This week, global leaders convened for the World Summit on Food Security held at the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) headquarters in Rome.  They met to discuss the global hunger crisis and the effects high food costs, climate change, and agriculture have on food insecurity.  On Monday, the attendees unanimously adopted the Declaration of the World Summit on Food Security, which recommitted United Nations members to the cause of eliminating hunger from our planet. 

In 2000, the United Nations established a series of goals to ease global suffering in a variety of forms.  There are eight goals with twenty-one targets that comprise the Millennium Development Goals, including promoting health, education, and gender equality worldwide. 

Goal One: eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.  There can be no peace, no justice, and no equality if people do not have the food they need to live and thrive.  Ertharin Cousin, United States Ambassador to the FAO said, “For the first time, instead of setting wishful goals, we acknowledge that there is a goal that exists and affirm a plan to reaching that existing goal.”

Feed The Children is proud to be a part of the solution to ending food insecurity around the world.

Yesterday, the United States Department of Agriculture released its new report, “Food Security in the United States, 2008,” which shows that 49 million Americans are hungry or at risk of hunger, including nearly 17 million children. These numbers represent huge increases over the previous year–and yet they don’t reflect the full effect of the economic downturn, much of which has occurred in recent months.

The number of children in food insecure households jumped 34% in 2008 to nearly 16.7 million children. The report shows that households with children had nearly twice the rate of food insecurity, 21%, as those without children, 11.3%. Additionally, 12 million adults and 5 million children lived in households with very low food security, meaning that people in the household reduced their food intake or skipped meals because there wasn’t enough money for food. Although adults in the household typically adjust their eating patterns to shield children from hunger, in 2008, 1.1 million children still went without food at some point during the year.

Feed The Children’s Americans Feeding Americans Emergency Caravan™ has provided over 29,000 hurting families across America with nutritious food and personal care items so far. Now more than ever, it’s important to keep our Americans Feeding Americans Emergency Caravan™ on the road.

It’s no surprise given the state of the American economy that the number of homeless families is on the rise. According to the National Center on Family Homelessness, hundreds of thousands of American families become homeless every year, including 1.5 million children.

The economy is prompting a surge in a particular breed of homeless youth: runaways. Many government and advocacy organizations are reporting that as more families contend with poverty, unemployment, and foreclosures, the number of juveniles living on their own is rising, including many children under the age of 13.

The New York Times recently reported that an estimated 1.6 million juveniles run away or are thrown out of their homes annually. Runaway youth have a particularly hard time because they are often too young to sign a lease or find legitimate employment. Exposure to violence is often a way of life for many homeless children and youth: by age 12, 83% have been exposed to at least one serious violent event and almost 25% have witnessed acts of violence within their families.