The Summit for a New Global Financing Pact, held last month in Paris, aimed to identify reforms to the global financial system to make it a larger part of the solution. This entails providing better support to countries most affected by today’s humanitarian crises and stalled economic development.

Recognizing and naming the financial system’s failures are essential to improving it. Compared to anti-hunger advocates’ hopes, however, the summit’s immediate outcomes were a mixed bag.  

In one of Ajay Banga’s first public appearances as the new president of the World Bank Group, he announced a new toolkit to support countries in recovering from natural disasters. Among the new elements is a program to pause debt repayments to the World Bank for low-income countries that experience crises or catastrophes. 

The United States joined others in calling on additional creditors to offer a similar payment suspension plan by 2025. Former Malawian president Joyce Banda pointed out that significant debt means countries often cannot invest in their own food systems or poverty alleviation. Initiatives like suspending debt-service payments will help countries focus on the needs of their citizens in crisis rather than paying interest to their creditors.

Important progress was made at the Summit on debt relief for low-income countries. Three years after defaulting on its debt, Zambia reached a debt relief deal with its creditors. This will allow the country to receive additional financing to support its economic recovery from the pandemic and provide its citizens with critical basic services. It also serves as a sign that other indebted countries can make progress on debt relief.

Despite these positive steps, the Summit offered little detail on other critical issues in the global financing system—most importantly, on providing additional grants or low-cost financing for countries to adapt to climate change and pursue other development goals like ending hunger. Little progress was made on the earlier pledge to double financing for climate adaptation in low-income countries by 2025. 

Disappointingly, only three heads of state from Europe and none from North America attended a Summit that was intended to advance solidarity between the Global North and the Global South. In contrast, 37 heads of state from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean were among the 300 governments, international institutions, and civil society organizations represented. 

Real solutions to the aspects of global structures, forces, and attitudes that keep hundreds of millions of people living with needless hunger, malnutrition, and extreme poverty will require leadership and commitment at the highest levels of the global community. We must change how the global community treats “have-nots.” We can’t afford not to.

Jordan Teague Jacobs is co-director, Policy & Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

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As a pastor, Robinson views climate change through the lens of creation care. Creation care—stewardship of God’s creation—is an integral part of Christian discipleship, and climate change is a quintessential failure to fulfill stewardship responsibilities. 

The ever-worsening devastation caused by climate change has made it one of the top causes of global hunger (another is conflict). Reversing the spike in global hunger of the past several years, particularly since 2020, will require slowing climate change and enabling people to adapt to its impacts. 

Not long after she was installed as pastor at Audubon Park Church in 2013, Robinson was invited to participate in Bread for the World’s Hunger Justice Leaders Program. She was already a rising star in the Evangelical Covenant Church. The Hunger Justice Leaders Program was established to cultivate young anti-hunger leaders from around the nation. Robinson is among the many Hunger Justice Leaders “alumni” who have stayed involved with Bread as committed anti-hunger advocates in their communities.

Living in Florida, Robinson has been witnessing firsthand the accelerating effects of climate change and the resulting consequences for food security in her community. Audubon Park Church has established a vegetable garden on its property, which enables it to provide healthy foods to households in the community who struggle to afford enough on their own. Both globally and locally, the people who have the least access to healthy food are also the people who are first to suffer from the impacts of climate change. 

From her earliest involvement with Bread, Robinson has been encouraging the organization to highlight the impact of climate change on hunger. She is delighted to see Bread doing that in the 2023 Offering of Letters campaign on the farm bill, which is up for another five-year reauthorization by Congress. Bread is championing policies that would reduce food loss and waste in the U.S. food system. This is an important part of farm bill advocacy – not only because food that goes to waste contributes significantly to climate change, but also because much of the food that would otherwise be lost can be rescued by hunger relief organizations and distributed to families that are struggling to put food on the table. 

In October 2022, Bread for the World invited Robinson to participate in a Convocation on Climate and Hunger in Nairobi, Kenya. The convocation included Christian leaders from Africa, Europe, and North America. Robinson helped to write the statement that summed up the commitment made by participants in the Convocation. 

“As Christians,” the statement reads, “we share a fierce resolve to stand and work together to end the hunger crisis made worse by climate instability, to renew God’s creation, and to bring our planet into balance, forming a beloved community in which all of creation can thrive.”

Todd Post is senior domestic policy advisor, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

The post Pastor Sarah Robinson: A Faithful Voice on Climate Change and Hunger appeared first on Bread for the World.

Some of the pieces discuss conditions in individual “hunger hotspots,” whether these are countries or regions. Others examine the role of significant causes of hunger crises, including armed conflict and climate change. Still other Hunger Hotspots articles identify themes, such as special needs populations like pregnant women and babies; the impact of aid shortfalls; and U.S. efforts to ensure that national and local governments, nongovernmental organizations, and humanitarian workers who are trying to reach those in greatest need have the resources they need.

The series also updates our readers on which countries and regions are currently considered hunger hotspots and which of these are of particular concern to humanitarian workers. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) jointly produce a periodic “early warning” report that includes updates on conditions in affected countries and regions; data, trends, and projections for the next several months based on this information; and most importantly, recommendations for next steps—top priority emergency actions to respond to affected communities. 

The most recent edition of FAO-WFP Early Warnings on Acute Food Insecurity covers June through November 2023. The report designates the most urgent hunger hotspots as countries or regions “of highest concern.” The populations in these areas either are already facing starvation, are projected to do so soon, or are at a critical level of food insecurity and face severe aggravating factors. Livelihoods have collapsed and many of the young children suffer from Severe Acute Malnutrition, a life-threatening condition.

For all countries and regions of highest concern, immediate humanitarian assistance is critical to saving lives and preventing communities from spiraling into ever-deeper levels of death and destruction. There are now eight such hotspots—nine countries in all—reflecting an overall worsening of the global hunger crisis: Afghanistan, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, and Yemen, all of which have been in this worst-case scenario since at least February 2023, along with Haiti, the Sahel region (Burkina Faso and Mali), and the Sudan.

