The yearly event, World Food Day is taking place on October 16th and this year the theme is social protection and agriculture. The aim of the day is to raise awareness to the amount of children who are going hungry worldwide in order to take actions to prevent and stop this.
Every year an average of 5 million children die under the age of 5 due to malnutrition, which is a shocking statistic. The day is organised by the World Food Programme (WFP) and up to date they provide around 26 million school meals for children across 63 different countries.
The WFP is the largest humanitarian provider of meals to schools throughout the world. The organisation believes that in order for children to concentrate and be educated properly they need a meal with sufficient nutrients. They provide help and support to some of the most vulnerable countries in the world. The school feeding programmes which they implement provide cooked meals, snacks and take home rations to children as this will be sometimes be the only meal which they receive all day. However, the WFP doesn’t just provide food, they work closely with communities to try and help them create their own schemes, also trying to generate awareness between countries.
A study which was conducted during 2013-2014 showed that there were around 3.7 million children living in poverty around the UK, meaning that often they were arriving at nursery/school hungry. A child needs a healthy diet in order to work to their full potential.
Here at REESON we feel that there needs to be more awareness around hunger affecting children in the UK as people are unaware of just how serious the issue is. Over the past 12 months, a record number of Britons have resorted to using food banks. Without organisations such as this one, many children suffer from being hungry and as a result, their productivity, learning and health are affected. Nutritious food and a healthy diet are not always affordable for families and the vulnerable are those that are most likely to suffer. Children can become neglected for many different reasons, such as family tragedies, financial crisis, or any kind of accident at home. The support this organisation offers provides a safety net for children and proves that as a society we can do a lot to change many lives drastically.
The WFP are a life changing organisation who help people all over the world. We all need to work together to reduce children going hungry in the UK by raising awareness and putting actions into place.
