Before working at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), I seldom thought about the food and nutritional needs of children who are incarcerated or residing in Residential Child Care Institutions (RCCIs). These include juvenile detention and correctional facilities, group homes, or any public or private non-profit residential facility that operates principally to care for children and includes educational instruction.

While working at the USDA, I briefly had an assignment focused on school meals and RCCIs that included a site visit to Nashville, Tennessee. It was a rare moment where my personal and work worlds collided.

As a young person growing up in Southeast San Diego, I knew many children from my neighborhood, from school, and in my own family, who went to “juvy,” or juvenile detention.

It was often a distressing experience for the child and their parents because so many factors were out of their control. Would they be treated fairly in court? Depending on the actions that landed them in juvenile detention, would they be retaliated against, or seek retaliation? Would they fall behind in school? I remember these questions percolating, but not so many concerns about what they would eat, or the quality of their food, while in detention.

Bread for the World and other organizations have advocated for access to SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, for citizens returning to the community. We have written about the depravity of mass incarceration. We have also pointed out that the incarceration of parents can exacerbate household food insecurity, especially for children. We have proclaimed boldly that SNAP is a crucial resource needed for human flourishing and that children, and their futures, must be nourished.

Children who are incarcerated or in pre-trial detention, and who are separated from their families, must also be nourished with healthy food. The USDA Food and Nutrition Service responded to this need, in part, by making meals provided by the National School Breakfast (SBP) and School Lunch (NSLP) programs reimbursable and flexible for RCCIs. While many facilities can typically procure their own food service provider, RCCI operators also have this federal option, which offers some of the healthiest options available to children.

The basis for providing the SBP and NSLP to children in RCCIs is just that – they are children. Importantly, they are still entitled to a healthy school meal, just as they would be if they were enrolled in a typical public school. In 2019, Congress reauthorized the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act. The bill states that “the Attorney General, in consultation with the Secretary of Agriculture, shall provide guidance to States relating to existing options for school food authorities in the States to apply for reimbursement for free and reduced price lunches under the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act for juveniles who are incarcerated and would, if not incarcerated, be eligible for free or reduced price lunches under that Act.” That one line set the stage for more opportunities for USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) and the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, or OJJDP, to work together on this issue.

On a site visit to the Juvenile Court of Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County, I saw some of this work in action, particularly for young people in pre-trial detention. According to the DOJ, pre-trial detention is intended to provide protection to the public, supervision to the child, and the guarantee of a court appearance.  At this particular facility, the staff wanted to learn more about opportunities and challenges with operating school meal programs, and how they could improve the taste and nutritional quality of their meal offerings. My colleagues from USDA were experts in administering the school breakfast and school lunch programs. Listening to the staff’s perspectives and challenges helped them become better equipped to inform future federal guidance on this policy.

On this visit, we also had the opportunity to meet with and listen to representatives from the Council of Juvenile Justice Administrators (CJJA), many of whose members make the decisions about what food offerings will be available to the young people in their facilities.

In all, the visit illustrated that FNS cares deeply about how their programs are administered and that some elected judges, like the Honorable Sheila Calloway, who welcomed us into her courtroom, also care deeply about the well-being of children under their care and authority. But we must remember that these are not revelatory interventions.  

Administering USDA’s school breakfast and school lunch programs is not a sweeping solution to improving the meal offerings in RCCIs, but it is an important alternative in a space where food environments can be fraught and under resourced. Children, whether in a classroom, an RCCl, or before a judge, still deserve the best future possible, and healthy food is crucial to nourishing their future.

Sakeenah Shabazz is deputy director, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

The post Juvenile Justice and Child Nutrition appeared first on Bread for the World.

Food security requires not only that people have access to enough calories, but that they can consistently meet the nutritional requirements for an active life through affordable, accessible, and healthier diets.  

Malnutrition is particularly dangerous for children, who require the right nutrients at the right time to grow and develop properly. Nearly half of all deaths among children under 5 are due to malnutrition, often because malnourished children are more likely to die from illnesses that healthy children almost always survive.  

In 2022, 193 million children experienced some form of malnutrition, and 56 percent of children were deficient in at least three key micronutrients. For children in many parts of the world, weather extremes and changing environments are making it more difficult for families to meet their nutritional needs. 

For example, evidence shows that environmental shifts such as rainfall variability and higher temperatures correlate with adverse health and nutrition outcomes among newborns and older children. For rural and small-scale farming communities that face heightened climate risks, their ability to produce nutritious food or earn enough money to afford a nutritious diet is jeopardized.

In a study conducted on the impact of climate change on key micronutrient availability, the essential micronutrients identified as threatened by climate change include folate, vitamin B12, iron, vitamin A, and calcium. These nutrients are important for both children and pregnant women. Nearly 50 countries face a high risk of micronutrient insufficiency linked to climate change. 

The study includes additional details on Zambia, one of the countries at highest risk of micronutrient deficiencies in the coming years. Although this report warns of future challenges, many children in Zambia are already enduring the consequences of extreme environmental changes on their health.

This includes eight-month-old Hasan. Hasan was born healthy in Northern Zambia’s Zambezi District, but due to food shortages exacerbated by a months-long drought, he quickly became frail from malnutrition. He was dehydrated to the point that he could not produce tears when he cried. His mother, Minerva, knew that Hasan’s health was deteriorating. She carried him for more than three hours to reach a hospital that could help. Once provided with Ready to Eat Therapeutic Foods (RUTFs), a highly nutritious peanut-butter-like paste, Hasan recovered from malnutrition.  

While Hasan’s story is one of improvement thanks to emergency food assistance, more sustainable solutions are needed to prevent hunger, malnutrition, and suffering. Building long-term resilience to climate shocks can help vulnerable communities withstand the harmful effects of extreme weather shocks such as prolonged drought.  

Resilience building can take many forms, such as scaling up climate-smart and diversified agricultural practices, facilitating water management and irrigation projects, or providing better training and market opportunities for rural smallholder farmers.  

To ensure that global and national policy frameworks can protect child nutrition and family health in a changing environment, decision-makers everywhere need to safeguard nutrition security from climate shocks.  

Policies that fund emergency food assistance and resilience-building activities for smallholder farmers and food systems can help in the immediate term. More publicly-funded research on the impacts of climate change on nutrition security is still needed. It is a worthwhile investment that can lead to better and safer policy and program responses. 

Isabel Vander Molen is a climate advisor, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

The post Safeguarding Nutrition for Babies Like Hasan in a Changing World appeared first on Bread for the World.

Child hunger is a local and a global problem, but together, we can make a difference.

Ask your senators and representatives to protect, restore, and secure robust funding for global nutrition programs, and to fully fund and strengthen the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).

The post Urge Congress to Protect and Strengthen Child Nutrition Programs appeared first on Bread for the World.

This is an existential threat and an escalation of persistent efforts to disrupt U.S. assistance to vulnerable people around the world. The first Trump administration, 2017-2021, had a record of efforts to cut support for essential humanitarian and development programs. Among its proposals were cutting off aid to the countries in Central America’s Northern Triangle over issues of immigration and asylum-seekers, approving U.S. assistance only to countries that voted with the United States at the United Nations, and slashing the budget of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) by nearly a third. 

During the 2024 presidential campaign, multiple conservative policy platforms championed many of the same ideas, even proposing an immediate freeze on disbursing resources until after an assessment of the programs, using the lens of their political views, was complete. 

This is precisely what the Trump administration has done. Each administration has the right to review its programs, but it should conduct its review without interrupting lifesaving programs, as past administrations have done. 

U.S. foreign assistance, dating back to the Marshall Plan following World War II, is designed to serve the U.S. national interest. But it also considers other priorities. One important consideration is that U.S. foreign assistance should represent American values. 

Human needs should be the main consideration when it comes to allocating U.S. assistance. The Sustainable Development Goals, adopted globally in 2015, emphasize that objectives such as ending hunger and expanding access to education apply to everyone. They are universal. No one should be left behind as the global economy grows and changes. Countries with the highest levels of hunger, deep poverty, death from preventable causes, or other measures of suffering should be prioritized. 

One of the most essential programs, operating since the 1960s, is lifesaving nutrition assistance. In some years, tens of millions of people have received food. The assistance goes mainly to women and children because they are at highest risk of hunger and malnutrition. In 2023, USAID nutrition programs reached more than 39 million women and children globally with critical nutrition assistance, including:

• 28 million children with nutrition services
• 11 million women with micronutrient supplements and counseling on maternal and child nutrition
• 6 million infants and young children, whose families and caregivers are provided with nutrition resources, programs, and education 
• 256,000 people with professional training in nutrition and skills development programs to equip them to deliver nutrition services

The stop-work order threatens global health. Disease does not respect borders. Even a brief pause in disease prevention and control programs can lead to a spike in infections like malaria and HIV, and Americans will be affected. 

One major U.S. health initiative, launched in 2003 under President George W. Bush, was the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Every day, more than 222,000 people received medication to keep HIV in check. At the time of the stop-work order, PEPFAR was providing HIV treatments to nearly 680,000 pregnant women living with HIV. Because this treatment prevents transmission of the virus during childbirth, the 90-day “pause” that was been ordered was projected to lead to the birth of nearly 136,000 HIV-positive babies.

Humanitarian and development assistance often contributes to and reinforces other U.S. foreign policy goals. Feed the Future, the flagship global food security initiative of the United States, was a whole-of-government initiative that brought together a range of U.S. federal agencies and other stakeholders to work toward ending hunger, poverty, and malnutrition. 

Feed the Future also benefitted the U.S. economy. In the first decade of its operations, Feed the Future enabled the development of agricultural markets in its focus countries. U.S. agriculture and food exports to Feed the Future countries increased by $1.4 billion.