A second group is composed of seven hunger hotspots that are “of high concern,” but not currently of highest concern. Each of these has both a large number of people facing critical acute food insecurity, and factors that contribute significantly to hunger and are expected to “further intensify life-threatening conditions in the coming months.” The countries of high concern are Pakistan, the Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria, and Myanmar.

There are five other countries that are considered hunger hotspots but are not currently in the groups of highest or high concern: Malawi, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Lebanon.

Bread for the World members are longtime faithful advocates for people in hunger emergencies. Bread urges Congress to allocate funds that save lives, prevent irreparable harm from early childhood malnutrition, and ease suffering. Bread members also champion U.S. development assistance, which helps prevent hunger emergencies by enabling and equipping people to build resilient communities.

The post Hunger Hotspots: Outlook Through November 2023 appeared first on Bread for the World.

Through our Hunger Hotspots series, Bread for the World focuses attention on the global hunger and malnutrition crisis—the countries that are most severely affected, the main causes of emergencies, and how we as anti-hunger advocates can help persuade the U.S. government to support the lifesaving assistance that is needed in emergency situations.

Bread notes that in 2022, donor governments around the world allocated record levels of funding to the World Food Programme (WFP), the largest global humanitarian organization. This funding saved lives and helped ensure a healthy future for young children. The problem is that the needs have grown even more.

The United States is critically important to ensuring that emergency humanitarian assistance—food, clean water, and basic medical care—is available to people in need. In fact, in 2022, the U.S. government contributed more than $7.2 billion to the World Food Programme (WFP). That is almost half of WFP’s 2021 budget of $14.8 billion. This significant increase and the innumerable lives saved were possible because Congress recognized the spike in humanitarian needs and approved supplemental funding.

This year, WFP needs to increase its resources. Its plan to supply food for 150 million people carries a cost of about $23 billion. In several countries, providers of WFP emergency assistance have already reported that a shortage of resources has forced them to make decisions that change the lives of millions of desperate people—impossible decisions. Which countries, communities, families, and individual children will have the food they need? Which will receive some food, but not enough? Which must be told—by representatives of humanitarian organizations whose mission is to save lives—that there is not enough to go around, that the international community cannot help them?

The agency, led since early April 2023 by new executive director Cindy McCain, reduced staff and operating costs as its first effort to make ends meet. But soaring global needs, combined with inflation, more than offset the cost savings these measures achieved. In every world region, WFP has had to cut its distribution of food and money to buy food. Each month, some groups in the population of people in need are given smaller rations than the month before, while still others must be notified that they are no longer eligible for assistance.

WFP is almost completely reliant on funding from donor governments, but it is working to diversify its funding sources. Potential contributors include wealthy nations that are not yet donors, regional nongovernmental organizations, the private sector, individuals in donor countries, and the governments of countries newer to supporting humanitarian assistance. For example, a May 2023 High-Level Pledging Event on the Humanitarian Response in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia included pledges from regional organizations such as Islamic Relief and the governments of South Korea and the Czech Republic.

Bread for the World emphasizes that emergency assistance is essential but not enough to end hunger. Resolving the root causes—for example, armed conflict or gender inequities—must be a priority as well. WFP executive director Cindy McCain said, “If we can prepare at-risk communities to handle future climate shocks, they won’t need emergency support the next time there’s a drought or flood.”

Recent examples show that initiatives that enable people to prepare in advance are effective. In 2022, Niger was in its worst hunger crisis in 10 years. But because WFP had previously implemented programs to build resilience in some of the hardest-hit areas, 80 percent of the villages in highly affected areas did not require humanitarian assistance.

Michele Learner is managing editor, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

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UNHCR’s mandate is to provide aid and protection to people seeking refuge, including those who have been forcibly displaced, and to people who are stateless. People become refugees for a variety of reasons, such as climate catastrophes, conflict, and human rights violations. UNHCR is often responsible for establishing refugee camps where people live for months or years. Humanitarian organizations such as the World Food Programme (WFP) and local nongovernmental organizations have limited resources to provide much-needed food assistance for millions of people.

Bread for the World members work steadfastly to persuade our elected representatives in Congress to allocate funding that saves lives and eases suffering. This includes emergency humanitarian assistance for refugees, displaced people, and other survivors of natural disasters or conflict.

This year, Bread’s advocacy focuses on the U.S. farm bill, including the Food for Peace provisions to provide refugee assistance that is distributed through WFP and other food security organizations. The farm bill is reauthorized every five years, and Congress is currently debating provisions of the 2023 renewal.

Refugees and displaced people confront innumerable risks to their physical and psychological health. These may stem from the sometimes traumatic circumstances under which people flee their homes, often with only the belongings they can carry; from the hardships of traveling long distances, often on foot with little food or water; from anxiety about an unknown future where they may have little or no agency; from exhaustion; from grief from losing loved ones to violence, accidents, or sickness; or from many other factors. UNHCR points out that women bear particularly heavy burdens, with responsibility for feeding and protecting their children, usually without the networks of family and community that used to support them. They may be malnourished and/or pregnant, and many live with the ever-present fear of sexual assault.  

Yet every day of living is a testament to the resilience of refugees across the globe. We may not know their names, but many have dreams and aspirations not just to survive, but to flourish. An example is the story of a Sudanese woman who had just graduated with a degree in education and psychology when she was forced to flee her country.

In reports of interviews conducted by UNHCR for its Midyear Trends 2022, we learn that she now teaches children in refugee camps in eastern Chad. “I thank God that I was able to graduate despite all the hardships I went through. But I wish I had the chance to continue with my masters and doctorate,” she said.

World Refugee Day, observed every year on June 20, was established to lift up refugees around the globe, celebrating the mental and physical strength and courage of people who have been forced to flee their homes. We are invited to put ourselves in their place, to empathize with those who have been torn from their communities, their homes, and often their loved ones. World Refugee Day challenges us to find light and hope in their resilience, and to find motivation to work for change in their resolve to rebuild their lives.

Bread members can do our part by making the case and mobilizing the necessary political will to convince decision-makers to support refugees’ rights and allocate resources to meet their needs. Supporting these aims within Food for Peace in the farm bill is an important way to celebrate World Refugee Day.

