Hunger-Undernutrition Blog

Toast to 2011

As we toast to 2011 and say our New Year's resolutions, let's also toast to the many 2010 global accomplishments related to hunger and undernutrition. Let's also keep our resolutions lofty for the upcoming year. Here are a few 2010 accomplishments to celebrate:

• Hunger reports and journals, such as the Bread for the World Institute's 2011 Hunger Report and Feeding America's Hunger in American 2010 
• Conferences like the First Global Conference on Biofortification hosted by HarvestPlus and the 2010 Borlaug Dialogue hosted by the World Food Prize
• Partnerships like AARP and Jeff Gordon's race to beat hunger and Taste of the NFL
• World Prize Food Laureates winners David Beckmann of Bread for the World and Jo Luck of Heifer International at the World Food Prize
• 1,000 Days movement and the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) framework

Please comment below and list other accomplishments related to hunger and undernutrition that we can be thankful for this year.

As we toast to 2011, let us also toast to you. Thank you for your work across sectors and organizations to fight against global hunger and undernutrition challenges. Also, a special thanks to our weekly guest bloggers for taking time to share about their work related to these issues.

In my opinion, however, our work is just beginning. New challenges like climate change, global warming, new technologies, aid spending targets, economic challenges and global conflict make our work in this field a growing challenge. 

Stay tuned and follow along on the Hunger and Undernutrition blog to learn about new thoughtful insights, approaches, and opportunities to ensure access to high-quality, nutritious food for all. Happy 2011!

it doesn't take much...

Guest blog by Ray Buchanan, with Stop Hunger Now

It's Christmas Eve. The last minute shoppers are in crisis mode as they battle other panic-filled members of their kind. It's a ugly consumeristic feeding frenzy. And it is a snapshop of the misplaced values that have overtaken the true spirit of the season.

The search for the perfect gift has never been more diffficult, nor more expensive. At least, that's the case for those of us who don't know the fear of being constantly stalked by hunger. For the majority of the world who live in the shadow of famine, the perfect gift is much simpler.

The perfect gift for a hungry child is food. It is always the same and it is always that simple. It's also the gift that can keep on giving. Food can not only be life-saving, it can be life-transforming.

I just returned from three weeks in Africa. I visited over twenty school feeding centers where Stop Hunger Now meals are being fed to kids to encourage them to attend school and get an education. I talked with dozens of school and community leaders in five countries about school feeding programs, and their message was clear and consistent.

The poignant words of Jane, the founder of a community center and school in the the Muthare Valley slums of Nairobi, sum up what I heard from Uganda to Lesotho and from Kenya to Swaziland.

"It doesn't take much to do good," Jane said to me. "It only takes a piece of bread and a cup of tea."

A piece of bread and a cup of tea offered to a handful of street children was the start of Jane's school in the Muthare Valley. Now, twelve years later, the school has hundreds of students and they consistently rank near the top of the standard school testing done in Kenya.

According to Jane, and the dozens of other principals and headmasters with whom I talked, food is the absolutely essential element in getting kids into school. The mantra which I heard from every leader I interviewed was:

without food the kids do not come to school
without school there is no education
without education there is no hope,
there is no future.

School feeding programs work. They are a proven, effective way the change the course of a child's life forever. Kids come to school because they know they will be fed, and fed every day. School feeding programs mean they won't have to scavenge the dump or beg on the street.

But, the kids receive far more than just a hot meal. At school they receive that critical foundation of education that helps them envision a future filled with hope and promise.

No, it really doesn't take much to make a real difference. A piece of bread and a cup of tea is a small thing when compared to an IPAD or a 50 inch Flatscreen. But to a hungry child, it is the perfect gift.

Engaging Students in the Fight Against Global Hunger

 Guest Blog by Tommy Tobin, Stanford Project on Hunger 

  As anti-hunger advocates, we can engage university students in our work, leveraging their energy and piquing their interest in a most unlikely place: the university dining hall.

    Inspiring students to have their hearts and hands follow their stomachs brings a new generation of anti-hunger advocates into the fold, channeling new voices and ideas into our work.