For decades, the American people have, in solidarity, provided aid to their neighbors in need. Foreign assistance, while strategic for our national interest, is about living up to American values and meeting human needs. We do it because we can. The Bible is clear, reminding us that as we do unto the ‘least of these’ among us, we do as unto Jesus (Matthew 25:40). 

Jordan Teague Jacobs is senior international policy advisor with Bread for the World Institute.

The post Meeting Human Needs Because We Can appeared first on Bread for the World.

In our last piece on protecting the lives of the very youngest children, those in the “neonatal” period between birth and four weeks old, we listed some factors that have enabled Bangladesh to make significant progress on newborn survival and health. Among the most important were investing in better roads and more healthcare facilities. In fact, by 2016, nearly all women of reproductive age could reach a healthcare facility within an hour. This contributed to a large increase in the percentage of births taking place with the support of a trained provider—another key factor in safer motherhood and protecting newborn lives. 

Despite fewer material resources, the world’s lowest-income countries have made progress on health indicators such as maternal mortality. Between 2000 and 2020, the group reduced its maternal mortality rate by nearly half, to 409  maternal deaths per 100, 000 live births (the standard way of reporting these statistics) in 2020.

On the other hand, progress has slowed, even stalled, in many countries over the past few years. While certainly broad problems such as the worldwide economic downturn during and after the COVID-19 pandemic and increasing levels of armed conflict are major reasons for this, the fact is that many goals become more difficult to reach as progress continues. The “easier” parts of the problem are naturally solved first, which leaves conditions and barriers that pose the most difficulty for the end. This is sometimes known as the “last mile” problem. 

The Sustainable Development Goals emphasize that “leaving no one behind” is critical to meeting the 17 goals, which include ending hunger and all forms of malnutrition. When it comes to complex problems such as maternal and newborn survival and health, this calls for political commitment, resources, and creative solutions.  

A closer look at the threats to mothers and babies in one of the world’s poorest countries, Chad, illustrates some of the difficult decisions that face public health authorities, healthcare providers, and people who want to start a family.  

Chad is a large, very poor country whose northern border is the Sahara Desert. Geographic isolation is one of the major problems. Without a strong network of roads suitable for vehicles, many people must walk for several hours to reach the nearest health clinic—including women on the verge of giving birth.

Without easy access to skilled healthcare providers, itfollows that one of the leading causes of death among women in Chad is complications of pregnancy and childbirth. The risk of death during pregnancy, childbirth, and the weeks after birth in Chad is one of the highest in the world. In 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported a maternal mortality rate of 1,063 per 100,000 live births (Source: WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, World Bank Group and UNDESA/Population Division (eds)., Geneva, World Health Organization, 2023).

The difficulties of reducing the maternal mortality rate are summed up in the results of research supported by the U.N. Global Fund and the Liverpool School of Medicine. Very limited resources are available, with annual healthcare spending at $29 per person. There is a significant shortage of doctors and nurses/midwives—compared with other countries in Africa, there are 80 to 85 percent fewer healthcare providers. Nearly half of the country’s skilled health workforce is in the capital city of N’Djamena, although less than 10 percent of the population lives there (source: Ministere de la Santé Publique, Plan Stratégique de Santé Communautaire 2015-2018, government of Chad).

Underreporting of maternal deaths is another significant problem. There appears to be little to no recent data on newborn survival and health. Perhaps the most striking difficulty the researchers identified was lack of the information essential to setting priorities and making decisions. Their report, published in December 2024, contains statements such as “… but data on individual interventions in Chad were seldom available” and “As cause-specific maternal mortality data are limited in Chad…”.

Despite all the limitations, the researchers were able to use qualitative interviews, site visits, and data that was available to identify the regions of the country most in need and make a list of the highest-priority actions. As a result, health planners can begin to “develop more equitable frameworks and allocate their resources in ways that have a greater impact.”

Michele Learner is managing editor, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

The post Chad: Preparing to Welcome Newborns appeared first on Bread for the World.

As we strive to end childhood hunger both at home and abroad, we must find ways to turn abundance for some into a world without malnutrition. Understanding the scope and nature of the problem is a vital first step. 

In this article, we will discuss:

• The Prevalence and Impact of Childhood Food Insecurity in the U.S.
• WIC Modernization and Funding
• SNAP and Child Tax Credit
• School and Summer Meal Programs
• The Prevalence and Impact of Childhood Food Insecurity Globally
• The Thousand Days Framework
• Funding Advocacy
  

The Facts About Childhood Hunger in the U.S.

In the United States, 13.5 percent of households consistently struggle to put food on the table. That’s more than 47 million people, including nearly 14 million children. One in five American children is at risk of hunger, and that rate is almost one in three for Black and Latino(a) children. Nearly 38 percent of children with a single mother and 25 percent of children with a single father lack needed nourishment.

Food insecurity looks different for each family affected: adults in households bearing the brunt of restricted access to food by choosing to eat less so that their children have enough food, families skipping meals to stretch limited resources, facing tough choices between buying food or paying for utilities and rent. 

There is enough food produced in the U.S. to feed everyone in the country. Here, and in other wealthier countries, hunger is not a result of food availability, but rather of access. 

Over the last few years, rising inflation has continued to squeeze budgets even further by pushing up the prices of food, rent, and healthcare, causing a growing number of families to grapple with food insecurity and make difficult decisions on how to spend money. 

The Impacts of Childhood Food Insecurity

Insufficient access to food has wide-ranging consequences for children, from education to healthcare, crime, and socialization. 

Children’s performance at school declines when they regularly experience hunger. Concentration, mood, motor skills, and memory can all be affected by an empty stomach, making it difficult to learn and focus in a classroom environment. Children who are hungry have lower scores on measures of vocabulary and letter-word recognition, as well as worse reading and math scores. 

Since education is cumulative, with each year building on the previous one, missing out on key lessons and developmental milestones due to hunger can have long-term effects on academic achievement and future opportunities. 

Food insecure students are about 3.5 times more likely than their peers to consider dropping out of school, and 3 times more likely to forgo academics in favor of earning income to support themselves.

Child hunger leads to higher healthcare costs for families already struggling to pay bills. Underfed children are more likely to be hospitalized, and the average pediatric hospitalization costs over $10,000. Rising healthcare and insurance costs place additional burdens on families, further compounding the challenges they face.

Lastly, kids without enough food are more likely to be disruptive at school and more likely to end up involved in the juvenile justice system. Hunger can impact emotional regulation and decision-making, increasing the risk of conflicts with peers and authority figures both in and outside the classroom.

What We Can Do To Address Domestic Childhood Food Insecurity?

There are many ways to alleviate child hunger. From food banks and community gardens to meal delivery services, sandwich distribution projects, and other programs carried out by churches and charities, people are stepping up to make a difference in their communities regarding hunger. Additionally, federal and state governments have safety-net programs to address this crisis. While every piece of the puzzle is essential to solving a problem this complicated, government programs provide many times more hunger-related assistance than private charities. At Bread, we work to ensure that critical anti-hunger programs – many of which are being challenged in Washington – are funded and expanded when necessary. 

WIC

One federal initiative critical to addressing childhood malnutrition is the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, known as WIC. WIC seeks to bolster the nutrition and healthcare of lower-income pregnant women, women who are breastfeeding, and children under the age of five.

Through the provision of nutritious foods, nutrition education, breastfeeding support, immunization screening, and important health and social services referrals, WIC gives vulnerable families access to essential resources for healthy growth and development. In 2023, the last year data is available, the program reached nearly 6.6 million women and young children, including about 40 percent of all infants born in the U.S.

WIC was launched as a pilot project in 1972 and became a permanent program in 1975. WIC has long enjoyed bipartisan support and funding. Recently, however, its funding has become more politically divisive. For the continued success of families, it’s essential that we help ensure programs like WIC continue to receive broad bipartisan support

In addition to a bipartisan commitment to full funding, WIC needs to be updated for the modern world.  It is vital that Congress reduce barriers and improve access to WIC by providing electronic and telehealth options so that families can become certified and recertified for the program, conduct appointments, and receive benefit payments without burdensome in-person visits.

These improvements help keep families engaged and enrolled in the program – ensuring they have the nutritional support they need.

SNAP

Another federal initiative with a significant impact on childhood food insecurity is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps. SNAP provides food benefits to low-income families to supplement their grocery budget, making nutritious food more affordable for an average of 41 million people in the U.S. per month.

SNAP plays a crucial role in protecting children from hunger during economic downturns and was designed to respond quickly and efficiently to increases in need. During the pandemic, SNAP helped ensure families had the nutrition they needed.

Improving SNAP participation among eligible college students is one way to make the program even more effective. In 2020, an estimated 3.3 million college students were eligible for SNAP benefits. Of those eligible students, 2.2 million students reported that their household did not receive any SNAP benefits. In other words, two-thirds of students who likely meet the stringent eligibility criteria to enroll in SNAP are not benefiting from the program. This is called the “SNAP GAP.” College students who are at risk of food insecurity and eligible to participate should be made aware that they can get help from SNAP.

Child Tax Credit

Another proven policy tool for reducing child poverty and hunger is the child tax credit (CTC). The CTC has strong bipartisan support and was previously expanded under Republican and Democrat congressional majorities, most recently in 2017 and 2021, respectively. The 2021 expanded CTC, significantly reduced child hunger and led to a 50 percent reduction in childhood poverty – a record one-year decline. By extending the full benefit to the lowest income families and allowing families to receive the benefit in monthly payments, the expanded credit allowed millions of households to afford more consistent, nutritious meals for their children.