Abiola Afolayan is co-director, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

The post World Refugee Day: A Reflection on Hunger, Displacement, and Their Physical and Mental Toll appeared first on Bread for the World.

With that vision for a nation of well-nourished people, the Secretary kicked off remarks and answered questions from the audience about the importance of making permanent summer EBT, helping farmers address climate-related challenges, and making sure that everyone who is qualified for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is able to access it. His remarks were reinforced by an understanding that these policies are about people. About community. That policy matters because each of us matters, and the way we can build better communities is through better policy.

Secretary Vilsack was born into a Catholic orphanage. He said that no matter how alone he might have been – he never was really alone. He was always fed. And that mattered.  

The sense of gratitude that the Secretary conveyed for that childhood experience was noticed by the audience, most of whom are people of faith who came to Washington, DC, from districts and states whose national elected representatives sit on one of the six congressional committees central to hunger and food policies most active in Congress right now.

The audience included members of Bread’s grassroots Farm Bill Leadership team, advocates who contributed to listening sessions to develop Bread’s farm bill policy platform last year, board of director members, and Bread members and supporters – all people who are deeply engaged and committed to advocacy to end hunger.

On Monday afternoon, attendees learned about specific policies that Bread is advocating for in this year’s farm bill conversations. Congressman Don Davis (NC-1), vice ranking member on the House Committee on Agriculture (and a minister), spoke to the group about racial equity in U.S. farming. A couple of two-person panels – each with one policy expert and one community practitioner – shared perspectives on the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP) and nutrition assistance in Puerto Rico.

After morning briefings about food insecurity in Black and Brown Communities, participants in invitation-only events – the Pan-African Convening and Latino Consultation – met with Congressman Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08), Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, and Assistant Democratic Leader James Clyburn (DC-06). The next day, Bread held a congressional briefing featuring Congressswoman Jenniffer González-Colon, Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico, speaking about NAP to SNAP in Puerto Rico.

These political and policy briefings – in addition to legislative advocacy briefings led by Bread’s Government Relations and Organizing and Faith Engagement teams – informed the group in advance of Lobby Day. Bread anti-hunger advocates met with 171 members of Congress from 34 states and 104 congressional districts to advocate for hunger-centric laws and policies in the farm bill that would move our nation and world closer to the end of hunger.

Heading into these meetings, advocates were prepared not only with personal experience, foundation in policy, and thoughtful meeting agendas – they were also equipped with inspiration from the Word. Summit attendees were led in worship over the two days by Rev. Dr. Heber Brown, III, head of the Black Church Food Security Network; Pastor Lori Tapia, National Pastor for Hispanic Ministries for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ); Rev. Nancy Neal, Bread Minister for Spiritual Formation and Wellness; and Min. Heather Taylor, Bread Managing Director.

Rev. Brown rallied advocates on Tuesday morning, before heading to the Hill, with a reminder that prayer is not only an action of the mind; but it is also with our actions in the world. If prayer is action, and action is prayer, then what these advocates did on Capitol Hill that day in June was prayer, raised in collective voice, to end hunger.

Again and again the message was repeated: there is power in perseverance. It was spoken by Secretary Vilsack, who talked about the long-term work of nutrition in improving a nation; by Pastor Tapia who reminded us to not grow weary in doing good; and by Bread president/CEO Rev. Eugene Cho, who reminded the audience of the five years of dedicated Bread and partner advocacy on global nutrition that led to passage of the Global Malnutrition Prevention and Treatment Act.

“Perseverance means you show up. You’re present. You’re persistent. You have a goal in mind,” Rev. Cho told the audience in his opening remarks on the first day of the Advocacy Summit. “Persistence is possible because we know that God is alive. And that God calls us to seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly. We know that justice isn’t a clothing accessory we wear when it’s fashionable but because, as Isaiah 61:8 declares, ‘I, the Lord, love justice.’” Rev. Cho said that in today’s cultural landscape of a short news cycle, ever moving from one thing to another, one event to another, one news item to another… we must choose to be persistent. It is not something that happens without intention. But when we make that choice, great things can happen.

It is heartening that so many anti-hunger advocates have made that choice, and in June came together to share their witness and desire for a world without hunger with our nation’s leaders. Pictures from the event are available here.

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During my school visit in early June, Ms. Abotsi told me that the school has 368 students, ages 3-13. The youngest were starting to be dismissed for lunch as we talked, so I followed them to the front of the lunch line. It was Monday, and the children looked forward to their favorite meal – rice and stew made with tomatoes and small fish. For some, this followed a breakfast eaten at home or brought to school. Others likely were receiving their first meal of the day.

Two cooks, Beatrice and Kaecsie, had arrived at 8 a.m. to make lunch over a wood fire. Using a long-handled wooden tool, one of them bent over the fire and stirred the stew. Then sitting in front of the storage building, they ladled food into bowls brought by the students. Only a few children had spoons so most ate by scooping the mixture with their fingers. They talked and ran about the schoolyard, playing and eating at the same time. Before returning to class, they rinsed their dishes under the spigot of a large jug, and some children scooped water in their hands for a quick drink.

Each day has its own menu. The week starts with rice and stew, then beans on Tuesday followed the next day with banku, an okra stew with ground nuts or palm nuts. Rice and beans are served on Thursday and the week ends with mashed yam and stew.

Beatrice and Kaecsie said the government pays for the food and all children are allowed to eat, but sometimes the food runs short. Knowing which students are without food at home, they often give children money from their own meager resources to buy food after school. I told them it’s the same in the United States and we commiserated together about hungry children.

This was my second visit to Kpenoe, after being introduced to Ghana in 2002. Two decades ago, I saw signs of malnourishment and illness among the children. The next generation looks much healthier. I believe that part of this change is the launch of the Ghana School Feeding Program in 2005.

