World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

The U.N. World Food Program announced Monday it will cut food assistance to more than 3 million Afghans in about half the country's 34 provinces because of a shortage of money from donor nations.

Afghanistan is likely to face a significant food shortage in the coming months, following poor rains which have affected this season’s wheat crop. (..) “There have been problems with rainfall, so there will be a significant shortfall in the harvest,” Challiss McDonough, spokesperson for the UN World Food Programme (WFP), said.

As President Obama prepares to draw down U.S. troops from Afghanistan and explain his blueprint for turning security over to the Afghan government by 2014, his administration is struggling to address what will come next in a country that has in the past been a threat to U.S. security. (..) The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) also launched a food voucher project in eastern Afghanistan, distributing monthly food vouchers to families in Jalalabad.

The rising cost of imported wheat flour is contributing to food insecurity in Afghanistan because so many urban families rely on it, officials say. In March, imported wheat flour cost at least eight Afghanis (US$0.18) more than local wheat per kilo, according to the UN World Food Programme (WFP).

My Mother's Day article on Afghanistan emphasized the urgent need for action on improving child health and nutrition. This is a country where one in five children dies before their fifth birthday. (..) The UN World Food Programme's (WFP) hunger relief operation is facing a $257 million shortfall at last report.

The global hunger crisis afflicting nearly one billion people will be the focus of Hillary Clinton's visit to Rome this week. (..) Clinton's task on Friday will be refocusing the globe on fighting hunger in Afghanistan, particularly after the UN World Food Programme (WFP) reported a $257 million shortfall in funding for its 2011 operation.

The United Nations warned on Friday of a looming food aid shortage in Afghanistan that could leave more than 7 million people hungry unless it received urgent cash donations of over $250 million to buy more supplies.(..)"We are making this appeal to give us the best possible chance of plugging the looming gaps in supply," said WFP Afghanistan director Louis Imbleau in a statement.

Food aid to some seven million Afghans is under threat unless the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) receives hundreds of millions of dollars in extra funding soon, it warned. (..)"We are making this appeal to give us the best possible chance of plugging the looming gaps in supply," said the WFP's Afghanistan country director Louis Imbleau.

Aid agencies and education officials are concerned that scaling down school feeding programmes in impoverished rural areas of Afghanistan could adversely affect school attendance and the health and nutrition of hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren.(..)“WFP will be forced to reduce the school-feeding programme in June only because our supplies of high-energy biscuits for distribution in schools are due to run out then. We urgently need new funding to replenish these supplies,” Marcus Prior, a WFP spokesman for Asia, told IRIN.

In Afghanistan, getting food to the hungry is challenging enough when you consider the conflict and instability there. A United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) flight crew recently noticed something unusual in their aircraft. They had just landed in Herat when they noticed a bullet hole around the right engine.(..)Challis McDonough of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) recently wrote a story about Afghans in Dega Payan who were cut off from medical care for lack of a road.