In 2024, Bread welcomed the House of Representatives’ passage of a child tax credit expansion included in the bipartisan, bicameral Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act. Unfortunately, the Senate failed to move the legislation forward. In the first year, the expansion would have benefited 16 million children, including nearly 3 million kids under the age of three. It was also projected to lift 400,000 children out of poverty.

The clear, data-backed success of expanding the CTC emphasizes how targeted financial policies can directly reduce childhood hunger. Bread for the World continues to urge Congress to expand the child tax credit as a proven step toward prioritizing the reduction of child poverty and hunger.

School and Summer Meals

The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) makes a tangible difference in ensuring that American children have enough to eat. The program provides free or reduced-cost lunches to children and operates in nearly 100,000 schools and childcare institutions. In 2023, the program gave 4.6 billion lunches to nearly 30 million children.

Although a brief two-year period during the pandemic saw a program expansion that gave all children at qualifying schools access to free lunch, regardless of family income, it has since been allowed to expire, despite the efforts of Bread and other advocacy organizations that worked to prevent it from lapsing. 

Still, some states have enacted legislation to establish universal school meals: California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, and Vermont. Children in dozens of other states, however, are being left out. Making school meals available to all children who need them is the original objective of NSLP and the School Breakfast Program.

Collectively, these programs provide tens of millions of children in the U.S. with the nutrition they need to grow and develop. 

The Facts About Childhood Hunger Globally

After decades of progress, global hunger and malnutrition began to reverse course in 2014 and continue to get worse. Conflict and political instability, rising food prices, climate impacts, and economic downturns are primary drivers of the crisis. In 2023, chronic hunger, as measured by not consuming enough calories to lead an active and healthy life, affected about 9.1 percent of the global population – nearly one in every 10 people on Earth. Most of the people living with malnutrition are concentrated in South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Central America.

The United Nations estimates that almost 45 million children under the age of 5 suffer from wasting (a condition whereby a child is severely thin for their height due to poor nutrition). Nearly half of all preventable deaths among children under five are attributed to malnutrition. And yet, we are only able to reach roughly 25 percent of children suffering from the most dangerous form of malnutrition.

Children who survive malnutrition in their early years are at high risk of stunting: lifelong damage to their health and their physical and cognitive development, which experts believe is largely irreversible. More than one-fifth of the world’s children under five, an estimated 22 percent, are affected by stunting.

What We Can Do To Address Global Childhood Food Insecurity

Programs that help prevent and treat child malnutrition in lower-income countries save lives, help communities thrive, and are a truly Christ-inspired approach to foreign assistance. Robustly funding global nutrition programs requires only a tiny fraction of the U.S. federal budget, but will reach millions of children and mothers with lifesaving aid. These programs also support U.S. strategic interests by building and maintaining relationships with partner countries and promoting regional stability.

Although hunger is on the rise, real progress has still been made: extreme poverty has been cut by two-thirds since 1990, as humanitarian aid, debt forgiveness, and sustained global economic growth have cut down the number of people in desperate need. This shows the impact that committed aid can have. 

One strategy to boost global childhood food insecurity is to focus on the first 1000 days, the time between pregnancy and a child’s second birthday – the most critical window for human nutrition. Strategies to address the first 1000 days include treatment of acute malnutrition, education and promotion of breastfeeding, nutrition supplements for children, adolescent girls, and pregnant women, and preventive malaria treatment. 

Government programs often partner with local organizations that are already working to end childhood hunger and malnutrition on the ground. Assistance from the U.S. government gives people tools to help themselves. For nutrition programs to be impactful, they must be funded appropriately, and when they are, history shows the great strides that can be made. With continued and robust funding, U.S. foreign assistance can help cut global childhood malnutrition to nearly zero.

Conclusion

Childhood hunger and malnutrition are crises that we as Christians have an obligation to end. And unlike many problems that we face, it is solvable, through smart policy, strong commitments, and the will to make it happen. We can nourish our future if we choose to; we can help feed a hungry and malnourished world if we follow the teachings and model the love of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

“Let the children come to me, and do not stop them, for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs,” said Jesus in Matthew 19:14 (NRSVUE).

Participate in Bread for the World’s 2025 ‘Offering of Letters’ by emailing your members of Congress and urging them to fully fund and strengthen the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and secure essential funding for global nutrition programs.

The post Improving Child Nutrition At Home and Abroad appeared first on Bread for the World.

Food is fundamental to human life and inextricably connected with a host of other aspects of human society, from agriculture to social status. Ending hunger and malnutrition would bring transformational change to society. Yet the reverse is also true: a world without hunger calls for changes that resolve its root causes. Two of the oldest root causes and perhaps hardest to change: starting wars and marginalizing people based on identity traits like religion, gender, race, and/or national origin. 

A top priority in efforts to end hunger and malnutrition is to dramatically reduce the share of young children with Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM), also known as childhood wasting. SAM is the most severe and dangerous form of childhood malnutrition, and an estimated 45 million to 50 million children under 5, more than 7 percent of all children in this age group, suffer from it.  

As Bread has mentioned, the most familiar use of “wasting” in the United States is in the phrase “wasting away.” Children suffering from wasting or SAM are far too thin. They appear frail and lethargic. But a definition that ends there fails to mention the critical problem that can take children’s lives and damage the health of those who survive—their immune systems are compromised.

Every year, SAM causes the preventable deaths of 2 million children under 5. Frequently, they die of diseases or infections that generally are not life-threatening to healthy children. In fact, the data show that children suffering from severe wasting are up to 12 times as likely to die as well-nourished children. The International Rescue Committee said in 2023 that it is “one of the top threats to child survival” around the world.

As Bread has frequently mentioned, the United States and nearly all other countries adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015. SDG 2 is to end hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2030. The world will be unable to reach SDG 2 without an effective approach to preventing and treating childhood wasting. 

The Global Action Plan on Child Wasting  is part of the effort to reach SDG 2. Released in 2019, it is based on the findings of research into why little progress had been made on reducing wasting between 2015 and 2019. It set two targets: reducing the rate of childhood wasting to below 5 percent by 2025 and to below 3 percent by 2030. 

The Global Action Plan established that it is vital to reduce the incidence of low birthweight through better maternal nutrition. Health providers had known for some time the importance of good nutrition during pregnancy as well as before pregnancy among adolescent girls and young women.

A research team from the Universities of California at Berkeley and San Francisco has recently learned more through a “study of studies,” meaning that the results of several studies (in this case, 33) were combined. Taken together, the studies showed that “early life malnutrition, which is associated with increased risk of disease, impaired cognition, and death, occurs earlier than expected.” This means that good nutrition during pregnancy and prior to pregnancy is even more important than previously understood.

The larger research project is the most comprehensive study to date of growth faltering among children from birth to age 2. Senior author Benjamin Arnold, PhD, MPH, of UC San Francisco, said, “The early onset of growth faltering implies a very early window for intervention, in particular the prenatal period, and potentially broader interventions that help to improve nutrition among women of child bearing age.”

Low birthweight (less than 5.5 pounds) is used as an indication that the mother may be malnourished, but it does not necessarily mean that she is. Still, it is not usually difficult to obtain this information, and tracking community trends is one way of assessing whether, and how well, efforts to improve the nutritional status of the women and girls who live there are working. It may also improve the likelihood that a mother’s later pregnancies, and/or her daughters’ pregnancies, will lead to babies who are born at a healthy weight.  

Michele Learner is managing editor, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World. 

The post Preventing Malnutrition Saves Lives appeared first on Bread for the World.

Bread for the World has been a consistent advocate for the Food Date and Labeling Act, which was introduced in May 2023 by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA) and Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME). They were joined by six cosponsors.  

The goal of this bill is to standardize U.S. food date labels. If it becomes law as part of the U.S. farm bill, which was scheduled for reauthorization in 2023 but has not yet been enacted, the Food Date and Labeling Act will help the United States make progress toward minimizing food waste.

It might seem that food labels would have a minimal impact on hunger in the U.S., but improving labels is important to Bread’s three main tenets of farm bill advocacy: nutrition, equity, and sustainability. Food labels contain information that can enable consumers to make informed decisions about how cost effective, nutritious, and sustainable their grocery options are. 

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), an estimated 30 to 40 percent of the food produced in the United States is not consumed. The resources required to grow, harvest, package, and distribute it are wasted. According to ReFED, one of the leading organizations working to end food waste, the annual cost of food waste to the U.S. food system is $428 billion, distributed among stakeholders such as farmers, businesses, and households. For example, 22 percent of freshwater and 16 percent of cropland in the United States is used to produce food that is then wasted. 

In 2018, the Environmental Protection Agency found that food waste is the largest category of material sent to landfills. Moreover, food waste takes a heavy toll on Earth’s climate, even in addition to the 372 million metric tons of carbon emissions created by producing wasted food. As it breaks down in landfills, food releases methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide. 

Bread, as an anti-hunger organization, continues to emphasize that it is unnecessary for anyone in the U.S. to go hungry. In one study from back in 2010, food that went to waste was found to be worth an estimated $161 billion. Studies like these that reveal the enormous sums of money spent on wasted food confirm that the country does not have to allow hunger to persist. This is something American voters can change. 

There is significant food waste at the household level. It is not clear precisely what share of household food waste is due to confusion over date labels, since shopping and cooking habits vary, but in a 2022 article advocating for passage of the Food Date and Labeling Act, Food Safety News reported that consumer food waste was estimated at 20 percent. In a 2022 study published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Research, 75 percent of those surveyed said that they found food labels confusing and feel unsafe to consume food after the date on its label. 

Food companies do not focus particularly on making the meaning of the labels clear to consumers. According to ReFED, labels are “generally not intended to communicate safety information.” The federal government does not set uniform standards for date labels, except infant formula. Therefore, standards vary widely according to state laws. As the researchers in the 2022 study of the role of food label confusion in food waste point out, the labels are not only highly inconsistent, but they are also not science-based.

The Food Date Labeling Act of 2023 would limit dates on labels to two main choices: “best by” and “use by.” There is also an option to add “or freeze by” to either when applicable. States would be required to repeal any laws against selling or donating food past the “best by” date, but not the “use by” or discard date.

An essential provision of the legislation instructs the USDA and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to work together to educate consumers and food companies about the meaning of the new labels and enable them to make good decisions.

As the evidence for the true cost of food waste grows increasingly definitive, and the 2023 farm bill remains under discussion in Congress, it is more important than ever to urge our elected representatives to pass the Food Date and Labeling Act and take other actions to reduce food waste. 

Looking ahead, the enactment of the Food Date and Labeling Act could spur further opportunities to pass legislation that prioritizes consumer health and knowledge. This might include, for example, front-of-package nutrition data or information on sustainability. 

Additionally, these efforts could contribute to reducing emissions from food waste and bring the U.S. closer to achieving the National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste by 2030. For these reasons, Bread for the World continues to mobilize advocacy efforts in favor of better food labeling policies.  

Isabel Vander Molen is a Climate Hunger Fellow with Bread for the World 

The post The Impact of Food Labeling: More Than Just Words appeared first on Bread for the World.

Editor’s Note: This is one in a series of essays based on Laura’s conversations with people who work with communities to help improve nutrition. This essay includes the voices of people in the Philippines, Pakistan, and Nigeria.

Bread for the World’s work includes emphasizing the importance of centering people with lived experience of food insecurity and hunger. They understand the dynamics and nuances of their communities—and therefore the types of solutions that are most likely to work well—better than anyone else can. Paying attention to local voices can lead to solutions that can make a big difference in reducing hunger and malnutrition. 

Pastor Ernesto has spent most of the past decade working with a tribal group in the mountainous jungle of the Philippines. In his first couple of years in the community, he recalled, he noticed that many people “seemed to disappear” for about three months each year. He discovered that because there was nothing to eat during that period, people traveled down the mountain to beg. After doing some research on local crop practices, he was able to introduce new planting patterns so that at least one food could be harvested every month. People could meet their daily food needs throughout the year and no longer needed to beg. 

In Pakistan, Abaid and Lubna have been working to help a group of Christian brick kiln workers who are trapped in bonded labor—otherwise known as modern day slavery. Abaid and Lubna realized that even if the workers manage to gain their freedom, their almost complete inability to access nutritious food and other necessities means that their diet is likely to remain very poor. Foods that are protein–and nutrient-rich are expensive. 

Abaid and Lubna worked with the brick kiln workers to help them learn to grow nutritious vegetables and pulses, and they also explained why it is important to eat these foods. Eggs were simply too expensive for workers in this group, so the pair bought them some chickens and encouraged them to breed the chickens and eat the eggs. This relatively simple effort has been transformative—not only in raising the quality of people’s diets but also in raising their incomes, since they can sell surplus eggs for extra income.

Getting enough protein is an important part of a healthy diet for children. In Nigeria, Raphaels Manasseh was heartbroken over the many hungry and malnourished people in his community. “If you cannot afford a good meal, protein is the last option to think of. However, there are other ways to get good meals that the people may not be aware of,” Raphaels noted. 

In Ghana and Nigeria, babies are often weaned on pap or koko, a smooth porridge made with fermented maize or sorghum. It has essential calories and fills an empty stomach, but it does not have complete protein. Babies quickly became malnourished because their diet consisted only of grain. Raphaels knew that a different porridge, nicknamed “Tom Brown” because of its color, was a superior weaning food, but not everyone was familiar with it. 

“Tom Brown” porridge is more nutritious because it includes both grains and legumes. Raphaels looked for ways to add additional nutrients with locally available ingredients, ultimately developing a variation on the recipe by adding tiger nuts, dates, and unripe plantain. He now produces the porridge and distributes it locally, but he is also teaching others in his community how to make it and making sure they know why it is important to eat foods with a variety of nutrients.

Bread for the World supports U.S. programs aimed at reducing hunger, and we pray for wisdom for program managers, that they will be able to listen to local partners and learn from them what will be effective in their communities.

Laura Joseph earned her master’s degree in Theology, Ecology, and Food Justice at Truett Seminary of Baylor University. She was a nutrition fellow at Bread for the World in 2023.

The post Local Communities Contribute Simple but Effective Ways to Improve Nutrition appeared first on Bread for the World.

Earth Day– April 22—is a day to mobilize people around the world to pursue environmental justice on behalf of all creation. Bread for the World has emphasized that healthy food systems are essential to ending hunger. In turn, strong food systems depend on the well-being of the Earth, its inhabitants, and its environment and climate.

Yet problems within food systems are the main cause of biodiversity loss. Food systems are also a significant cause of pollution and resource degradation, both of which accelerate climate change. Transforming food systems is a key part of meeting three important goals: protecting the planet, improving people’s nutrition, and ending hunger.  To end hunger caused by climate change, U.S. and global leaders must take action to improve food systems and accelerate their environmental stewardship efforts. 

Worldwide, food systems are responsible for 70 percent of all biodiversity loss on land. This is because most large-scale farming operations practice monocropping – the practice of repeatedly planting just one type of crop per season—so that the natural plant and animal variety in a given area is replaced by a single homogenous group. Out of the thousands of edible plant varieties on the planet, just 10 crops provide 83 percent of all harvested food calories.

These commodity crops include corn, soy, and wheat. Most of what is grown is used in the industrial, export, or processing sectors and as animal feed, rather than going directly to feed people—and the share of land used to grow crops directly for human consumption is decreasing. While animal-based foods can be valuable sources of protein, the growing demand for them has made the agriculture and livestock sector the main cause of deforestation. This sector is also the source of 26 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions produced by the food system. 

Commodity crops also have implications for human nutrition. Because they are grown in such large quantities, they are the most readily available and least expensive foods. They are usually high in calories and low in nutritional content. Thus, nutritious foods become an unaffordable luxury for many families. There is a clear link related to overproduction of less nutritious crops, lower prices for meat and for foods made from these crops, and their overconsumption, which is associated with higher risks of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. 

Commodity and monocrop-based food systems contribute to environmental degradation and climate change. Diverse and healthy ecosystems provide a sustainable landscape for farming by filtering freshwater, replenishing soil nutrients, and pollinating a variety of plants. However, commodity-driven and monocrop farming reduce the effectiveness of the many roles played by healthy ecosystems in maintaining conditions necessary for farming, such as revitalizing the fertility of the soil.

Additionally, farmers begin to rely more heavily on stronger pesticides, fertilizers, and industrial inputs to keep their businesses and crops afloat. These inputs contribute to further air and water pollution, other forms of damage to resources, and overall ecosystem fragility. It is therefore important to support improvements in food systems that will align them with nutritional and ecological wellness goals, so that all components reinforce each other. 

Empowering farmers to diversify their businesses by investing in different types of crops and farming methods that complement and work well with natural ecosystems is critical to delivering the best nutritional outcomes and choices for consumers. It is also crucial to ensure that farms and agribusinesses can continue to operate even during a crisis caused by climate change, resource shortages, or other problems. A U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization report on reaching zero hunger while limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius recommends that governments adjust crop subsidies and food taxes so that producers and consumers are encouraged to grow and eat more foods that are nutritious and good for the environment but not yet grown in large quantities. 

Similarly, the 5^th National Climate Assessment, a study of climate change impacts in the United States, recommends diversifying diets to include more produce and nutrient-rich foods to meet national food security, health, and climate goals. These changes could be facilitated by policies in the U.S. farm bill, which governs much of federal food and farm policy.

Adapting farming techniques is just one component of ensuring that food systems are healthy for people and the environment, but it is an essential one. Other important steps to ending hunger include boosting farmers’ access to markets, improving purchasing decisions, and raising consumer awareness. 

Caring for creation means caring for all of creation—human, animal, and plant. The benefits of doing so stem from the fact that their interconnections are symbiotic. Taking actions to make our food systems more biodiverse and to prevent further degradation of resources will ultimately enable our food systems to improve the condition of natural ecosystems and expand people’s access to nutritious foods.

 Isabel Vander Molen is a climate-hunger fellow, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

The post Earth Day Is a Reminder of How Creation Care Can End Hunger appeared first on Bread for the World.

Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of essays based on Laura’s conversations with people who work with communities to help improve nutrition. This essay includes the voices of people in the Philippines and Zambia.

In 2021, Samantha Power, Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, outlined a new vision for global development. She said that USAID was emphasizing “the voices and needs of the most marginalized” and setting a specific goal: within the next decade, half of USAID’s spending would go toward “putting local communities in a lead on projects.” A wise and worthy goal, one that requires the humility of listening and embodies values shared by Bread for the World.

The people closest to a problem are usually best at finding ways to solve it. A Western pediatrician working in the Philippines recounts, “In my early years [there], I needed a way to add a high protein snack each day for our kids under 5. I was obsessed with the idea that peanut butter was the perfect addition. We tried it and the kids just didn’t like it. We asked the moms for high-protein recipes, and they suggested adding small dried salted fish, which is cheap, shelf-stable, and sold everywhere. I really thought they were crazy but I agreed to try. The kids gobbled it up! This was a super cheap way to add both protein and calcium.”

From the same clinic: “During the pandemic, we were sent big boxes of nutrition supplements designed for kids who are acutely malnourished, a situation where kids will typically eat things that aren’t necessarily delicious. Because of the pandemic, the packs were sent to families who didn’t have daily food but were not yet dangerously acutely malnourished. 

“On paper, the food packs are a clinician’s dream– perfectly balanced daily nutrients all in one package! Unfortunately, the food just didn’t taste good. Some local moms helped us create recipes starting with the packs that maintained all the nutrients but tasted good. Following the lead of these moms probably saved a lot of kids from malnutrition and subsequent illness, [just] from a few small tweaks.”

Jeri Gunderson, founder of Shiphrah Birthing Home in the outskirts of Manila, works to promote prenatal nutrition and breastfeeding. She learned that some local traditions advised pregnant women to eat very little in their third trimester so that their babies would not be too big and make childbirth harder. Her advice to the contrary had little effect since she was a tall Westerner! Breastfeeding had its own set of local beliefs, with many women doubting that breast milk alone was sufficient for babies. Persuading mothers to consider new ideas would require involving the entire community around each mom.

“Our midwives were themselves breastfeeding Filipino mothers,” Gunderson said, “so they shared with the women. When we teach breastfeeding, we have time at the tables where moms share with one another. Women teaching women. It’s great. We learned that simple, regular friendship support for pregnant [women] and breastfeeding moms works best. Befriending the whole family is key since breastfeeding is a whole family effort. Filipinos are relationship-driven. Forcing Western medical practices that rely more on the use of drugs or machines than the use of community and human touch has done great damage to maternal health care.”

Partway around the world in Zambia, Pastor Mulenga also spoke of the need to enlist leaders from within the community to bring change. His church started a feeding center for 700 children who lived in nearby underserved communities. Pastor Mulenga’s advice: “To foster nutrition efforts for children and nursing mothers, the first approach should be advocacy through trusted community leaders who have a reputation for providing teaching, training, and awareness to a community. The people who provide this service well in all Zambian and African communities are religious leaders including priests, fathers, pastors, etc. 

“Efforts to give aid to communities without effective awareness are resisted by the community. Recently, I witnessed a measles vaccination campaign halted because the community was not well informed, and they repeated myths, such as that the medicine was demonic. If the health personnel had worked with local pastors and made awareness campaigns with local religious leaders, there would have been no resistance.”

Bread supports U.S. programs aimed at reducing hunger, and we pray for wisdom for program managers, that they will be able to listen to local partners and learn from them what will be effective in their communities.

Laura Joseph is a graduate student in Truett Seminary’s Theology, Ecology, and Food Justice program at Baylor University, and was a global nutrition intern at Bread for the World in 2023.

The post Improving Global Nutrition Means Listening to Local Voices  appeared first on Bread for the World.

Bread for the World advocates for policies in the 2023 U.S. farm bill that will advance our three principles for effective food systems: nutrition, equity, and sustainability.  

Recently, Bread discussed how strengthening the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP) can contribute to a farm bill that embodies Bread’s values. GusNIP’s Nutrition Incentive Grants enable people who participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to receive an additional monthly benefit amount specifically to buy fruits and vegetables. 

Another component of GusNIP is its Produce Prescription program (PPR). Currently, the PPR receives 10 percent of GusNIP’s funding. Expanding the produce prescription benefit would increase the very small percentage of SNAP participants who have increased access to healthy foods through GusNIP and its PPR.  

GusNIP’s PPR project implementers work in partnership with healthcare providers to prescribe fresh produce to low-income patients with chronic medical conditions that have been linked to diet, such as obesity, hypertension, and diabetes.   

A major goal of “prescribing” fruits and vegetables is to increase people’s consumption of these foods, which can lower the risk of chronic medical conditions.

Other goals of the PPR project include reducing food insecurity as well as unnecessary spending on health care. The potential for savings on healthcare costs is significant since 85 percent of all U.S. healthcare spending is on costs related to dietary-linked diseases.  

GusNIP’s PPR project is making progress toward these goals. The latest national evaluation shows that participants consume more fruits and vegetables than the average American. In addition, studies of produce prescription programs have found that their impacts match or even surpass the effects of prescription drug therapies.¹  

In June, Bread highlighted GusNIP during its annual Advocacy Summit. Freida Graves, Director of Food Systems, Health, and Wellness at FAITH Farm & Orchard, spoke on a panel about GusNIP. She shared her experiences in developing a PPR in Gary, Indiana, through the GusNIP program.

FAITH Farm & Orchard is a one-acre farm focused on making fresh, local, and nutritious food available to residents in and around Gary, Indiana. In partnership with local hospitals and doctors, FAITH Farm recently received a three-year PPR grant from GusNIP.  

Graves exemplifies the theme of this year’s Advocacy Summit, the Power of Perseverance, through her commitment to enabling people to access healthy food and to promoting policies that will reduce food insecurity and health disparities in her community.  

With a background in nursing, Graves is passionate about bringing Food as Medicine initiatives to her community. She comments, “I could give you a billion stories, but I have to tell you, what touches my heart the most is helping people get healthy in just a little way. Just putting a small footprint into the big disparities that we have.”   

The project funded by this grant will provide free weekly produce and ongoing nutrition education to residents with specific health conditions. People will be shown how to select produce that meets their specific health needs. Graves adds that community members “are really interested to learn about how to eat in a healthy way and being able to have access to fresh food and vegetables.”  

Graves sees PPR’s potential to turn around food and health disparities in Gary for generations to come. She is focused on the sustainability of the project, emphasizing that, “We understand this is a three-year grant, but this is not a three-year process. It’s going to take 10 years or better to get some of the things turned around in this community.”  

Allison Bunyan is an Emerson Hunger Fellow, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.

¹Haslam A, Gill J, Taniguchi T, Love C, Jernigan VB. The effect of food prescription programs on chronic disease management in primarily low-income populations: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Nutr Health. 2022 Feb 2:2601060211070718. doi 10.1177/02601060211070718. Epub ahead of print. Complete citation available on request. 

The post Produce Prescription: Improving Nutrition and Health Together  appeared first on Bread for the World.

The bill would also rescind the enhanced fruit and vegetable benefit (known as the “benefit bump”), cutting the benefit by 62 percent. The benefit bump provides funds to enable WIC participants to purchase more fruits and vegetables. If the legislation is passed, children will receive just $11 a month toward the purchase of nutritious fruits and vegetables, compared to the $25 they currently receive.

Most children in the U.S. do not eat the recommended daily amount of fresh fruits and vegetables. Yet, since 2021, when the benefit bump was enacted, fruit and vegetable purchases have tripled among WIC participants.

The statement can be attributed to Rev. Eugene Cho, president and CEO of Bread for the World:

“Bread for the World is concerned by legislation recently passed by the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture which would rescind the enhanced fruit and vegetable ‘benefit bump,’ making it more difficult for children, and pregnant and breastfeeding women, to access nutritious fruits and vegetables.

“Dramatically cutting funding for a program that has helped so many low-income women and young children access the nutrition they need to lead healthy and productive lives will likely result in higher health care and social costs down the road.

“The agriculture appropriations bill would also freeze WIC funding at 2023 levels and rescind $500 million in unused funds – even as more women and children are expected to enroll in the program.  

“These proposed cuts would unduly impact the health and well-being of the nearly five million women and children enrolled in WIC. We urge lawmakers to oppose this shortsighted legislation.”

Bread for the World is a Christian advocacy organization urging U.S. decision makers to do all they can to pursue a world without hunger

The post Bread Concerned by House WIC Nutrition Benefit Cuts appeared first on Bread for the World.

The post SNAP Fact Sheet appeared first on Bread for the World.

“Bread for the World celebrates the Healthy Meals, Healthy Kids Act. Families with children have been hit especially hard by rising food prices, and this legislation will help ensure more kids receive nutritious meals both while at school and during the summer when school is out.

“It will also make it easier for expecting mothers and mothers and their small children to receive the nutrition they need. The 1,000 days between pregnancy and a child’s second birthday is the most critical period in human development. Children who lack good nutrition during this time face lifelong health problems and physical and intellectual delays.

“The reauthorization of child nutrition programs is long overdue, and we urge lawmakers to quickly pass this bill.”

——————-

The Healthy Meals, Healthy Kids Act would, in part:

increase the number of children who receive free school meals by expanding community eligibility which allows high-need schools to offer free meals to all students at no charge;
expand access to summer meals and create a nationwide Summer EBT program;
provide grants to make school meal programs more sustainable by reducing food waste and educate students about the amount of safe, healthy, edible food wasted every day;

improve WIC by requiring clinics to offer services over the phone and video and allow benefits to be issued remotely; 
extend WIC benefits to children up to 6 years old, and extend certification periods to two years for infants, children, and postpartum women.

The bill was introduced by Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, and Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), chair of the Civil Rights and Human Services Subcommittee.

The post Bread Celebrates Introduction of the “Healthy Meals, Healthy Kids Act” appeared first on Bread for the World.

The Nutrition CEO Council is a body of leaders from international non-governmental organizations who care about ending the crisis of malnutrition in all its forms. The following statement can be attributed to Rev. Cho, who also serves as co-chair of the Council:

“The world is facing the worst global malnutrition crisis in decades. Rising inflation, unprecedented heat waves, drought, and the war in Ukraine and other conflicts have caused global food prices to reach the highest level ever recorded. As a result, 13 million additional people could become undernourished this year on top of the already 800 million undernourished people across the globe. Children will be especially impacted by this crisis – malnutrition is the leading cause of death in children under five globally.  

“The United States has long been a leader in providing humanitarian assistance. We cannot back down now. I ask everyone to urge their Members of Congress to provide funding that will adequately address both the global malnutrition crisis and the ongoing challenges caused by COVID. Tens of millions of lives are at stake.”

Read the Nutrition CEO Council letter to Congress.

The post Nutrition CEO Council Asks Congress for $5 Billion to Address Global Nutrition Crisis appeared first on Bread for the World.

“The Global Malnutrition Prevention and Treatment Act is a game-changer that will help address malnutrition,” said Rev. Eugene Cho, president and CEO of Bread for the World. “The act builds on Bread for the World’s decades-long efforts to prevent global malnutrition and will ensure that tens of millions of children have a chance to not only survive – but thrive.”

“Even before the war in Ukraine, malnutrition was responsible for nearly half of all preventable deaths among children under 5 globally. Now, the confluence of the war, COVID-19, climate-change, and conflict in other regions have led to dangerous increases in food and fuel costs and an unprecedented global hunger and malnutrition crisis. Tens of millions of people in Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan, South Sudan, and so many countries are facing life-threatening famine and malnutrition,” said Cho.

The Global Malnutrition Prevention and Treatment will bring greater strategic vision, coordination, effectiveness, and accountability to the United States’ existing global nutrition efforts and will help to mitigate and prevent future hunger and malnutrition crises.

The bill was introduced in the House by Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Michael McCaul (R-TX), Chairman Gregory W. Meeks (D-NY), and Reps. Young Kim (R-CA) and Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA). Bread for the World worked with the congressional sponsors to conceptualize and draft the bill. This bipartisan measure has a remarkable 102 House cosponsors, including 66 Democrats and 36 Republicans. Bread members around the country were instrumental in getting their representatives to cosponsor the bill. Watch Rev. Cho’s video message thanking Bread members for their efforts.  

“We thank Ranking Member McCaul and Chairman Meeks, and Reps. Kim and Houlahan, for working across the aisle to introduce this legislation, and for the dozens of cosponsors who voted for it. God calls on us to feed those who are experiencing hunger, and right now the need is greater than ever. We now urge senators to cosponsor and pass this lifesaving bill,” added Cho.

The post House Passes Bipartisan Global Malnutrition Bill appeared first on Bread for the World.

By next year, nearly 14 million more children are likely to be severely malnourished because of the pandemic’s impacts. This means that 58.9 million young children—or almost the whole population of South Africa—will likely face life-threatening malnutrition if the global community doesn’t act.

Nutrition has historically been a relatively low priority for country governments and donors.

Despite growing global recognition of the importance of maternal and child nutrition, investments in nutrition have only gone up by 7 percent in recent years (since 2015)² —not nearly enough to address the problem.

The post Global Malnutrition Fact Sheet 2022 appeared first on Bread for the World.

Bread for the World has long advocated for the U.S. government to strengthen its leadership and commitment to ending global malnutrition. Our research and analysis over the years, most recently in the 2020 Hunger Report: Better Nutrition, Better Tomorrow, demonstrates that better nutrition will require both better health systems and better food systems that put nutrition at the center of their efforts. Among the most critical actions donor countries and national governments can take to prevent and treat severe malnutrition are increasing their investments in evidence-based, high-impact nutrition services through the healthcare system, and making it easier for smallholder farmers, especially women, to produce and sell safe, affordable, and nutritious foods.

That’s why we are excited about a proposed new initiative called Nourish the Future. If it is adopted by the Biden administration, Nourish the Future would seek to prevent the deaths of 2 million children and improve the lives of 500 million women and children in nine Nourish the Future “focus countries.” It will improve nutrition outcomes by elevating nutrition as a priority in the countries’ health and food systems.

Improving nutrition through health systems

Under Nourish the Future, the U.S. government would increase funding for the most cost-effective tools available to fight malnutrition. Collectively known as the “Power 4,” these include prenatal vitamins for pregnant women, breastfeeding support for mothers, vitamin A supplementation, and treatment for severe malnutrition. As we’ve suggested before, these nutrition services would be integrated into the local health systems, which are often community-based and run by community health workers.

Improving nutrition through food systems

Ending global malnutrition calls for both good nutrition services and access to healthy, nutritious foods. Nourish the Future would build on Feed the Future by focusing even more intensely on supporting nutritious crops from farm to fork, particularly livestock, dairy, fruits, and vegetables. This will be much like the program USAID is implementing in Kenya that we have previously discussed.

Additionally, Nourish the Future would invest in food fortification (a process of adding essential nutrients to foods that improves their nutritional value), increasing women’s economic empowerment in agriculture, improving food safety, and reducing harvest loss.

Now is the time to act

Recent data shows that the world is confronting the worst of three scenarios that were projected earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic about its potential impacts on global malnutrition. By next year, nearly 14 million more children are likely to be severely malnourished because of the pandemic unless we do what’s necessary to prevent it. We need more funding to respond to increased malnutrition, and we need new ways of working together to reach our shared goals. Adopting Nourish the Future is an important part of U.S. support for the global effort to end malnutrition.

Jordan Teague is interim director, Policy Analysis and Coalition Building, Bread for the World.

The post It's time for the United States to “Nourish the Future” appeared first on Bread for the World.

Globally, malnutrition remains among the top risk factors contributing to nearly half of all preventable deaths among children under age five. And without strategic investments and interventions, the devastating impacts of COVID-19 could wind back decades of progress in alleviating maternal and child nutrition. According to recent data, nearly 14 million more children will likely be severely malnourished by next year. Targeted interventions that, among other goals, protect the nutrition of women and children during the critical 1000-day period between a woman’s pregnancy and her child’s second birthday, are essential for ensuring the development of children’s physical and mental health. 

At this critical juncture in the history of our nation and world, H.R. 4693 authorizes the U.S. Agency of International Development to develop a comprehensive, evidence-based nutrition strategy to end malnutrition, leveraging coordinated expertise across key U.S. federal agencies, including the Department of Agriculture, Department of Health and Human Services, and State Department, among others. 

“Due to the persistent advocacy of Bread members and strategic partner coordination, Congress passed a resolution last December that garnered bipartisan support to pave the way for today’s victory. The Committee’s passage of H.R. 4693 is a major step toward advancing legislation that will improve global nutrition for millions,” said Rev. Eugene Cho, president and CEO of Bread for the World. “Courageous U.S. congressional leadership as displayed by the Committee’s passage of H.R. 4693 is crucial to further nutrition progress, will derail the impacts of COVID-19, and fulfill God’s call and our commitment to end hunger in our lifetime.”

The post House Foreign Affairs Committee Unanimously Passes Bill to Boost Global Nutrition appeared first on Bread for the World.

Each year, several global food security organizations work together to publish The State of Food and Nutrition Security in the World (SOFI) report. This year’s report, covering calendar year 2020, was released July 12.

As Bread for the World has previously noted, global hunger rates, described in the report as the global prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity, have increased every year since 2014. But food insecurity grew far more quickly in 2020, a fact that is unlikely to surprise anyone. The global COVID-19 pandemic brought much of the world to a standstill for a large portion of 2020, causing enormous economic disruption. The increase in hunger is estimated to be similar to the total increase of the previous five years. 

By the end of 2020, then, the world’s several decades of progress in reducing the rate of hunger had been set back significantly but not entirely reversed. Up to 161 million people who had not faced hunger in 2019 were food insecure in 2020, bringing the global total to as many as 811 million people.

Malnutrition was virtually unchanged from 2014 until the onset of the pandemic, but the proportion of those affected, referred to in the report as the prevalence of undernourishment, climbed to approximately 9.9 percent in 2020, compared with 8.4 percent a year earlier.

Hunger rates increased most sharply in Africa, which added 46 million additional people to the number facing hunger. Africa now has a hunger rate twice that of any other region. It is also the only region with increasing numbers of children with long-term malnutrition (stunting). Asia and Latin America/Caribbean also have more people living with hunger, with increases of 57 million and 14 million, respectively.

The pandemic has put the world increasingly off-track to end hunger by 2030, with projections suggesting that 30 million additional people will face hunger in 2030. Only one-quarter of countries are on track to end malnutrition by 2030. About half of all children live in countries that are not on track. The gender hunger gap also increased in 2020, with women increasingly more likely to face hunger than men.

According to the SOFI report, the major causes of hunger—in addition to the pandemic—include underlying extreme poverty, barriers in the food system such as prices for nutritious foods that are too high for many families to afford, and the drivers of fragility, such as conflict and climate change, that Bread discussed in our 2017 Hunger Report, Fragile Environments, Resilient Communities.

The paths forward are familiar ones: scaling up efforts to strengthen resilience in climate-affected areas;    integrating humanitarian assistance, development programs, and peacebuilding efforts in areas where hunger is exacerbated by conflict; identifying ways to reduce the cost of nutritious foods; putting in place strong social protection programs for the most vulnerable people; and adopting and using effective approaches to promoting equity regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or other “identity” characteristics of individuals and communities.

Despite the many weaknesses and failures in the pandemic response thus far, there have also been innovative and successful efforts in a variety of local and national contexts. They underline the message that the world does know what to do and, of course, they show the immense impact that even relatively modest improvements in policies or programs can achieve. We can hope that as humanity confronts climate change and the likelihood of future pandemics, many more people will become advocates against hunger and other barriers to reaching the Sustainable Development Goals. This is the most life-affirming option in the face of all that individuals, families, cities, and wider regions have lost.

Michele Learner is managing editor with Bread for the World Institute.

The post The data confirms what we knew: The pandemic is causing additional hunger appeared first on Bread for the World.

For many people, struggles with the COVID-19 pandemic and its many impacts beyond health continue to consume a great deal of time and energy. The availability of vaccines has made it possible for people in high-income countries to resume many aspects of their normal lives. There are still many countries that have little or no access to vaccines, and—a different problem that nonetheless has a similar effect—too many people in some high-income countries have not yet decided to get the vaccine.

