Hunger in a World of Plenty, Diplomat edition

Spring 2015

UNICEF ACT Action for Children Today

Hunger in an Age of Plenty The world produces enough food to feed everyone on the planet, yet almost a billion people go to bed hungry each night.

Diplomat Edition

NEWS IN

BRIEF

I

Focus on Hunger

magine a classroom with 25 students. Now imagine that they represent the global population. Of these students, 14 have enough food to eat. (In fact, some eat too much.) Eight students go to bed hungry at least some of the time. Three students are always hungry.

In fact, they are severely undernourished. These numbers might sound shocking, but they portray the reality of hunger in the world.

Everyone knows the feeling of being hungry. A growling stomach signals that it is time for your next meal. But hunger is what results when that meal— and the next meal and the next— are not provided. Hunger means constant growling, weakness,

and pain. Over time it can lead to malnutrition. This is when a person’s body does not get the nutrients it needs to grow, develop, and fight off disease.

At the start of the new millennium in 2000, the United Nations held an important meeting. There, leaders set eight goals to help improve serious global problems. They agreed to

try to meet these Millennium Development Goals by the year 2015—this year. One of the goals was to cut in half the number of people suffering from hunger. Sadly, the number only decreased by about one-third.

That means hunger still affects one in nine people worldwide— more than 800 million people.

Why do so many people suffer from hunger? What can we do to end hunger in the world?

Think About It: If food resources were divided equally across the world, everyone would have enough nutrition. But resources aren’t divided equally. The diagram below shows what percentage of the population is undernourished in each region of the world.

Africa

20.5%

Asia & Pacific

12.9%

Latin America & the Caribbean

6.1%

Europe, U.S. & Canada

<5%

Source: State of Food Insecurity in the World, FAO, 2014

The Nutrients in Nutrition Micronutrients are small amounts of vitamins and minerals. It is important to eat a balanced diet to get the micronutrients your body needs. A lack of micronutrients can lead to malnutrition.

Dairy products and leafy greens are good sources of calcium. Identify foods that contain the other vitamins and minerals on the chart. List or sketch them below.

Calcium is needed for strong bones and teeth.

Iron keeps red blood cells healthy.

Vitamin A helps prevent infections and is important for good vision.

Iodine helps the brain, heart, muscles, and other organs work properly.

Zinc keeps the immune system strong, protecting the body from disease.

2 COVER PHOTO: © UNICEF/NYHQ2013-1009/MAITEM

© U.S. Fund for UNICEF, unicefusa.org

Hungry Planet Photographer Peter Menzel and writer Faith D’Aluisio traveled around the world to better understand what people eat. In their book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats, these three families are featured with all the food they typically eat in one week. Visit bit.ly/1n8eh85 to view larger versions of these photos as well as additional images.

The Revis Family of the United States Weekly cost of food:

The Dong Family of China Weekly cost of food:

$155.06

The Aboubakar Family of Chad Weekly cost of food:

$25.60

$341.98

Images are from Hungry Planet: What the World Eats, ©Peter Menzel, www.menzelphoto.com.

Food for Thought

• What similarities and differences do you notice about the food each family eats?

What could be some of the reasons for these similarities and differences?

• Compare the chart of foods you created on page 2 with the foods in the photos.

Do you think each family gets enough nutrition from the foods they eat? Which family do you think has the healthiest diet overall? Explain.

• C hoose one of the families above. Compare the food your family eats in a week with the food they eat. What similarities and differences do you notice?

3 UNICEF ACT is a publication of TeachUNICEF, the Education Department of U.S. Fund for UNICEF. Visit TeachUNICEF.org for additional resources.

Hunger in an Age of Plenty

by Roger Thurow

O

ne searing spring during a visit to Ethiopia, I observed a tiny girl stumbling through a field of rocks. She was barefoot and limping.

Though she was no more than eight, she carried her baby sister on her back. Her eyes were desperate.

Please, they seemed to say, something to eat, anything at all.

I knew that back home children filled their plates with more pizza, burgers, and fries than they could possibly finish. Why, I thought, do some children have so much while others have so little? Does it have to be this way?

Vocabulary in Context After reviewing the definitions below, write an original paragraph using at least four of the words.

• Agriculture: The practice of farming • Desperate: Feeling or showing hopelessness • Drought: A period of low rainfall; a shortage of water • Harvest: The process of gathering crops • Preventable: Able to be avoided • Reserves: A supply set aside for future use • Revolution: Sudden, extreme, or complete change

4

© UNICEF/NYHQ2003-0274/Harboe

The world produces more than one and a half times enough food to feed everyone on the planet. That’s enough to feed 10 billion people.

Yet almost a billion people go to bed hungry each night. Why? The answer is no. For decades the world has grown enough food to nourish everyone on the planet. In the modern world, hunger is mostly preventable.

More than 50 years ago a change called the “Green Revolution” took place. Plant and agriculture experts invented new ways to farm and special types of wheat and rice. Millions upon millions of lives were saved. But the agriculture revolution did not reach everyone.

Africa suffered in particular. The new technology was not widely shared with small family farms.

Governments did not build enough roads to get crops to market-places and to people most in need. They also didn’t help farmers with planting and harvesting, or protect them during weather disasters. As a result, many farming families didn’t always have enough to eat.

This is still the case today across many parts of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Hundreds of millions of people go hungry as a result.

To make matters worse, more people today are at risk from natural disasters than in the past.

Growing numbers of storms and droughts are hurting harvests, and there are not enough reserves to see people though the hard times. Competition

over smaller amounts of food has caused prices to soar in much of the world.

The world’s richest countries send extra food overseas to feed the hungry. The rich countries have been doing less, however, to help others grow food and stop hunger in the first place.

Since the time of the Green Revolution, the world has known how to end hunger. We have the information and tools. But we haven’t done it. We explored the universe. We wired the world for the Internet. We conquered diseases. Yet somehow we haven’t eliminated the greatest hardship of all.

Some people believe that hunger will always be with us. But fighting hunger isn’t hopeless. It is a battle that can be won if we all say enough is enough.

Our guest author Roger Thurow is an expert on hunger. He was a reporter with The Wall Street Journal for 30 years. With his Journal colleague Scott Kilman, Thurow wrote the book ENOUGH: Why the World’s Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty.

Think, Write, Discuss…

• T he author says that today hunger is mostly preventable. Why aren’t people doing enough to put an end to this problem?

• How did the “Green Revolution” help people?

Why didn’t it help everyone?

• How are changing weather patterns making the problem of hunger worse?

• The article says that rich countries send food overseas to feed the hungry. Why may this not be a complete solution to the problem of hunger?

Compose Your Thoughts: Choose one of

the author’s reasons for world hunger. Then think of a solution to that challenge. Write about it in a letter to the President, explaining how it would help.

I

n 2012 a severe drought in Somalia led to famine. Fields of crops turned into fields of dust. Thousands of people in this poor African country died of hunger or illnesses caused by malnutrition.

A boy named Abdi was almost one of them. Fortunately, organizations like UNICEF provided emergency help. Fragile Abdi was taken to a medical Five-year-old Abdi after his recovery clinic where he was treated for malnutrition. “He stayed in the hospital for 29 days,” his mother explained. “I didn’t think that he would make it.”

Abdi did make it. For months, his mother fed him a special peanut paste full of protein and vitamins to help him get strong. Today, Abdi is healthy and able to smile again.

© UNICEF Somalia/2012

Abdi’s Story

Peanut Power: Each packet of peanut paste that Abdi ate is packed with nutrition. It has as much iron as a bunch of spinach and as much calcium as three cups of milk. More than 90 percent of severely malnourished children who are treated with this special food recover.

5

Taking a Bite Out of Hunger Around the world, governments, aid groups, and individuals are working together to provide lasting solutions to hunger.

Country Profile: GUATEMALA In the highlands of Guatemala, in Central America, Elena López lives in a one-room house with no running water. She makes her own tortillas, and her daughters knock fruit from local trees with a stick. Even with the tortillas and fruit, one of Elena’s four daughters is malnourished. It’s a common problem in Guatemala.

One out of every two young children there does not get enough nourishment.

In 2012 members of the Guatemalan government went to live with families experiencing malnutrition to better understand

the problem. The result was “Zero Hunger Pact.” This program focuses on 10 nutrition improvements, such as better seeds for farmers and access to clean water.

Zero Hunger Pact has already helped the López girls. A health worker named Faustina educates the family about good nutrition.

“I am teaching Elena how to use peanut paste and nutritional sprinkles to help nourish her girls,” she said, “as well as giving the girls vitamin A drops.”

“We are having success,” says Faustina. “Now, people have a better understanding about eating the right foods. Also, the

importance of breastfeeding and vitamins, as well as vaccinations to protect children.”

In the first year of Zero Hunger Pact, undernutrition in Guatemala was reduced by by 0.6 percent— that means over 35,000 fewer undernourished kids. To continue its success, Guatemala has joined a global partnership called Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN). SUN brings together countries that believe all people have a right to good nutrition. Read below to learn about the progress that is being made in other SUN countries.

Watch Elena’s story at uni.cf/1F0BUeO.

6

© UNICEF/NYHQ2012-2082/Dean

© UNICEF/NYHQ2011-1345/Njuguna

© UNICEF/BANA2012-02029/Noorani

Scaling Up Nutrition Globally

In Kenya a boy drinks a high-

In Bangladesh, a family

In Myanmar, volunteers

nutrition porridge. A UNICEFfunded program provides lunches at school during summer so that all children are fed. For many, school lunch is their only meal of the day.

participates in a UNICEFsupported nutrition security program. They receive seeds, tools, and training to set up a vegetable garden that will produce food and extra income.

from a Mother’s Circle mix micronutrient powder into their babies’ food. These “sprinkles” provide vitamins and minerals that children need for good health.

Children and Hunger: America’s Hidden Problem

Learn more about Rosie’s story at takepart.com/place-at-the-table.

Food Insecurity in the United States

Let’s Do Lunch The National School Lunch Program provides healthy lunches to more than 31 million children in over 100,000 schools each day for less than 40 cents per meal. That’s more than 224 billion lunches served since 1946!

Getting Down and Dirty Many communities are turning unused land into gardens that provide fruits and vegetables. More than 23 million students participate in “Farm to School” programs that promote gardening and learning about healthy eating.

Anti-Hunger Crusader At age five, Joshua Williams began “stomping out hunger” with a $20 gift to a homeless man. Ten years later, Joshua’s Heart Foundation has distributed almost a million pounds of food to his South Florida community, as well as to Jamaica, Haiti, and Africa. Over 2,200 youth volunteers are involved. You can be too. Visit joshuasheart.org.

By the Numbers

10000

• How many more households were food insecure in 2013 than in 1995?

• If we could decrease hunger by 1 million households every year after 2013, how many hungry homes would there be in 2020?

5000

BONUS: If the average U.S. household has 2.6 people, how many people were food insecure in 2013?

20000

17,055 Number Households (in millions)

Chipping Away at Food Insecurity…

© Teekay

Meet Rosie, a fifth grader from Colorado.

Rosie is one of the stars of A Place at the Table, a film that examines the issue of Rosie in A PLACE AT THE TABLE. Photo courtesy hunger in America. In it of Magnolia Pictures.

Rosie shares a serious problem: “I struggle a lot [in school], and most of the time it’s because my stomach is really hurting.”

Rosie says that her teacher tells her to “get focused,” but all she can think about is food. “Sometimes when I look at her, I envision her as a banana,” says Rosie, “and everybody in the class is apples and oranges.”

Rosie looks just like any other fifth-grader, but she conceals a problem shared by one in five other children in the United States—hunger. Even though the United States is one of the richest countries in the world, 50 million Americans are food insecure. That means they do not have access to enough affordable, nutritious food.

When President Obama ran for office in 2008, he pledged to end childhood hunger by 2015. At that time there were 12.4 million hungry children in the United States. But for many reasons, today that number has grown to 15.8 million. Yet there are people and groups working hard every day to chip away at food insecurity.

Read about some of them here and think about what you can do to take a bite out of hunger.

17,487

15000

11,819

0

1995

10,963

2000

12,468

2005

2010

Year Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture.

U.S. Dept. of Agriculture

2013

Find Out: Why has food insecurity gone up instead of down over the past 20 years? Do some research to learn more.

7

Kids Helping Kids Brandon Moreno is a fourth-grader at Phoebe Hearst Elementary School in Sacramento, California. Here he writes about how he and his schoolmates helped to decrease hunger by participating in UNICEF Kid Power.

UNICEF Kid Power was an awesome program for our school and for people who don’t have enough food to be healthy. Our class was excited to know that if we got active, we could actually feed hungry children around the world and get healthier ourselves at the same time.

Being a part of UNICEF Kid Power was easy.

Every person in my class received a blue band that we wore all the time. The band tracked how many steps we took throughout the day. Those steps earned us “Kid Power Points,” which were then used to buy food for hungry children.

Everyone needs to eat. People cannot be happy or strong without enough food. This is a huge problem in our country and our entire world.

We learned that kids can make a difference. We tried very hard to make sure that our class worked together to stop world hunger. Everyone should care about feeding others because if your family were hungry, you would want someone to help feed them.

Our school was extremely successful in the Kid Power program. We won first place as the most active class and earned enough points for 4,775 peanut paste packets – enough to provide lifesaving treatment for 31 malnourished children. I made sure to run as much as I could every day, and I also motivated my friends by running with them.

We thought about the kids we were feeding and

Chew on This $200

that made us want to keep moving. Together we achieved a great goal—we are kids helping others and making a difference.

To find out if your school is in a Kid Power city and how to get involved, visit unicefkidpower.org.

Get active. Save lives.

Unleash Your Power By Taking Action Against Hunger Purchase a UNICEF Inspired Gift to help feed a hungry child at inspiredgifts.unicefusa.org.

Organize a fundraiser to benefit the hungry (see teachunicef.org/unicef-school-fundraising).

Waste less food at home and at school, and explore how to put extra food to good use.

Establish a school or community garden; grow healthy foods and share with the community.

Research ways to volunteer locally, such as at a soup kitchen or food pantry.

works in more than 190 countries to help kids survive and grow. UNICEF supplies medicines and vaccinations, clean water, nutrition, shelter, and education.

UNICEF also responds when emergencies occur, such as earthquakes, floods, and war.

It takes only $50 to feed a hungry schoolchild for an entire year1.

$100

$50

The average American spends about $100 each year on candy and $200 on soft drinks. ow many children do you think you could feed H if you cut your own spending on candy and soft drinks in half this year, and donate that money instead?

8 1 According to the World Food Program, it takes 25 cents to give a hungry schoolchild a cup of food that contains all the nutrition needed for the day, or $50 for an entire year.