    At colleges and universities across the world, dining institutions consistently provide buffet-style dining for thousands of students, creating substantial levels of excess food. Within these dining halls, food waste is almost inevitable, as the exact number of individuals at any given meal cannot be accurately forecasted prior to mealtimes. Moreover, dining administrators face an incentive to overproduce within the context of this uncertain information. Food waste is even budgeted into the operational costs of university dining systems and all too often this excess food produced is just tossed into the trash.

    Talking to dining hall staff in a personal and an organized fashion is among the simplest ways that students can make an impact. Restaurateur Aaron French, who operates the blog Eco-Chef.com, noted “Despite how it may appear, it is extremely important to chefs and dining hall managers that their customers, the students, like their food.” Students get to “vote with their forks,” selecting what they want to eat, the size of their portions, and the amount of food they leave on their plate.

    On a broader level, students can organize to make change happen. Based on student interest, Stanford University and colleges around the world have gone tray-less to varying degrees. A report from Aramark notes that tray-less programs can cut post-consumer food waste by 25-30%. Compounding these efforts, students can encourage their peers to take less food. Students can also push for more sustainable sourcing at their campus, arguing for local, organic food with more limited environmental impact.

    While efforts to raise awareness, pursue source reduction, and motivate sustainable sourcing are worthwhile, Douglas Casson Coutts, a UN World Programme official, highlighted service-learning and food recovery as two of the most powerful student interventions. Coutts sees student action at university dining systems as a way “for students to give their time – their most scarce resource – to meet the community and fight hunger.” Over the past two years, Professor Coutts’ has seen his Hunger Studies classes at Auburn University balloon from 20 students to 72, as students see that whatever their major, from agriculture to business or from engineering to politics, “they learn that hunger is an issue that can be solved within their lifetime and that they can have a part to play in it no matter what their chosen profession or career path in life.”

    For Coutts, the recovery of unused food to feed the community is plain “obvious.” Successful food recovery programs, according to food waste expert Jonathan Bloom, are those that “get healthy food that would otherwise be thrown away to those in need…the important thing is getting needed calories to the hungry, which as a bonus keeps food out of the landfill.”

    Programs like Student Food Rescue at Boston University and the DC Central Kitchen’s multi-campus Campus Kitchens Project illustrate the potential of food recovery programs to utilize a wasted resource. The Stanford Project on Hunger salvages approximately 14,000 pounds of food every year to provide over 50,000 meals for the local community.

    Hunger and environmental degradation are two problems waiting for solutions. Students can act as agents of change, recovering food for the hungry and advocating for sustainable dining practices. Hundreds of students around the world are participating in programs like Universities Fighting World Hunger, Campus Kitchens, or Slow Food. We can engage students to change the world through action on their own campuses. Let’s start now.

 

Tommy Tobin graduated in 2010 from Stanford University, where he led the Stanford Project on Hunger to recover over 100,000 meals for his community. Tommy is the President and Founder of Project FeedBack, a nascent food recovery organization.

This post is adapted from his piece entitled “Sustainability in University Dining Halls,” published in the Fall 2010 issue of the national student periodical Business Today (pp. 44-46).

Fighting Deadly Malnutrition in D.R. Congo

Guest blog by Susannah Masur, with Action Against Hunger

The Democratic Republic of Congo is still a nation in crisis, reeling from years of brutal conflict and neglect, and struggling with widespread poverty, food insecurity, uneven economic development, and regional instability. As a result, the country experiences routine outbreaks of acute malnutrition that threaten thousands of lives.

I just returned from Kisangani, a mid-sized city that hugs the banks of the famed Congo River, to document Action Against Hunger’s partnership with the Congolese Ministry of Health to combat deadly malnutrition in the three health zones around the city.

This year, in collaboration with local health authorities we treated a record 35,000 cases of severe acute malnutrition across the country by employing a community-based model that is revolutionizing care for the life-threatening condition. I wanted to see the model at-work in the areas around Kisangani, where child malnutrition is rife and the effects of the second Congolese civil war can still be seen in the bombed out buildings and crumbling infrastructure.

