Hunger & Food Insecurity
Food insecurity, or, not knowing from where your next meal is coming, is an on-going, global problem. Hunger and food insecurity is a problem in Brown County, too. Estimates by “Feeding America” show nearly 10% of the population in the county will experience food insecurity in 2021. Hunger issues have been negatively affected by COVID-19 with job and income loss.
The profound nature of hunger crises around the world should shock us. Across the world there are areas affected by drought, and even worse, by human caused famines. Warring countries and civil unrest are currently causing starvation in Ethiopia, in the region of Tigray. While tons of food are available to be delivered, Ethiopian national forces and the rebels of Tigray have created conditions whereby the food cannot be delivered.
In Yemen, a civil war has raged since 2014 and as a result, tens of thousands of children have died to malnutrition, and around 2 million children under age 5 are currently malnourished. In September of 2021, the United Nations anticipated that 13 million people in Yemen may starve if food aid is not received. This is the worst of the current humanitarian crises, but not the only one. Afghanistan, Venezuela, and the Democratic Republic of Congo are other areas with profound needs. Do a search on “current humanitarian crises” and inform yourself of these tragedies.
Here are some brief facts about world hunger from ActionAgainstHunger.org:
· There is more than enough food produced in the world to feed everyone on the planet. (My emphasis)
· As many as 811 million people worldwide go to bed hungry each night.
· Small farmers, herders, and fishermen produce about 70 percent of the global food supply, yet they are especially vulnerable to food insecurity – poverty and hunger are most acute among rural populations.
· Conflict is a cause and consequence of hunger. In 2020, conflict was the primary driver of hunger for 99.1 million people in 23 countries
· An estimated 14 million children under the age of five worldwide suffer from severe acute malnutrition, yet only 25 percent of acutely malnourished children have access to lifesaving treatment.
Many of you pray for the hungry at Mass, and it is a good and necessary prayer. And, we need to understand that other prayers are related to hunger, for instance, when we pray for peace, or for the needs of refugees and immigrants. As you see above, there is enough food produced in the world for everyone. Let us become more effective in delivering food to where it is needed, to the hungry everywhere!
Peace, Fr. Andy