hunger
Drought may mean hunger for 14 million in southern Africa
With rainfall far below normal and the growing season advancing this year, southern Africa will increasingly deplete its food supplies and cash reserves to buy food, said the World Food Program.
Drought threatens to bring hunger to Zimbabwe
A government-owned newspaper says Zimbabwe plans to import up to 700,000 tonnes (28 million bushels) of corn this year to offset crops lost to drought caused by El Niño, said Reuters.
Worst drought in 50 years sparks food emergency in Ethiopia
Millions of Ethiopians will need food aid through 2016 as a result of abnormally low rainfall during the main growing seasons this year, says a monitor funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Climate pact gives priority to food security
The climate-change deal signed in Paris "is a game-changer" for the 800 million hungry people in the world, because it is the first global agreement to give priority to food security, says the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
Food stamps are valuable aid but run short, says report
Some 46 million people, roughly one out of seven Americans, use food stamps each month to help put food on the table, says the White House. A report by the Council of Economic Advisors says, "New research ... shows benefit levels are often inadequate to sustain families through the end of the month.
Climate change likely to worsen global hunger
One out of nine people in the world endures chronic hunger now, and climate change could put as many as 175 million additional people at risk of undernourishment by 2080, says a U.S. paper released today in Paris.
Food assistance ‘not fully solving’ U.S hunger problem
"Hunger is an important problem" in America and public nutrition programs such as food stamps, WIC and school lunch "are addressing ... but not fully solving" persistently elevated rates of hunger, said the co-chairs of the bipartisan National Commission on Hunger.
War is enduring cause of hunger; one in nine undernourished
Hunger levels in 52 countries are "serious" or "alarming" despite progress in reducing food insecurity around the world, says the new edition of the Global Hunger Index. "The countries with the highest and worst GHI scores tend to be those engaged in or recently emerged from war," says the report by International Food Policy Research Institute, Welthungerhilfe, and Concern Worldwide. An unheralded achievement of recent decades, says the report, is the seeming disappearance of "calamitous famines" that kill more than 1 million people.
Food stamp enrollment down by 1 million people this year
Food stamp enrollment is down by an average 1 million people from fiscal 2013, say USDA data, to 46.6 million people for the first seven months of this fiscal year. The decline points to a 2 percent reduction in participation for the fiscal year ending on Sept 30. It would be the first decline in six years.
G-7 goal: End hunger for 500 million people by 2030
The leaders of the Group of Seven major advanced nations, meeting in Germany, said, "As part of a broad effort involving our partner countries, and international actors, and as a significant contribution to the post-2015 development agenda, we aim to lift 500 million people in developing countries out of hunger and malnutrition by 2030."
House passes budget to turn food stamps into block grant
The Republican-controlled House passed a budget that boosts military spending and slashes domestic programs, including Medicaid and food stamps, said the New York Times.
U-Kentucky is tabbed by USDA for rural child-poverty center
The University of Kentucky will establish a Rural Child Poverty Nutrition Center to help local groups find ways to coordinate nutrition programs and reduce food insecurity among children in rural areas.
Conaway – “Disingenuous” to highlight food-stamp amounts
The answer to hunger in America is for government and charities to work together, said House Agriculture chairman Michael Conaway, who said it is "confusing and disingenuous" to suggest food stamps are the only source of meals for poor people. Food stamps "are designed to be supplemental, leaving [the] household responsible for the remaining needs," Conaway said in opening remarks at a hearing on food assistance provided by charities. "Many do so with the help of local organizations ...."
Five countries that could play big role in reducing hunger
The International Food Policy Research Institute says five fast-growing, middle-income nations -- Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and Mexico -- also are home to nearly half the hungry people of the world.
Vilsack: Don’t use “flexibility” as guise to weaken school lunch
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack warned about weakening school food standards in the name of giving schools more leeway to satisfy requirements or to help them prune needless expenditures.
States, tribes will test ways to reduce rural child hunger
Five pilot projects will test ways to reduce child hunger in rural America, with approaches that range from home delivery of food to providing three school meals a day, says the Agriculture Department. The USDA awarded $27 million in grants for the demonstration projects in Virginia, Kentucky and Nevada, and the Chickasaw and Navajo nations, from money provided in the 2010 child-nutrition law.
Food stamp review “is the big deal,” says Conaway
Food stamps, the largest U.S. antihunger program, "lacks a clear mission," said chairwoman Jackie Walorski of the House Agriculture subcommittee on nutrition. In opening a hearing on characteristics of food-stamp recipients, the Indiana Republican said the program, which helps poor people buy food, "is not helping lift people out of poverty." She also complained of "many levels of bureaucracy" and overlapping federal, state and local programs.
Food stamps fail to meet changing needs, says Conaway
The premiere U.S. antihunger program has failed to adjust to changing needs, said Agriculture Committee chairman Michael Conaway, in opening "without preconceived notions" a top-to-bottom review of the food stamp program. Conaway said he is committed to "strengthening the program to serve as a tool to help individuals move up the economic ladder." Indiana Republican Jackie Walorski, who chairs the nutrition subcommittee, said the review could take a couple of years.