In outpatient centers managed by the Congolese Ministry of Health and integrated into the local health system, nurses trained and equipped by Action Against Hunger are treating and monitoring acutely malnourished children during their weekly visits.

Now, because of a national nutrition protocol and specially-formulated Ready-to-Use Foods (RUFs) like Plumpy’nut, malnourished children can visit the outpatient centers once a week to get a medical check-up, be weighed and measured, and receive therapeutic RUFs to consume at home. In the past, all treatment for acute malnutrition required prolonged hospitalization.

This video shows the community-based model in action.

 

Children whose condition has deteriorated to such an extent that they require hospitalization receive intensive care in therapeutic Stabilization Centers, which are set up in local and regional hospitals. After these children have recovered, they are admitted to the outpatient nutrition program for continued treatment until the target weight is reached. The vast majority of them return to full health within six weeks.

 

This video shows a mother and her child receiving life-saving care at a Stabilization Center in the Wanie Rukula health zone.

 

In both outpatient and inpatient centers, staff members discuss the children’s progress with their parents and teach them basic nutrition and hygiene practices to improve their health. Action Against Hunger provides technical and organizational training for the centers’ staff, equipment and therapeutic nutrition products, as well as financial support for badly underfunded hospitals and health centers to purchase medicine and other essentials. This year 3,200 doctors and nurses received comprehensive training on care for severely malnourished children through the program.

 

But success is not only measured by our rapid response to outbreaks of malnutrition, it is also determined by our ability to transfer full responsibility for the nutrition programs over to the Ministry of Health—in effect, to work ourselves out of a job. When the crisis subsides and we can eventually depart, the local health system we have strengthened will continue to support improvements in communities’ nutritional health. This is our legacy, and, with the help of committed partners, we hope it is one that endures.

Susannah Masur is the Communications Officer at Action Against Hunger. To learn more about ACF, visit http://www.actionagainsthunger.org or follow the organization on Twitter or Facebook.

Providing the Skills—and the Confidence—Needed to Improve Livelihoods

Cross posted from Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet.

For most women living in rural and remote parts of India, the day begins as early as 3:00am. The flour for the day’s meals needs grinding, livestock need to be fed, breakfast needs to be cooked, and water needs to be carried from wells, rivers, and streams. And that’s all before the children—usually just the boys— head off to school for the day.

In general, in rural India women work more and sleep less than their male counterparts. And they have almost no access to education.

The Mona Foundation’s Barli Development Institute for Rural Women in Indore, India is working to change that problem.  The Institute provides education to young women in India in order to help them develop practical skills like reading, sewing, and horticulture—and more abstract ones like confidence and self esteem— they need in order to start businesses, produce food, care for their families, and improve their livelihoods.

Women attending the Institute are taught to read at a level that prepares them to sit for the National Open School theory exams. They are introduced to new methods of irrigation, composting and crop cultivation, and then taught to weigh their crops, assign value to harvests, estimate costs, count cash and give change. Women learn how to grow indigenous plants, prepare traditional meals and natural remedies for minor ailments, as well as how protecting trees, collecting and saving seeds, and using compost can benefit both the local environment and the farm. In rural India, 90 percent of births take place at home so the Institute also teaches students about prenatal health and care, as well as how to identify emergencies, prepare for birthing, and ensure a sanitary delivery. The school also provides classes on forming and running micro-credit groups and managing small businesses.

But just as important as the practical skills they gain, is the self-confidence young women need to put those skills to use. The Institute helps its students develop their leadership skills and recognize the important contributions women make to the community.  Classes include lessons on problem solving, group discussion participation, and public speaking.

The Institute started its first classes with 19 students in 1985 and since then it has trained over 4,000 young women from the state of Madhya Pradesh and other parts of India. One of these young women is named Antari who, before attending the Institute, had dropped out of school three times. She was very shy and had trouble keeping up with her studies. But the Barli Institute catered specifically to the kinds of skills that Antari needed to earn a living and gain self-confidence. She learned sewing and embroidery and was soon helping to teach other students.