In partnership with local NGO 4-H Ghana, on behalf of Bread for the World, I convened a meeting of regional and local leaders to consider ways to supplement the lunches locally. Rejoice Adzagbo, regional coordinator, reported that the meals program has increased school attendance, improved students’ nutrition, and supported local farmers. Others noted that the country is feeling the pressure of inflation on food costs, making the meals more difficult to sustain at a quality level. Everyone present agreed to begin a 4-H school gardening program in Kpenoe, which will enable the local community to supplement the school lunches with vegetables. A 4-H garden can become a point of community pride and it can serve as a model for other villages in Ghana’s Volta Region.

Ghana’s School Feeding Program is considered a successful model. Partners like the World Food Programme are monitoring and evaluating it to help make the program as effective as possible. Bread for the World’s work to influence support for nutrition programs in the farm bill will help villages like Kpenoe succeed in supporting children’s health and education, and in presenting schools as new markets for smallholder farmers.

Kpenoe is one example of the importance of Bread’s focus on the farm bill this year. Having played with the children, watched the cooks serve lunch to them, and heard from local leaders, I saw how our advocacy at Bread results in significant change for families and communities.

Sandy Lindahl is a donor representative at Bread for the World

The post A Kitchen that Produces Far More than Lunch appeared first on Bread for the World.

The gala was co-emceed by Bread President and CEO Rev. Eugene Cho and Managing Director Min. Heather Taylor. Governor David Beasley, former executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme, gave the keynote speech, delivering inspiring remarks and reminding guests to take advantage of their Power of Perseverance, this year’s theme. He encouraged attendees to be a match of light and hope that shines around the world in the face of hunger.  

U.S. Representative Marc Molinaro (R-NY), who serves on the House Committee on Agriculture, joined the gala virtually and provided remarks on top Bread priorities including the Farm Bill and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Bread presented its 2023 Reverend Art Simon Award for Faithful Service to End Hunger to another Bread member and supporter, Chang Park. The award is given to members and supporters who have demonstrated years of commitment to Bread in the areas of leadership, fundraising, and activism. In his remarks, Mr. Park stated, “We need Bread for the World for the poor and hungry people in this country and abroad. And we need Bread to reduce people’s suffering and give them hope and help them fulfill their full potential.” 

For the second year, the gala highlighted the important work of key partners during the Impactful Partner Spotlight. This year’s spotlight highlighted Islamic Relief USA (IRUSA). IRSUSA has long been a key partner in our advocacy towards a world without hunger and recently joined Bread in co-hosting An Interfaith Voice on Hunger: the 2023 Farm Bill event and our reception for the White House Hunger Conference.

Long-time Gala to End Hunger host committee member Adele Cahill provided remarks about the history of the gala in celebration of the event’s 20th anniversary. She mentioned several notable speakers from years past including former Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin, Dr. and First Lady Jill Biden, and then-Vice President Joe Biden. Joe Martingale, who was also one of the original organizers of the gala as well as the recipient of the 2022 Rev. Art Simon Award for Faithful Service to End Hunger, led us in prayer.

For those who attended the Gala – thank you! Your financial support allows us to continue our faithful advocacy towards a world without hunger. If you weren’t at the Gala, you can still donate to Bread for the World and Bread for the World Institute!

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The event, “Keeping the Faith: Bipartisan Commitment for a 2023 Farm Bill,” featured Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and John Boozman (R-AR), the Chairwoman and Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. 

In welcoming remarks, Bread president and CEO Rev. Eugene Cho proclaimed, “it is an honor to be among this group of people who all share a similar passion – ensuring America’s food and farm policies help everyone in our country thrive, especially people who are experiencing hunger.” 

Rev. Cho continued, “We can acknowledge the intense polarization of our times, and at the same time acknowledge that this event and every leader here are hopeful reminders that we can work together toward the common good.”   

More than 200 faith leaders, advocates, and community members attended, as did Senate Agriculture Committee member Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH).

Chairwoman Stabenow and Ranking Member Boozman, and Senate Agriculture Committee member Senator Mike Braun (R-IN), gave remarks about their intent and hope for a bipartisan farm bill and shared their personal connections to the legislation.

Following the event, Ranking Member Boozman shared, “The faith community’s advocacy for a bipartisan approach to the farm bill is so important as we move forward in the process. As I noted in my remarks, the world needs givers. The room was full of givers that night and it was very inspirational to be surrounded by them. I count on their continued engagement as we all work together to get the farm bill across the finish line.” 

In addition to Sens. Stabenow, Boozman, and Braun, other speakers included U.S. Senate Chaplain Barry C. Black, who led the opening prayer; Bishop Elizabeth Eaton, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA); Bishop James B. Walker, a Bread board member and presiding bishop of the Seventh Episcopal District of the Christian Methodist Episcopal (CME) Church; Rev. David Beckmann, Bread president emeritus and Circle of Protection co-chair; and, Min. Heather Taylor, managing director of Bread.  

Bread for the World is honored to have co-hosted the event with The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, the National Association of Evangelicals, Catholic Charities USA, Latino Christian National Network, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Sojourners, and the Circle of Protection.

For more information about the farm bill and how you can help, visit Bread’s Offering of Letters webpage at bread.org/ol.  

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“Bread for the World is opposed to any proposal in the ongoing debt ceiling negotiations that would expand work requirements for SNAP or make policy changes to other federal nutrition programs with the intended effect of removing people from these programs.”

Proposals being considered would increase the age people are required to work to receive SNAP benefits to 55 and tighten work requirements for families receiving TANF. Studies show that work requirements do not increase employment rates or income, and taking away nutrition assistance makes it harder for people to secure employment.

“While we support the dignity of work, removing individuals and families from nutrition programs at a time when food prices in the U.S. remain at an all-time high and food banks and pantries are struggling to keep up with record demand, including demand from some working adults, would only serve to increase hunger and hardship.  

“Bread believes that preventing a default on our federal debt is vital to preventing a hunger crisis. One in four Americans participates in a federal nutrition program such as SNAP, WIC, or school meals – those benefits would come to an end if the U.S. were to default. The Social Security checks for 67 million seniors and people with disabilities would be delayed or simply not issued.

“We urge the White House and Congress to come to a bipartisan debt ceiling agreement that does not expand work requirements for SNAP and make adverse changes to other nutrition assistance programs.

