Mom, the fridge is empty! Where is all the food?

Did you know that 11.3% of the world’s population is hungry? If you think that 11,3% is a small percentage, I’m here to tell you that it represents 805 million people. That’s a lot of people.

Did you also know that from those 805 million people, 60% are women and children? In fact, according to the UN, the number of hungry people in the world could be reduced up to 150 million, if women farmers were given access to the same resources as men.

Every year, approximately 315,00 women in developing countries die during childbirth from haemorrhaging due to being deprived of nutrients like iron. This happens because of the gender inequalities lived in these countries that don’t allow women to have the same privileges as a man.

These numbers become even more shocking when you realize that, in total, we produce enough food, every day, to feed 7.5 billion people. Enough to feed everyone on our planet and we would still have food to spare.

But, if we produce enough food, why are we still fighting against world Hunger?

Because, unfortunately, these people either don’t have a farming landscape or can’t afford any of this food.

Besides that, poverty and hunger live, hand in hand, in a vicious cycle. If you live in extreme poverty, chances are you can’t afford food. If you can’t afford food then you become ill and incapable of working. If you can’t work, you don’t get paid. If you don’t get paid, you can’t afford food.

And the cycle goes on and on.

Ok, but what happens with all the food that we produce?

According to the World Food Programme, ⅓ of all produced food is never consumed. This represents, approximately, 1.3 billion tons of food. It is a phenomenon known as food waste.

We get it, this is a problem, but how can I help?

First, you can start by checking our blog on tips on how to reduce your food waste here since we already established that as a leading problem.

Besides that, you can help by:

1. Food Donation:

Photo by Ricardo Gomez Angel on Unsplash

Although the best to end world hunger is by encouraging a self-sustainable world. Since we can’t achieve that yet, food donations are a good option. You can help by donating, especially canned goods, to local organizations that deliver these donations to the countries in need or to food banks.

2. Empowering Women:

Photo by Omar Lopez on Unsplash

As I told you before, there is a direct correlation between gender inequalities and hunger. By enabling and empowering women to fight for access to food and access to ways of providing for their families.

3. Volunteering:

Photo by Perry Grone on Unsplash

Another great way to help is by volunteering and aiding on this subject. If volunteering is on your bucket list and you would like to help a cause like this and you want to take action, you can go to aiesec.org and find thousands of projects that AIESEC provides, all related to an SDG. You can work to help SDG 2 — Zero Hunger, SDG 4 — Quality Education, SDG 5 — Gender Equality and SDG 10 — Reduced Inequalities. All these are problems that relate to world hunger. And all can be tackled.

The best way to end this problem is to raise awareness and take action. So do it. Get out of your comfort zone and help and speak up at aies.ec/youthspeak19. Also, check out the Food Heroes guide book by UNICEF’s World’s Largest Lesson initiative which aims at teaching responsible consumption.