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Hunger in the news

A daily selection of news reports from the world's media dealing with hunger and responses to it.
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Hunger in the news
11 June 2013

In Its Biggest Appeal Ever, U.N. Requests $5 Billion in Humanitarian Aid for Syria

June 7 - The United Nations issued the biggest financing appeal in its history on Friday, asking for more than $5 billion in humanitarian aid for Syria this year to help millions of people affected by the country’s civil war and ease the pressure building up in neighboring countries overwhelmed by Syrian refugees. (..) “We have reached a stage in Syria where some of the people, if they do not get food from the World Food Program, they simply do not eat,” Muhannad Hadi, the program’s emergency coordinator in Syria, told reporters in Geneva. “If mothers do not get food on the promised day that we deliver food,” Mr. Hadi said, “then there is nothing for them to cook for their children. Their children will go to bed on an empty stomach.”
The New York Times
Hunger in the news
7 June 2013

Food for thought: global school feeding programmes – in pictures

Proper nutrition is vital to ensuring students are able to concentrate. A report by the UN's World Food Programme looks at how school feeding programmes are helping support some of the world's most vulnerable families and children.
The Guardian
Hunger in the news
7 June 2013

U.N. says half of Syria's population will need aid by end of year

The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP), which has delivered 500 million meals in Syria so far this year, expects its weekly costs to rise from almost $20 million now to $36 million after September. It says it has a funding shortfall of about $725 million. "These are huge numbers. They're not sustainable over the very long term," said WFP Deputy Executive Director Amir Abdulla.
TrustLaw/ Reuters
Hunger in the news
5 June 2013

UN: Global Malnutrition Costs Are Unacceptable

Global hunger, poor nutrition and obesity are costing the world trillions of dollars in health costs and lost productivity, according to a new report from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The FAO report says fighting hunger is not enough. Tackling the more complex problem of malnutrition calls for action across the entire food system, from farm to fork. About 870 million people worldwide are hungry, according to the FAO. But malnutrition is about more than just hunger.
VOA News
ED - E.Cousin
5 June 2013

The World's Most Powerful Black Women 2013

A couple of weeks ago, FORBES published its 2013 annual list of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women. Of the 100 women featured, 11 are black, of whom 3 are Africans. They include political leaders, corporate executives, heads of non-governmental organizations, top government functionaries and a first lady. These are the 11 black women who matter the most: Ertharin Cousin Executive Director, World Food Programme, United Nations, U.S.A
Forbes
Purchase for Progress
5 June 2013

Global Food for Thought - Solvable Problem

Whenever I have the privilege of spending time among the people that the World Food Programme (WFP) serves, I come away enriched with precious extra knowledge and inspired by the new ways in which governments are tackling the world’s greatest solvable problem – hunger. (..) We at WFP have seen farmers’ capacity to prevent food loss transformed thanks to the Purchase for Progress (P4P) pilot project, which we launched with partners five years ago to test new ways to buy food that could enable smallholder farmers to achieve better yields, improve the quality of their crops and sell to reliable buyers for a fair price. (..) But preventing food that could nourish the hungry from being lost early in the food chain requires the coordinated efforts of many actors.
The Chicago Council on Foreign Affairs
Hunger in the news
5 June 2013

Despite constraints, UN agency delivers for Palestinian refugees in war-torn Syria

Should we keep a school open, or not; should the health centre shut its doors, or not. These are just some of the questions the dedicated staff members of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) have to answer on a daily basis as they carry out their work in embattled Syria. (..) The conflict has led the Agency to explore new and more creative ways to distribute its assistance. (..) Staff members also send refugees text messages informing them of the timing and locations of ATM card and food distributions, and cooperate with other partners such as the World Food Programme (WFP) to deliver food assistance in areas experiencing armed violence.
UN News Centre
Hunger in the news
3 June 2013

Make food security, nutrition priority – UN agencies

Three Rome-based United Nations (UN) agencies have called for food security and nutrition to be placed at the core of the international agenda for African development. Speaking separately at the on-going Fifth Tokyo International Conference for African Development (TICAD V) here, the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), officials from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) said food security and nutrition were a must for Africa. (..) The discussions at TICAD V would help inform the high-level meeting to be held from June 30 to July 1, 2013 in Addis Ababa to be co-organised by the African Union and FAO.
Times of Zambia
Hunger in the news
3 June 2013

Refugee food task much taller than the Burj Khalifa

Building the Burj Khalifa was a feat that took five years, but Jordanian bakers catering to Syrian refugees that have flooded the region are reaching three times that height — every day. (..) The approximately 500,000 pieces of khobz bread that are dished out each day to the more than 100,000 Syrian refugees who live in what is said to be the second largest refugee camp in the world, the Zaatari Syrian Refugee Camp, would sit somewhere in the order of 2,500 metres if piled on top of each other, according to the World Food Programme.
Khaleej Times (UAE)
Hunger in the news
3 June 2013

Middle East neighbours shamed into helping Syrian refugees

Pressure from aid agencies, the UN and the media over the [funding] shortfall appears to have now produced a dramatic turnaround. (..) But the growing numbers still fleeing Syria – and new camps already operating at breaking point – mean new appeals by the UNHCR and the World Food Programme are already being worked on. Aid is urgently needed as the situation, both for those inside the camps and for those trying to reach them, seems to be deteriorating. Thousands of refugees stranded near the closed border with Jordan are running out of food and many need medical treatment, aid workers and refugees said a few days ago.
The Independent

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