“’If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any of your towns within the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor.’ Deuteronomy 15:7 (NRSVUE).”

Bread for the World is a Christian advocacy organization urging U.S. decision makers to do all they can to pursue a world without hunger

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The U.S. farm bill, which is reauthorized every five years, plays an influential role in federal food and agricultural policy. Bread for the World members are working to secure improvements as Congress drafts the 2023 farm bill. The current farm bill expires September 30, 2023.

Increasing access to healthy food is key to ending hunger and poor nutrition. One way to do this in the farm bill is to strengthen the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP).

Many people are familiar with SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. As the country’s first line of defense against hunger, SNAP helps an average of more than 40 million Americans put food on the table each month. GusNIP’s Nutrition Incentive Grants enable people who participate in SNAP to receive an additional monthly benefit amount specifically to buy fruits and vegetables. 

Bread advocates for the elimination of the GusNIP match requirement, under which recipients of GusNIP Nutrition Incentive Grants must raise 50 percent of program costs themselves. The match requirement means that grantees often cannot afford to expand and provide equitable access to fruits and vegetables to people in rural areas.  

In Alabama, Auburn University’s Hunger Solutions Institute (HSI) has a three-year GusNIP Nutrition Incentive Grant. HSI is working to scale up its program to include more small independent grocers in rural areas. Dr. Kara Newby, HSI’s Outreach Project Administrator, explained, “Our farmers’ markets tend to be in, for the most part, large cities or suburbs, so adding grocers is really important, especially smaller rural grocers.” 

HSI needs more funding to expand and reach more people. A larger GusNIP grant would prompt a larger match requirement, however, and there is no more room in the organization’s budget to meet the match. Newby said, “The biggest limiting factor for us is the match [requirement]… We’ve got people wanting to join our program, but we just don’t have any more money.” 

HSI uses its GusNIP grant to run Double Up Food Bucks (DUFB) Alabama, which operates in seven farmers markets and three grocery stores statewide. SNAP participants who are customers receive vouchers or tokens for up to $10 in “double-up food bucks,” which can be used to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables. 

Both farmers markets and grocery stores are important to GusNIP’s efforts to improve people’s access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Alexis Clark, the City Venues Operations Manager for the city of Tuscaloosa, explained that GusNIP funds, made available through the DUFB program, attract more SNAP participants to the Tuscaloosa River Market, and also benefit farmers. “We have some people who come back every week and … we have others who learn about it for the first time and are just tickled,” she said. For example, once the DUFB program became involved, Hale Farms’ revenue from SNAP benefits rose from $500 annually to about $1,700. 

But SNAP participants spend a large proportion of their grocery money at grocery stores. Although a lower percentage of the extra money for nutritious foods is redeemed at grocery stores than at farmers markets, expanding GusNIP’s nutrition incentives to additional grocery stores is more expensive than adding more farmers markets. When money ran out before the end of the grant year, the program was able to serve fewer people overall, and it halted expanding into grocery stores for a time. 

The match requirement adds to budget uncertainties for businesses like the Tuscaloosa River Market. Finances, and therefore services, are not always stable from year to year. In its first year, the market ran out of funds provided through GusNIP before it was eligible to request more. Clark describes the impact: “We had to go about a month and a half without any funds and our poor customers were so sad.”

Bread has received similar feedback from other GusNIP grantees, including Fresh Access Bucks in Florida, Produce Perks in Ohio, and DUFB Heartland in Missouri and Kansas. We suspect that many others agree. 

HSI has decided that, in addition to applying for another GusNIP grant, it will also apply for funds from the state of Alabama. This will hopefully help ensure that people have year-round access to the nutrients they need.

Allison Bunyan is an Emerson Hunger Fellow, Policy and Research Institute, at Bread for the World.  

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Food for Peace Title II is part of the farm bill, which is reauthorized every five years. It is implemented by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance. Its programs provide emergency and long-term development nutrition assistance to the most vulnerable populations around the world, including young children. The Food for Peace emergency assistance program supports delivering food to communities affected by conflict, chronic food insecurity, and persistent natural disasters caused by climate change. 

Funding for farm bill programs such as Food for Peace Title II is critical to the life-saving operations of the World Food Programme (WFP) and thousands of its local coordinating partners that distribute food and medicine. 

For example, armed conflict recently broke out in Sudan and quickly led to a hunger emergency. WFP reports that even before the onset of fighting in April, hunger was already a significant problem in Sudan. One-third of the population was suffering from hunger – a record high. That number is now increasing; in April 2023, 11.7 million people were facing hunger in Sudan. 

According to WFP, disruptions in the supply chain of Sudan’s school feeding program could affect more than 1.6 million schoolchildren. Both children who remain in Sudan and those who have fled to neighboring countries will continue to need nutritional support and access to education. 

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reported on April 26—less than two weeks after the fighting began—that a third of Sudan’s healthcare centers were not functioning and that the treatment of 50,000 children with Severe Acute Malnutrition had been disrupted by the conflict. Severe Acute Malnutrition is a medical emergency, a life-threatening condition treated in healthcare facilities, and these children are among those who could die without immediate humanitarian assistance. 

“Children are bearing the brunt of the conflict in Sudan,” said Mandeep O’Brien, UNICEF Representative in Sudan. “They are dying, and their futures are being taken away from them.”

There are now 357 million children living in countries affected by armed conflict and violence, up by an alarming 75 percent since the 1990s. According to UNHCR, conflict is the primary driver of hunger and famine.

UNHCR reported on May 12 that 200,000 people, nearly 90 percent of whom are women and children, have already fled Sudan. The largest group are Sudanese who have arrived in the two neighboring countries of Chad and Egypt. Another large group is composed of South Sudanese people who are returning to South Sudan despite the country’s own devastating civil war. Others come from several other countries and were refugees in Sudan until the fighting began. According to UNHCR logistics planners, there could ultimately be as many as 800,000 refugees.  

Food for Peace saves lives. In 2020, the program reached over 28 million people in 34 countries. Congress has the power to continue saving lives, in Sudan and around the world, by reauthorizing a farm bill that protects and strengthens Food for Peace. 

Abiola Afolayan is co-director, Policy and Research Institute, at Bread for the World. 

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As 2023 began, people on the verge of famine could be found in 37 countries around the world. Providers of humanitarian assistance said that urgent action is critical to prevent “further starvation and death” in Afghanistan, Yemen, Nigeria, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Somalia. The outbreak of armed conflict in April 2023 in Sudan threatens to increase hunger significantly in both Sudan and its neighbors. Articles in Bread’s Hunger Hotspots series have appeared monthly since April 2022. Each includes information and analysis on hunger emergencies, their causes, and global responses. 

It is encouraging that, in the face of increasing levels of severe hunger, high-income countries have significantly increased their investments in emergency humanitarian assistance. The problem, however, is that the needs are growing much more quickly. A U.N. humanitarian needs assessment noted in October 2022 that “Funding shortfalls and rising operational costs have reduced humanitarian assistance across many of these hunger hotspots.” 

Given this situation, it is more important than ever for humanitarian assistance programs to seek out strategies to help them become even more effective. Every dollar counts. One potential area for improvement concerns how humanitarian plans recognize the need for gender equity and incorporate it into their responses. 

The respected humanitarian organization CARE published a report in 2020 whose title sums up the view that improvements are needed in this area. Left Out and Left Behind: Ignoring Women Will Prevent Us from Solving the Hunger Crisis and its 2022 follow-up, Hunger Policy Solutions Continue to Ignore Gender, present the results of conducting gender equity analyses of dozens of global humanitarian response plans. 

One of the most important findings is that many plans to provide humanitarian assistance do not contain the word “woman” at all. Fewer of the planned responses mention gender inequality or factors that contribute to women being more likely than men to face acute hunger and malnutrition. A small number of plans, about 7 percent, offer recommendations to help reduce gender inequities. 

But by definition, it is impossible for plans to identify and adopt gender-sensitive approaches if they do not acknowledge that in a hunger crisis, people will have different experiences and needs based on gender. Gender-sensitive approaches are essential to reaching some of those in greatest need.

CARE’s analysis also found that the majority of the response plans that did discuss women mentioned only their vulnerability rather than also identifying strengths—such as the ability to be creative and resourceful in efforts to feed their children. Humanitarian assistance programs that consider only vulnerability “ignore the capacity of women to offer solutions that are best adapted to their needs,” said the report.

Another significant shortcoming revealed by CARE’s gender analysis is the flawed process of data collection and analysis. In most of the humanitarian response plans that were studied, data on hunger and malnutrition was not disaggregated by gender. In still fewer cases, the data were further subdivided by other identity characteristics that affect people’s vulnerability to hunger, such as race or religion. 

As with developing gender-sensitive approaches that help identify the most vulnerable people, lack of data on vital points such as who people are, where they live, and whether their situation is worsening makes it far more difficult to devise a plan to reach them in time. 

CARE reported slight improvements in the policies developed in 2022 compared with those of 2020 but said that the global humanitarian response continues to fail women.

Excluding women from leadership in how to fund and implement hunger responses “reveals a gap in policymakers’ understanding of gender inequality as a primary driver of food insecurity,” CARE concluded in its 2022 report. Yet women are finding solutions, and reducing gender inequities will help “deconstruct the barriers [they] face to boosting productivity and promoting good nutrition.”

Michele Learner is managing editor, Policy and Research Institute, at Bread for the World.

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Among the many provisions of the farm bill is funding for agricultural research, extension, and education at land-grant institutions. Land-grant institutions include Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). There is an opportunity now for Congress to begin to redress historical injustices driven by racism. One of several ways to do that is to use the farm bill to give HBCUs the respect and equitable treatment they deserve. 

The USDA Equity Commission, established in 2021 as part of the Biden administration’s commitment to advancing racial equity and reducing the racial wealth gap, has offered numerous recommendations on how the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) can better support HBCUs, as well as how the agency can address its long history of racial discrimination.  

One place to start is with a more equitable allocation of funding. The Commission noted, “Historically, 1890 and [other] minority-serving land-grant institutions have not received USDA funding comparable to 1862 land-grant colleges and universities.” 

1890 and 1862 designate the years institutions were recognized within the U.S. Land-Grant university system and thereby made eligible for federal grants. 1862 colleges and universities serve predominantly white students.  

HBCUs have long been a resource for underserved Black communities, especially in Southern states where most HBCUs are located. For Black farmers, in particular, HBCUs provide reliable and trustworthy technical assistance, unlike the well documented malice and neglect that persist at some local branches of USDA. 

Tuskegee University, one of the very first HBCUs, was founded in 1881. Booker T. Washington served as its president until his death in 1915. From its earliest days, Tuskegee has been associated with an exceptionally strong agriculture program, reflecting its founder’s views on the necessity of a practical education. 

After the Civil War, most Black families earned their living in agriculture. The importance of agriculture in Black communities guided Washington’s choice of a leader for the agricultural department. George Washington Carver joined Tuskegee in 1896 to lead the department; Carver was not only a brilliant researcher but was also dedicated to introducing impoverished Black sharecroppers to new crops and farming methods. 

Sanchez Rolle, a recent graduate of Tuskegee University, aspires to follow in this tradition, applying what he has learned as a researcher to help underserved communities by focusing on the intersection of clean water and environmental justice. In Flint, Michigan, where nearly 100,000 people have been exposed to dangerous levels of lead and other toxins in the municipal water supply, Rolle conducted laboratory tests to support the efforts of grassroots organizations to respond effectively to the crisis. In Alabama, where Tuskegee is located, Rolle has also studied soil and water quality in the state’s Black Belt counties.

In February 2023, in observance of Black History Month, Rolle participated in a webinar hosted by Bread for the World, The Economic Impact to Black Farmers Across the African Diaspora. He is one of eight HBCU graduate students selected to be part of the first class of Thomas Wyatt Turner Fellows at Cornell University. Thomas Wyatt Turner, the first African American to receive a doctorate in Botany (in 1921), attended Cornell. Turner was a prominent researcher and educator and a civil rights activist who was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

In addition to support from the Cornell Graduate School and School of Integrative Plant Science, the Turner Fellowships are made possible by a grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The fellowships are part of USAID’s Feed the Future, the U.S. global hunger and food security initiative. Many readers may be familiar with Feed the Future since Bread for the World members have supported the program and its goals since the idea for it first arose, in 2010. 