Thus, what the pandemic looks like and the limitations it imposes will change, sometimes dramatically, with specific locations. The scientific and medical fields that concentrate on preventing and treating COVID-19 are also changing rapidly. It is unclear how many variants (changes caused by mutation) will emerge and how dangerous they will prove to be. Global vaccine equity matters to individuals and families, of course, but also to people all over the world. This is because as fewer people are transmitting the virus and inadvertently providing opportunities for mutation, the chances that humanity will ultimately be able to contain and manage COVID-19 will improve.

While containing the pandemic would undoubtedly make it easier for people to rebuild their lives and for humanitarian workers to reach people in need, Bread members as anti-hunger advocates know that, particularly for pregnant women and children under 2, malnutrition and hunger cannot wait until other things fall into place. Access to health care and nutritious food, with priority given to those in the 1,000 Days between pregnancy and age 2, is essential.

Recent blog posts include a look at key messages from the recently published assessment of hunger’s increase in 2020, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, as well as a look at how Black farmers, despite pervasive discrimination for generations, are advocating for their needs, including by contributing to the U.N. Food Systems Summit to be held in September.

Institute Insights readers may recall from earlier mentions that a food system, sometimes summed up as “from farm to fork,” is a term for all the various steps involved in producing, transporting, preparing, and consuming food. Clearly, Bread’s mission of ensuring that all people have sufficient nutritious food calls for a strong and reliable food system.

The goal of the Food Systems Summit is to alert the global community to the need to identify sustainable solutions to the major problems of the global food system. Organizers explain: “Too many of the world’s food systems are fragile, unexamined, and vulnerable to collapse, as millions of people around the globe have experienced firsthand during the COVID-19 crisis.” The changes needed in the global food system must be made by stakeholders working in partnership.

The principles that the Food Systems Summit has adopted for its work echo some of the concepts that are fundamental to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) process, such as leaving no one behind and reaching the most vulnerable people first. Ideally, global and national food systems should prioritize human health and well-being, resilient livelihoods, and good stewardship of natural resources, all while respecting local cultures and contexts. Partners working to improve food systems must recognize the reality that these systems are complex and require a systemic approach because they impact human and animal health, land, water, climate, biodiversity, the economy, and other systems.

Finally, the Summit’s organizers emphasize the need for nations and communities to be inclusive. Food systems transformation efforts need to “bring in diverse perspectives, including indigenous knowledge, cultural insights, and science-based evidence to enable stakeholders to understand and assess potential trade-offs.”

Adopting practices that support the idea of “building forward better” when it comes to food systems at all levels will help people recover from the global pandemic more quickly and set the stage for significant, sustainable progress toward ending hunger.

Michele Learner is managing editor with Bread for the World Institute.

The post Ending hunger calls for a stronger global food system appeared first on Bread for the World.

Forward-looking nations invest in infrastructure. It is a judicious use of resources because the investment pays for itself over time. But it often has immediate benefits as well, some of them less tangible and less likely to be touted at the time. New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie argues, for example, that President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal infrastructure investments in the 1930s paid instant dividends: they rescued democracy at a time when “it was not clear democracy would survive the long night of the Depression.”

As I discussed in a piece last month, infrastructure is not limited to bridges and roads. Every country needs to invest in its human infrastructure as well. Workers drive innovation and productivity. “Building” this infrastructure takes investments during childhood, including education, as well as supports that enable people to work productively as adults.

Accordingly, Bread for the World advocates that Congress and the administration prioritize investments in the 1,000 Days between pregnancy and a child’s second birthday. This is the most important period in setting the course of a person’s entire life, and supporting babies and toddlers has the highest “return on investment.” Of course, it will be many years before the infants and toddlers now in the 1,000 Days enter the workforce. It’s certainly an example of how “investing now” pays off later.

My earlier piece also mentioned the economist James Heckman, who developed the “Heckman curve” to illustrate the impact of investments at various life stages. (See the chart at top).

A 1,000 Days infrastructure includes WIC, Medicaid, child care, paid parental leave, and making permanent the recent one-year expansion of the Child Tax Credit. Here are some of the benefits a 1,000 Days infrastructure would bring, backed by evidence based on research:

Every dollar spent on pregnant women in WIC generates anywhere from $1.92 to $4.21 in Medicaid savings on the health care of newborns and their mothers. Medicaid covers nearly half of all births in the United States, and hospitalizations associated with pregnancy and childbirth are among Medicaid’s largest expenses.

Reducing the rate of low birthweight through WIC’s prenatal care programs is one source of these savings. The newborns of women who participate in WIC prenatal services have a 25 percent lower rate of low birthweight (weighing less than 5.5 pounds at birth). Even more strikingly, they have a 44 percent lower rate of very low birthweight (weighing less than 3 pounds, 5 ounces at birth). The cost of care for very low birthweight infants is 30 percent of all newborn healthcare costs.

Low-wage workers, who are more likely than others to qualify for WIC and Medicaid, are less likely to have access to paid family leave: fewer than one in 10 low-wage jobs offer it. New mothers whose jobs provide paid leave are able to stay with their newborns longer, and they are more likely to initiate, establish, and continue breastfeeding. An infant’s nutritional needs are best met with exclusive breastfeeding (no other food or water) for the first six months. In 2014, suboptimal breastfeeding in the United States was associated with nearly $20 billion in medical and nonmedical costs.

High-quality child care for low-income children generates an average of ​$7.30 for every dollar spent, as the children grow up healthier, do better in school, and earn more over the course of their working lives. Everyone in the country pays a price when parents can’t work because they cannot afford quality child care–particularly the higher fees for infant and toddler care. The cost to the U.S. economy is at least $57 billion annually in lost earnings, productivity, and revenue.

Similarly, estimates are that every dollar spent on expanding the Child Tax Credit will generate an average of $8 in benefits to the country as a whole. Child poverty costs the United States between $800 billion and $1.1 trillion a year. The temporary expansion of the Child Tax Credit in the American Rescue Plan is projected to cut child poverty nearly in half—which is why Bread is calling for the expansion to be made permanent.

As an anti-hunger organization, Bread for the World generally focuses on nutrition during the 1,000 Days. Bread members have been working faithfully for years to draw the attention of policymakers to the importance of nutrition in the 1,000 Days. Mothers and children everywhere need sufficient food and good nutrition during the 1,000 Days. It’s true in Kenya, and it’s true in Kansas.

But as I argued in an earlier blog post, WIC alone cannot build a 1,000 Days infrastructure strong enough to meet the needs of our nation’s babies and toddlers—or the needs of our nation’s economy. Bread advocates’ efforts over several decades have helped make WIC a strong and effective program. But much of WIC’s success depends on the success of interrelated parts of a 1,000 Days infrastructure—the aforementioned Medicaid, paid parental leave, child care, and Child Tax Credit benefits. That is why Bread advocates for a complete 1,000 Days infrastructure package.

Todd Post is senior researcher, writer, and editor with Bread for the World Institute.

The post A smart use of government resources appeared first on Bread for the World.

As Bread for the World has long emphasized, the “1,000 Days” period from pregnancy to age 2 is the most important window for human nutrition. This unique, irreplaceable opportunity in every human life is therefore a top priority in our efforts to end hunger and malnutrition.

Virtually all parents want to make sure their children have everything they need, especially food and especially very young children. But for far too many parents, conflict, climate change, economic crisis, marginalization, and other factors that lead to extreme poverty make it impossible to meet all their children’s needs. Whether their children grow up healthy, even whether they survive, is beyond their control. National governments and the global community have a responsibility to act so that young children don’t miss their best chance to survive and grow into healthy, productive adults.

Evidence that the human nutrition window is open for about 1,000 days, closing around the second birthday, had been building for years. Yet it was not until 2008 that there was broad consensus on this data and a global shift toward prioritizing this period.

The factors that determine whether a child celebrating her second birthday is well-nourished, ready to learn and explore her world, are not always obvious. We all know that human life is complicated. Although researchers can’t completely account for the outcomes for each child, they continue to collect and analyze information that will lead to better unerstanding. I’ll discuss the findings in a little more detail so we can assess what they mean for us as anti-hunger advocates.

Other recent blog posts from Bread for the World Institute include a Father’s Day reflection on children whose fathers are incarcerated, details on some of the financial returns of investments in the 1,000 Days in the United States, an update on what the international financial institutions that receive U.S. support are doing to help people devastated by the impacts of the global pandemic, and a note on our new one-pager resources, which explore how hunger, climate change, and racial equity issues are interconnected.

It is urgent to restore global health and nutrition services that have not been available up to this stage of the pandemic. We know that pregnant women, babies, and toddlers—people in the 1,000 Days—cannot fully recover from malnutrition or childhood illnesses as older children and adults usually do. Researchers continue to uncover more evidence that a healthy pregnancy is critical to preventing stunting, which, as Bread emphasizes, carries lifelong consequences for those who survive.

Research findings indicate that a significant amount of the risk that a child will be stunted at age 2 comes from conditions that are in place before he is born. Both babies who are born prematurely, and those who are small for their gestational age, face a more difficult start in life. This is because a baby’s weight and length at birth are important determinants of her health in early childhood.

When a group of scholars compared the importance of prenatal and postnatal factors in stunting, their analysis, published in the medical journal BMJ Open in 2019, found that while both weight and length at birth are important factors, other conditions also contribute to outcomes. Some of these are determined before pregnancy and continue to influence the child as she grows up (e.g., mother’s level of education), and some are intergenerational (e.g., mother’s height).

The analysis found that nutrition actions we may be more familiar with, such as exclusive breastfeeding, supplementing vital micronutrients such as iron and zinc, or vaccination against childhood diseases, are essential as well. These interventions save lives every day. Rather than downplaying their significance, the analysis emphasizes that nutrition for pregnant women and for all who may become pregnant in the future is also important. Nutrition during pregnancy is rightfully part of the 1,000 Days.

