world food programme

WFP has signed two agreements with the Russian government to strengthen their existing partnership over the next three years in the battle against global hunger.  Russia will also assist with providing school meals to children in Armenia.

Women form the backbone of the agricultural sector in many countries and play a key role in getting food onto the table. Speaking ahead of International Women's Day, Isatou Jallow, chief of WFP’s Gender Unit, explains the central role that women play in fighting hunger.

Struggling families in coastal Chile are now receiving rations of WFP fortified High Energy Biscuits (HEBs) following two weekend airlifts to Concepcion.  A Chilean student organisation helped to distribute the biscuits to hungry people in the quake zones.

The latest edition of WFP’s annual hunger bytes! competition produced a surge of powerful videos highlighting world hunger. One winner contrasted ‘rich world’ diet culture with the plight of the hungry poor. Another put an emergency food ration in a highly unusual context.

The Ecole Bethlehem in Port-au-Prince was badly damaged in the quake and the building is inaccessible. But the schoolyard has been declared safe and the kitchen and toilet are still functioning. So it has become one of the focal points of WFP's new school meals programme - open to all kids of school age in the area.

Eight weeks after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, WFP is now using a three-pronged approach to target food assistance precisely at the most vulnerable victims of the disaster. School meals, nutritious food products and targeted distributions are the keys to this strategy.

English cricketing stars have taken time out from their tour of Bangladesh for a match of a totally different league, with children from a primary school in Dhaka who receive food assistance from WFP.  The visit was part of the Cricket Against Hunger partnership between WFP and the England and Wales Cricket Board.

WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran has urged doctors and medical experts to put their knowledge to work to support the battle against malnutrition, a factor in 10,000 child deaths every day.

Singer Kris Allen, star of the 2009 American Idol TV talent show, got an insider’s look at an emergency relief operation recently when he spent a day with staff of WFP and other UN agencies in Haiti. He is helping raise awareness and funds for the UN operations.

WFP is setting up Asia’s first Humanitarian Response Depot in Malaysia in order to bolster the humanitarian community’s ability to respond rapidly to emergencies across the continent. Asia is home to more recurring natural disasters than anywhere else in the world.