The Turner Fellows represent the high quality of research at HBCUs and the commitment shared by all HBCUs in applying research to meet urgent challenges in their communities. In the case of the Turner Fellows, the urgent challenges include those facing the global community, with research focused on sustainable agricultural development to reduce malnutrition and hunger. 

Todd Post is senior domestic policy advisor, Policy and Research Institute, at Bread for the World.

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In 1993, Dr. Cain Hope Felder, a New Testament scholar of African descent, served as the editor of The Original African Heritage Study Bible: King James Version. The Rev. Dr. Renita Weems, a woman of African descent and a mentee of Dr. Cain Hope Felder, wrote the book Just a Sister Away, in which she focused on women of African descent relative to the Bible. People like Dr. Cain Hope Felder and Rev. Dr. Weems have understood Africa matters in the Bible.

May 25 is Africa Day—or Africa Liberation Day for some. It is a day when all of us have another opportunity to take a closer look at the importance of Africa and her diaspora in our lives. The Bible is a good place to start. African leaders, peoples, and places are identified throughout the Bible. Further, many of us are Africans or people of African descent—or live among people of African descent. Do you know your story as it relates to this and to your community?

May 25 also invites us to scrutinize the negative narratives and images of Africans and people of African descent. For example, while it is true that the data does show disproportionate numbers of Africans and people of African Descent affected by hunger and poverty, this data often does not show the counter narrative of faith, resilience, resolve, and financial contributions of Africans and the African diaspora. Did you know Africans in the diaspora are Africa’s largest financiers? Remittances from the diaspora to Africa grew from $37 billion in 2010 to $96 billion in 2021.

Further, the largest social movement in the United States was the continuing Black Lives Matter movement, according to the New York Times. Recently the vice president of the United States, the first woman of African descent in this role, visited African nations with priorities on democracy, economic development, and partnership. This, after the African Leaders Summit in December 2022 was hosted by the president of the U.S. Executive orders concerning a way forward with Africa and the African diaspora were signed.

A historic session of the UN Permanent Forum of People of African Descent was held in December 2022—around the same time as African leaders visited Washington, D.C. The second session is happening this year at the UN. Bread for the World invites you to a webinar about this forum on Africa Day, May 25, 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., EST. The theme is Africa Day: Pan Africanism, Liberation, and Restorative Justice. You can join the meeting on Zoom.

Recently, Bread for the World partnered with the Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia—along with the Black Church Food Security network—for an Earth Day weekend, at which we celebrated the importance reinvesting in Black Farmers with the Farm Bill. Learn more about the Farm Bill, which supports Africa and the African Diaspora, and how you can help.

* New American Standard Version

Angelique Walker-Smith is senior associate for Pan African and Orthodox Church engagement at Bread for the World.

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Along with its focus on agricultural productivity, IFAD funding has enabled rural families to connect to agricultural markets and access necessities such as transportation and safe drinking water. As Bread recognizes, farmers around the world must be equipped to adapt to the impacts of a changing climate. Effective adaptation is essential to their success in growing enough food to provide for their families and feed their communities.

Farming is inherently uncertain, dependent on many factors beyond farmers’ control. In 2012, IFAD established the Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Program (ASAP), which focused on helping farmers increase their production while also mitigating their many risks. In 2021, IFAD announced the next stage of the program, ASAP+. The main goals are to enable people to become more resilient to disasters and to reduce the threats to food security posed by climate change. ASAP+ set out to reach more than 10 million people by mobilizing $500 million.

Bread was pleased when, in 2021, the U.S. increased its funding pledge to IFAD by 43 percent, making the country its largest donor. But global hunger and human needs have surged in the past few years. Bread affirms the importance of the Biden administration’s request for additional funding for IFAD in fiscal year 2024. Within this request, the president has asked that $35 million be allocated to ASAP+. Now it is up to Congress to appropriate that funding.

The administration still has critical work to do—work that, by supporting IFAD, will enable rural families to farm more effectively despite climate impacts. IFAD’s investments in low-income countries are in the form of grants or loans with very low interest rates, so it relies on donors like the U.S. to replenish its funding periodically—every three years. 2023 is a replenishment year. Detailed negotiations among IFAD, its member states, and its donors will stretch across much of the year. The U.S. will join with other stakeholders to help determine how much funding is needed and how much donors are able to contribute.

It is essential for the U.S. to increase its pledge to IFAD. The worst impacts of climate change are currently hitting lower-income countries that had very little to do with causing the problem. The poorest people in these societies, who contributed least of all to the problem, are the ones facing increasingly severe hunger and malnutrition.

IFAD’s ASAP+ is striving to be the largest source of climate adaptation financing for smallholder farmers in lower-income countries. Institutions like IFAD and programs like ASAP+ are desperately needed. Bread urges the U.S. government to maintain its support for IFAD and pledge an increased amount for the 2023 replenishment.

Jordan Teague Jacobs is co-director of the Policy and Research Institute with Bread for the World.

The post A Development Bank for Rural People appeared first on Bread for the World.

In recent years, Bread has emphasized that climate change and hunger are inextricably linked, and climate change is one of the main causes of hunger. On March 20, the first day of spring, following one of the warmest winters on record, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) convened and released its sixth assessment report. It is a grim analysis of the status of global climate change and the progress of international efforts to slow and eventually stop global warming.

The IPCC is the world’s leading body of scientists studying climate change. It has produced status reports since 1990. In this most recent assessment, the scientists do not mince words: 

 “There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a livable and sustainable future.” 

Although everyone, particularly national and international leaders, should take the warnings seriously, it is perhaps equally important to look at the many opportunities that the report highlights. There are tools that have already been developed that can help avert catastrophic outcomes such as soaring numbers of people facing hunger. Some of these tools are no doubt familiar—for example, increasing access to renewable energy while reducing use of fossil fuels—while others are probably not as widely known. 

