#FoodforThought campaign
About Food for Thought
This campaign is using art to raise awareness about hunger in the Middle East, bringing different meanings and voices to the table. Thought-provoking calligraphy art and powerful messages featured on empty plates are meant to spark discussions and draw attention to the world’s biggest solvable problem — hunger. By engaging some the most-renowned regional food bloggers and their social media audiences, we are aiming to raise awareness and increase public engagement.
Hunger facts
Hunger kills more people each year than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. In a world where we produce enough food to feed everyone, 815 million people across the globe still go to bed hungry every night. Eradicating hunger by 2030 would mean that we have to rethink how we grow, share and consume our food.
The story of empty plates
Instagram is a social media platform of choice for all things food, where food lovers publish and discuss mouth-watering photos of delicious dishes from every corner of the world. Many of 40 million photos published on Instagram every day show delicious, gourmet, fresh and healthy meals. Although aimed at the same audience, the campaign’s empty plates tell a very different story — a story of hunger millions across the globe are living in and with every day.
Zero Hunger by 2030
In 2015, the global community adopted the 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development to improve people’s lives by 2030. The SDGs represent an integrated and comprehensive approach to sustainable development that place the eradication of hunger, malnutrition and poverty at the core of the agenda. WFP aligns itself with two of the 17 global Sustainable Development Goals: SDG2 — Zero Hunger, which aims to eradicate hunger by 2030, and SDG17, which promotes both public and private partnerships.
WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience. Due to ongoing conflicts, more than half of the WFP budget goes to the Middle East region and the Arab world. WFP is delivering food and providing cash assistance to millions of people in Yemen, Syria and Iraq as well as helping Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries rebuild their lives.
WFP is also providing school meals to more than two million vulnerable children in Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Sudan and Yemen, giving them a chance to receive a formal education through food assistance.
