On October 16, World Food Day, join the global movement to end hunger. Be a part of the solution in your community and around the world. Because when it comes to hunger, the only acceptable number is zero.
World Food Day celebrates the creation of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on October 16, 1945 in Quebec, Canada. First established in 1979, World Food Day has since then been observed in almost every country by millions of people.
In North America, grassroots events and public awareness campaigns engage diverse audiences in action against hunger. From hunger walks and World Food Day dinners to meal packaging events and food drives, there are many ways for people to be a part of solutions to hunger.
Each year, advocates come together to raise awareness and engage Americans and Canadians in the movement to end hunger. Led by the FAO Liaison Office for North America, the World Food Day USA & Canada Network includes over 60 organizations, universities and companies that are working to achieve a zero hunger world.
Because the right to food is a basic human right.
In a world of plenty, 805 million people, one in nine worldwide, live with chronic hunger. The costs of hunger and malnutrition fall heavily on the most vulnerable.
- 60% of the hungry in the world are women.
- Almost 5 million children under the age of 5 die of malnutrition-related causes every year.
- 4 in 10 children in poor countries are malnourished damaging their bodies and brains.
Every human being has a fundamental right to be free from hunger and the right to adequate food. The right to adequate food is realized when every man, woman and child has the physical and economic access at all times to adequate food or means for its procurement.
Because we can end hunger in our lifetime.
It’s possible. The world produces enough food to feed every person on the planet. In September 2000, world leaders signed a commitment to achieve eight Millennium Development Goals by 2015. MDG #1 is eradicate extreme poverty and hunger and includes three targets. Since then:
- Forty countries have already achieved the first target, to halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger by 2015.
- In addition, over the past 20 years, the likelihood of a child dying before age five has been nearly cut in half, which means about 17,000 children are saved every day.
- Extreme poverty rates have also been cut in half since 1990.
The challenge is significant, but these results show us that when we focus our attention, we can make big strides.