One strategy we want to highlight is reducing food waste. We have discussed this in previous editions of Institute Insights, but now is a time to revisit the possibilities for progress, because reducing food waste is a key component of Bread for the World’s advocacy campaign for reauthorization of the U.S. farm bill. Congress is expected to take up the legislation this year.  

So how does food waste contribute to climate change? The fact is that the food system “from farm to fork” includes producing, processing, packaging, and transporting food before we bring it home from the supermarket. When food is wasted, all of the energy used in these processes is also wasted. Most of this energy is produced with fossil fuels, which generate enormous amounts of the heat-trapping greenhouse gases that cause global warming. 

Then there’s the consumer side of the climate change ledger. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Americans toss out a lot of the food they purchase, much of it perfectly safe to eat, and it ends up in landfills. In fact, food is the largest share of solid waste in landfills. There is a major problem: as food breaks down in landfills, it emits methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas that has 80 times as much impact on the planet’s temperature as the same amount of carbon dioxide. 

There is more than one way to reduce food waste. In Bread’s farm bill campaign, we are focused on food recovery as part of the solution. Food recovery focuses on nutritious foods such as fruits and vegetables. The goal is to make it easier for nonprofits and others to provide these foods to lower-income households who otherwise would not be able to afford fresh, healthy foods, would not have nearby places to buy them, or both. 

Food recovery is a burgeoning movement in the United States, although many of those reading this will know that gleaning (one example of food recovery) has existed since Biblical times. After the crowds were fed and satisfied in The Feeding of the Five Thousand, Jesus instructed the disciples to gather the broken pieces of bread that were left, ensuring that nothing went to waste.

According to ReFED, the leading source for information on U.S. food waste, the country generated 54.2 million tons of food waste in 2019, the most recent year for which we have data. What is the impact on climate change? It’s the equivalent of more than 6 billion gallons of gasoline. 

In 2016, the federal government set a goal to cut U.S. food waste in half by 2030. Progress has been slow and proactive leadership is needed. Too much of the burden of cutting food waste has been shifted to nonprofits and the private sector. 

The farm bill reauthorization in 2023 is a prime opportunity to increase support for efforts to reduce food waste and promote food recovery. The farm bill is reauthorized every five years, and each one builds on the last. The 2018 farm bill was the first to dedicate resources to reduce food waste, laying the groundwork for expansion in 2023. There is more reason to be optimistic. The 2023 reauthorization is shaping up to be an instrument for advancing climate policy. As fans of Earth Day, we know this is how it should be.

Write your members of Congress and encourage them to support efforts to reduce food waste and promote food recovery in the farm bill. 

Todd Post is senior domestic policy advisor, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

This article appears in the April 2023 edition of Bread for the World’s Institute Insights newsletter. Institute Insights provides an in-depth look at the causes of hunger and malnutrition and offers potential solutions to address them. Click here to sign up for the monthly Institute Insights newsletter.

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The most recent humanitarian needs update from the World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization indicates that globally, about 45 million people are living in areas with high levels of severe hunger and malnutrition, where there is a risk that conditions will worsen to the point of famine. People on the verge of famine live in 37 countries.

Everyone deserves sufficient nutritious food, but women are more likely to be hungry than men due to gender discrimination. Good nutrition for adolescent girls and women of childbearing age is critical to their lifelong health, as well as to safe motherhood if they become pregnant.

When families, communities, and/or countries begin to face higher and higher levels of hunger and malnutrition, women who are pregnant are in a particularly vulnerable position.

Throughout history, pregnancy and childbirth were dangerous even under the best circumstances. Women in most countries still put their lives at risk to bring children into the world. Globally, the leading cause of death among adolescent females is complications of pregnancy and childbirth.

Many women begin their pregnancies underweight, suffering from micronutrient deficiencies, and/or affected by stunting caused by early childhood malnutrition. Other women may be well-nourished at the outset but later develop micronutrient deficiencies. The most common of these is iron-deficiency anemia. Anemia is a significant risk factor for hemorrhage during childbirth, which is the leading cause of maternal mortality.

The past three years have been the polar opposite of the best of circumstances: a global pandemic, combined with economic shocks in the aftermath of stay-at-home orders and other restrictions meant to slow transmission of the virus, produced deeper hunger crises in a growing number of countries.  All these impacts affected the health and well-being of people who were pregnant during this time.

During the worst of the pandemic, women were at higher risk of death than men, largely because the pandemic disrupted health care before, during, and immediately after childbirth. Many pregnant women were unable to follow well-established health recommendations for pregnancy, such as supplementing their diets with vital micronutrients like iron and zinc, because they could not access and/or pay for the supplements.  

The Sustainable Development Goals were adopted by nearly all countries in 2015 with a deadline of 2030. The target for maternal mortality is to reduce the global death rate to 70 per 100,000 live births. The Gates Foundation reported that even before the pandemic began, progress had been far too slow to be on track to reach the target. Its assessment is that in the wake of the pandemic, the world is certain to miss reducing maternal mortality to 70 by 2030.

The most recent data available indicates that immediately before the pandemic, the global maternal mortality rate was 144 per 100,000 live births. The Gates Foundation describes two scenarios for 2030, a “better” case with resumed and accelerated progress, which would see maternal mortality at 93 per 100,000 births, and a “worse” case with little progress, at 137 per 100,000 in 2030.

Most maternal deaths are due to lack of access to basic health care and lack of a trained attendant during childbirth rather than to complex problems that require costly treatments. The better news is that training additional midwives and supporting them to work in areas where they are most needed has the potential to prevent two-thirds of maternal deaths, and nearly as many stillbirths and newborn deaths. Meeting the need for midwives by 2035 could save an estimated 4.3 million lives every year.

As Bread for the World has long emphasized, the “1,000 Days” period from pregnancy to age 2 is the most important window for human nutrition. In a later piece, I will describe the implications of ensuring good maternal nutrition and health care for the people in the 1,000 Days who usually receive the most attention: children from birth through their second birthdays.

Michele Learner is managing editor, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

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