World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

For the U.S. government and media, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been treated as a stepchild of sorts to the revolutionary events sweeping the Middle East. (..) For example, levels of food insecurity--defined by the World Food Programme as a "lack of access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food, which meets dietary needs...for an active and healthy life"--rose from 40 percent in 2003 to 61 percent towards the end of 2010.

The complete closure of Karni crossing on the Israel-Gaza border announced on 2 March will make the delivery of food aid to Gaza more difficult, according to UN agencies assisting Palestinians in the Gaza Strip where over half the population is estimated to be food insecure. (..) “If Israel closes Karni crossing, using the conveyor belt at Kerem Shalom to enter supplies, it is expected that it will be more expensive due to higher fees and the greater distance trucks must drive to reach the crossing,” Jean-Noel Gentile, head of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Gaza, told IRIN.

These last two weeks, the headlines have been dominated by political turmoil in the Middle East, particularly in Egypt, the most populous and precarious of the countries currently experiencing popular demonstrations against their leadership. (..) Regardless of the politics of the issue, no one can deny the scale of the human tragedy facing the people living in the Gaza Strip. CHF International's own staff there who, for example, distribute vital food through the UN World Food Programme , testify to the extreme difficulty of the conditions: reconstruction is impossible and even with the slight loosening of the blockade last year, there is still little that can be done other than to bring temporary relief.

The head of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), Josette Sheeran, today began a three-day mission to the occupied Palestinian territory, Israel and Jordan, during which she will visit the agency’s projects and meet with government officials, partner organisations and staff. Ms. Sheeran will visit school meals projects and an electronic food voucher project in the West Bank, and tour the oldest school in Hebron to meet students and see the impact the programmes have had on the lives of the children and other residents in the area.

The World Food Programme is nearly $3 billion short this year in its fight against global hunger, and the gap is likely to grow if food prices keep rising, the head of the U.N. agency said in an interview Monday. Josette Sheeran said the shortfall amounts to almost half of what the agency needs. Sheeran spoke to The Associated Press after touring the Palestinian city of Hebron, where she inspected an electronic food voucher project meant to streamline distribution of food to the needy.

The executive director of the UN's World Food Program (WFP), Josette Sheeran, will start a three day tour of Palestine, Israel, and Jordan on Monday, according to a press release issued by the program. She will visit WFP projects in the area and meet with government officials during the trip.

Crossings officials announced Saturday that almost 6,000 Palestinians passed through the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt during the week. (..) In its weekly report, the administration said Israel opened the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Gaza, allowing the entry of 1046 trucks, of which 899 were for the private sector, 72 carrying humanitarian aid, 3 for the World Food Program and 62 for UNRWA.

At the beginning of every month, Sobheya Bakroun, a tall, brown-skinned woman goes to an aid distribution center in Gaza run by the World Food Program (WFP) to get food for her 15-member family to survive.

To mark World School Milk Day, celebrated today in more than 40 countries, Tetra Pak has announced the expansion of its support for school milk programmes in Pakistan, Senegal, Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Gaza and the West Bank. (..) Gaza and the West Bank Cooperating with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education and the World Food Programme (WFP), Tetra Pak supports the school milk programme in Gaza and the West Bank.

"Sometimes, for a day or two we don't even have bread, nor flour to make bread. There's a store nearby that, when we are truly desperate, lets us take a bag of bread or something simple, on credit. I owe them a lot of money for the food I've brought from them, but I still can't pay them." (..) The World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) define food insecurity as people not having "adequate physical, social or economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs."