How the World Can End Hunger?
Have you ever tried sleeping at night with an empty stomach? While your tummy rumbles loudly for food, many children and adults around the world suffer from hunger every single day but the world has a solution for this; the solution for hunger is referred to as Zero Hunger. In this article we will talk about Zero Hunger and what steps the world is taking for betterment of people’s lives.
Zero Hunger Facts for Kids
What Is Zero Hunger?
Zero Hunger is a United Nations Sustainable Development Goal that aims to eradicate hunger from the world by the year 2030. People all around the world suffer through hunger. Hunger is defined as not having enough food or nutrients to live a healthy life. Zero Hunger is a global goal that will improve the life quality of millions around the world.
What Are The Causes of Hunger?
Hunger is a huge problem all around the world and there are various reasons that hunger occurs:
- War and Conflicts:
Research suggests that war and conflicts are the major reason for hunger and food insecurity. People who are stuck in war-torn areas or in violent conflicts suffer from lack of access to food the most. The people are unable to feed themselves as they cannot grow crops or take care of animals due to having to survive an unsafe environment like:
- Israel, Palestine War
- Russia, Ukraine War, etc.
- Poverty:
When people are under the poverty line, they cannot afford basic necessities like food for their survival. The people can only rely on themselves, not their government or foreign aid to support them, which causes hunger to be prevalent.
- Climate change and Global warming:
Global issues like climate change and global warming cause floods and droughts to occur, which ruin the lives of many. People lose their lives, homes, crops and cattle to floods and droughts. Food becomes a precious resource in areas that suffer through these disasters and ultimately causes hunger to rise.
What Is Food Waste?
Food waste is when the product is not consumed by humans but wasted or recycled. Food waste is also considered a huge factor that contributes to hunger as food waste results in greenhouse gases being released, which ultimately causes climate change to occur.
Although more than 750 million people go hungry each day, research suggests that 1 billion meals were wasted every single day in 2022, the number keeps increasing as the years pass. Food waste is an issue that needs to be tackled in order to reduce the climate impact and direct impact on the food chain.
How Is The World Fighting Hunger?
The world is fighting to end hunger through various steps. Here is a list of solutions that have been implemented throughout the world to reduce hunger and eventually put an end to it:
- School Meal Programs: Various countries around the world provide school children with a hot, nutrient-packed meal during their school hours. School meal initiative costs are covered by the governments, but it allows children from all backgrounds to study with a full stomach and excel in their studies. These are a few countries that provide children with free lunches:
- Community Gardens: These gardens are shared within a large number of residents in an area that tend to the food that is being grown. Community gardens allow people to be an active part of the food growing process and enable them to escape hunger. These gardens can be established in any suitable place which receives the right amount of sunlight and care!
- Food Banks and Pantries: Food banks collect, store and serve people in an area with fresh food and meals. These food banks are very common in the United States and they receive donations from various Non-profit Organisations and local restaurants. Food pantries are a great way to help people escape hunger and receive nutrients to live a healthy life, but for these food banks to function the community needs to donate and volunteer to help the people around.
How Zero Hunger Helps Everyone
In order to understand why zero hunger is important, try to understand this analogy; imagine you are in a car and fuel is your food, without fuel you will not work or move, you will not be able to do anything. Hence, we understand why zero hunger is important and how it helps people:
- Children who are healthy and have full stomachs can study well and be an active part of society.
- Families will be stronger and can participate actively in the economy and provide for themselves.
- When hunger decreases in people, so does death and sickness, according to research hunger is a major cause of death around the world.
What Kids Can Do to Help Zero Hunger
Children can take many steps to help zero hunger. Here are some steps that you can take at home, in school and in your community:
- At Home: You can begin by trying not to waste your food, fill your plate with what you can eat and try your best to clean your plate! Eat a healthy fulfilling diet when available and even try new vegetables.
- At School: Various schools allow children to join a garden club, so if your school has such activities you should definitely join. Such activities will allow you to learn how to grow and take care of plants and eventually let you grow your own food as well!
- In the Community: You can donate canned foods to your local food bank or pantry or you can join a community garden to help take care of plants, etc. These activities should be performed with your guardian.
Facts About Zero Hunger
- The World’s 2nd Sustainable Development Goal (also called The Global Goal) is Zero Hunger by the year 2030.
- It is a sad fact that 750 million people are going hungry every single day.
- Factors like poverty cause world hunger.
- Did you know girls and women are more at risk of malnutrition?
- One-fifth of food produced every year in the entire world is wasted which means close to 1 billion meals are wasted every single day.
Conclusion
United, the entire world, including you can help achieve zero hunger. One day no child or adult will need to sleep with an empty stomach as every single person on this planet can help achieve this goal. Children remember everyone including you and your parents can start to change the world for a good cause one step at a time. Zero hunger is an achievable goal and hopefully in the future the world will achieve it!
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Hunger only occur in poor countries?
No, hunger does not occur in poor countries only. People from developed countries can also face hunger due to food insecurity and poverty.
What is a “Jar Challenge”?
A jar challenge is when you try to fit your food waste like leftovers from your plate into a jar for a week. Your goal is to not produce a lot of food waste and even if you do, it should be able to fit in a jar for a week at least.
What causes hunger in the world?
Hunger is caused by various factors in the world like:
- Poverty
- War and Conflicts
- Climate Change
External Links
Unep – World squanders over 1 billion meals a day
Sustain – Which countries are already serving up school food for all?