When Antari went back to her village she was able to start her own tailor shop and six months later she took the higher education exams.  She did well enough to attend University where she eventually got a Bachelor of Education and a Masters of Philosophy in Education. Now she is a post-graduate student in Hindi Literature and working as a teacher.

From a young girl who would hide behind her classmates during lessons, Antari has grown into a poised, educated, and financially independent professional who is now helping to give back by helping other young girls gain an education and learn the value of their own potential.

To learn more about innovations that help to empower women for the benefit of the entire community, see: Farming on the Urban Fringe, Building a Methane Fueled Fire, Women Entrepreneurs: Adding Value, Women Farmers Are Key to Halving Global Hunger by 2015, For Many Women, Improved Access to Water is About More than Having Something to Drink, Feeding Communities by Focusing on Women, and Reducing the Things They Carry.

<i>Thank you for reading! As you may already know, Danielle Nierenberg is traveling across sub-Saharan Africa visiting organizations and projects that provide environmentally sustainable solutions to hunger and poverty.  She has already traveled to over 19 countries and visited 130 projects highlighting stories of hope and success in the region. She will be in Nigeria next, so stay tuned for more writing, photos and video from her travels.</i>   

<i>If you enjoy reading this diary, we blog daily on  <a href="http://blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/">Nourishing the Planet</a>, where you can also sign up for our newsletter to receive weekly blog and travel updates.  Please don’t hesitate to comment on our posts, we check them daily and look forward to an ongoing discussion with you. You can also <a href="http://twitter.com/worldwatchag">follow us</a> on Twitter and <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nourishing-the-Planet/111439225551897">Facebook.</a></i>

Thank you for reading! As you may already know, Danielle Nierenberg is traveling across sub-Saharan Africa visiting organizations and projects that provide environmentally sustainable solutions to hunger and poverty. She has already traveled to over 19 countries and visited 130 projects highlighting stories of hope and success in the region.
If you enjoy reading this diary, we blog daily on Nourishing the Planet, where you can also sign up for our newsletter to receive weekly blog and travel updates. Please don’t hesitate to comment on our posts, we check them daily and look forward to an ongoing discussion with you. You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Sneak Preview: State of the World 2011

Cross posted from Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet.

In just a few short weeks State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet will be launched! We're excited to share with you a sneak preview of Chapter 1 entitled, "Charting a New Path to Eliminating Hunger," authored by co-project directors Brian Halweil and Danielle Nierenberg.

State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet will illuminate a new generation of innovative approaches to hunger alleviation that has emerged from farmers' groups, private voluntary organizations, universities, and agribusiness companies. After traveling to 25 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and visiting over 200 projects, groups, and individuals, we found that while these organizations span a large variety of industries and disciplines, they all share the common goal of equipping farmers with the tools to improve their livelihoods and feed their communities while also protecting local ecosystems. And many of their solutions are working.

These projects and voices from the field have been combined with expert input from over 60 contributing authors, creating a roadmap to help guide policy-makers, farmers, NGOs, agribusiness, and development agencies in making more informed decisions regarding food production and food security goals.

Our research has illustrated that there is no one single solution. The first chapter of State of the World 2011 describes three major shifts to be made within the food system, moving beyond new seed development as the default solution to hunger and poverty and focusing more broadly than just increasing production to find the solutions in making better use of what we already have. Click HERE to download Chapter 1 and read them for yourself.

We'll be launching the book in New York City at WNYC Radio's The Greene Space on January 12th, followed by a State of the World Symposium on January 19th at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC. We hope many of you can join us at both events, which will also be broadcast live on www.nourishingtheplanet.org. Stay tuned for more information.

For information on how to pre-purchase the book now click HERE.

Thank you for reading! As you may already know, Danielle Nierenberg is traveling across sub-Saharan Africa visiting organizations and projects that provide environmentally sustainable solutions to hunger and poverty. She has already traveled to over 25 countries and visited 200 projects highlighting stories of hope and success in the region.

If you enjoy reading this diary, we blog daily on Nourishing the Planet, where you can also sign up for our newsletter to receive weekly blog and travel updates. Please don’t hesitate to comment on our posts, we check them daily and look forward to an ongoing discussion with you. You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.