The authors of this analysis point out that everyone who is concerned about children’s survival and health, whether they’re global humanitarian workers, officials in ministries of health and agriculutre, nutritionists, doctors, community health workers, or parents of young children, should act urgently based on what we know now rather than waiting for more research.

Continued data collection and analysis are also necessary. Research priorities include pinpointing more specific risk factors for stunting among the many variables that affect people in the 1,000 Days, whether these influences are environmental, socioeconomic, biological, or something else.

Also notable for people in the 1,000 Days is recent reporting on the global shortage of midwives, which has worsened since the beginning of the pandemic. A report by the U.N. Population Fund included analysis published in The Lancet and looked at data on the midwife profession in 194 countries. It concluded that the pandemic led to “… the health needs of women and newborns being overshadowed, midwifery services being disrupted, and midwives being deployed to other health services.” The current estimate is that the world needs an additional 900,000 trained midwives, which is about one-third of the total workforce.

I was startled by both the impacts of the midwife shortage and the potential gains from filling this gap by providing midwives with the resources and training they need. If these needs are met, by 2035 two-thirds of maternal deaths, and nearly as many stillbirths and newborn deaths, could be prevented. This could save an estimated 4.3 million lives every year.

One root of both problems— the large number of malnourished pregnant women and the midwife shortage—is an age-old human problem: gender bias. A world that did not devalue women as compared to men would prioritize, simply as a matter of course, the food and nutrition needs of pregnant women. Persistent advocacy for gender equity might not be quite as critical to ending hunger.

But this is not the world we live in. Activists’ work to promote gender equity is more important than ever. We cannot end hunger without ensuring that pregnant women and others of reproductive age have essential life-sustaining nutrients–and to do that, women and men must be treated as equally valuable members of society. We should be sure to use a “gender equity lens” as we advocate to end hunger.

Michele Learner is managing editor with Bread for the World Institute.

The post Gender equity sustains the lives of babies and toddlers appeared first on Bread for the World.

The availability of effective vaccines against COVID-19 is enabling people in the United States to participate more fully in public, economic, and social life than has been possible at any time since the pandemic began. The country must continue an active vaccination campaign since, at the time of writing, only about 36 percent of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated.

Bread members have been supporting efforts to ensure that people in their neighborhoods and local communities have enough to eat. Hunger rates surged in 2020 and are still high in many areas. People continued to fulfill their pre-pandemic responsibilities, some of these under much more difficult circumstances. Some have also been facing grief, illness, financial insecurity, isolation, and/or other impacts of the pandemic, along with far too many other Americans. 

Now that there is a little more time and space for global concerns, anti-hunger advocates are drawing attention to the urgent needs of people, particularly children, with life-threatening hunger and malnutrition.

Bread for the World has written about two essential longer-term areas of focus as the world tries to recover and regain some of the losses of the past year—global vaccine equity, discussed most recently in this blog post, and major improvements in the global food system, the topic of our 2020 Hunger Report, Better Nutrition, Better Tomorrow.

But Bread members have also maintained our steady focus on people in the 1,000 Days, the unique window for human nutrition between pregnancy and age 2. And we must continue to do so. The reason is a simple one: as many Institute Insights readers will recall, malnutrition is a leading cause of preventable death among very young children, and the damage it causes to the development of those who survive is largely irreversible.

When it comes to nutrition, the 1,000 Days are the critical time. Nutrition can’t wait until children are 3 or 4, the ages that may come to mind when people think of early intervention or early education.

The World Food Programme (WFP), in cooperation with several partner organizations including the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), publishes a yearly report on people worldwide who face food crises. Many of these people are in the 1,000 Days—pregnant or younger than 2.

This year’s report, WFP said, finds that the agency’s earlier warnings of rising hunger as a result of the pandemic have been validated and “we are watching the worst-case scenario unfold before our very eyes.”

At least 133,000 people were living in a state of catastrophe or famine, meaning that urgent action is needed “to avert widespread death and a collapse of livelihoods.” These people live in South Sudan, Yemen, and Burkina Faso.

At least another 28 million people in 38 countries/territories were considered “one step away” from famine. The report said that humanitarian assistance has helped prevent conditions in some of these areas from worsening.

Young children are most vulnerable in such acute hunger conditions. Often, those with severe malnutrition have greatly weakened immune systems and cannot fight off illnesses that are rarely dangerous in well-nourished children. In the 55 countries and territories included in the Food Crises report, more than 15 million children under 5 had acute malnutrition, meaning that they were far too thin for their height.

We know all this because humanitarian relief programs generally do not have enough resources to help everyone in need, so analysts must identify those in the most urgent situations.

The permanent damage to children’s growth and development caused by malnutrition during the 1,000 Days is known as stunting. In the 55 food-crisis areas covered by the report, more than 75 million children under 5 were stunted in 2020. Many stunted children live in areas considered to be in catastrophe or famine, or in the next step to it, but others live in areas with somewhat lower but still high rates of food insecurity.

Still others, not included in the report’s 75 million statistic, live in areas that do not meet the criteria that defines a food crisis. But while a region may be relatively food secure overall, this does not mean much to poor and/or marginalized families whose children are still at higher risk of stunting.

The report’s author, the Global Network Against Food Crises, calls on the international community to mobilize urgently against hunger. The Global Network and its member organizations seek to prevent, prepare for, and respond to hunger crises. As we have mentioned in recent months, 2021 includes several major opportunities for the global community to respond to urgent needs, such as the Nutrition for Growth Summit and the U.N. Food Systems Summit.

In March of this year, U.N. Secretary-General Guterres established a High-Level Task Force on Preventing Famine, led by the U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mark Lowcock, in conjunction with a variety of U.N. agencies and nonprofit partners. The goal of the task force is to “bring coordinated, high-level attention to famine prevention and mobilize support to the most affected countries.”

Michele Learner is managing editor with Bread for the World Institute.

The post Global hunger emergencies in the pandemic era appeared first on Bread for the World.

2021 could see the largest public investment in U.S. infrastructure in more than half a century. We should be glad for that. Much of our nation’s physical infrastructure is badly in need of repair. A significant investment could also create millions of good jobs for people who have been unemployed or underemployed because of the economic fallout of COVID-19.  

I think there’s a natural tendency to think of infrastructure solely in terms of physical objects—highways, bridges, the electric grid, and other structures built with heavy machinery. That’s certainly one kind of infrastructure.

But there’s another sort of infrastructure in which the returns on investment are much higher. Here I’m talking about our nation’s human infrastructure—the skills and ingenuity of the workforce, which in turn depend on the health and education of our population.

The U.S. economist James Heckman won a Nobel Prize in 2000 for his pioneering work showing that investments in people during their early childhood yield lifelong returns: they ultimately are better educated and more productive on the job, and they are less likely to need government safety net programs. Talking about “investment” and “productivity” may sound as though we’re thinking of young children as commodities, but our use of these terms is quite limited; it is strictly in the context of comparing investments in human infrastructure and physical infrastructure.

The primary reason governments spend taxpayer money on infrastructure is to promote sustainable economic growth. In the 1950s, President Eisenhower didn’t call for massive investments in interstate highways so that Americans could appreciate the scenery as they drove by. His goals were to advance interstate commerce and improve national security.

The Biden-Harris administration’s plan for investing in human infrastructure through the American Jobs Act and the American Families Plan presents a unique opportunity to advance an infrastructure package for early childhood development. Let’s call it a 1,000 Days infrastructure plan.

Institute Insights readers probably recognize that I mean a specific 1,000 days—the “1,000 Days” that is the unique human nutrition window open between pregnancy and age 2. Readers may remember from Bread’s advocacy on global nutrition that the 1,000 Days is when good nutrition has greatest potential to improve the course of a person’s entire life. Bread has worked on issues around the 1,000 Days in other countries, but of course the United States also has many people in that window, and in this piece I’m talking specifically about a 1,000 Days infrastructure plan for the United States.

As an anti-hunger organization, Bread pays particular attention to nutrition. The U.S. nutrition program tailored to people in the 1,000 Days—it seems more natural to think of them as pregnant women, babies, and toddlers—is WIC. WIC does a pretty good job of reaching lower-income women and their babies with nutritional support, and it could be even better with a few specific policy changes. But the 1,000 Days infrastructure we need is much broader in scope than WIC.

Major weaknesses in other parts of the 1,000 Days infrastructure are not only causing the United States to miss out on much of the positive impact that could be made during this nutritional window of opportunity, but are also reducing the effectiveness of WIC.

WIC is associated with reduced rates of maternal and infant mortality. But U.S. maternal and infant death rates are higher than those of any other high-income country. Few health indicators speak to the need to center racial equity in the 1,000 Days infrastructure more starkly than those on maternal mortality. Black women are far more likely to die as a result of pregnancy and childbirth: their death rate is more than three times that of whites.

Health care is inseparable from all other parts of a 1,000 Days infrastructure. Without it, the entire edifice is weakened. Most families eligible for WIC are already receiving Medicaid. Better coordination between WIC and Medicaid would improve services in both. For example, both WIC and Medicaid provide support for breastfeeding, and they could coordinate more closely, drawing on WIC’s proven strength in culturally competent peer support.

The United States has much lower rates of breastfeeding than other high-income countries. This is one consequence of the fact that the United States is also the only high-income country that has no national paid leave policy.

Nearly one in four U.S. women return to their jobs within two weeks of giving birth, which makes it difficult or impossible to establish and continue breastfeeding. The Family and Medical Leave Act provides for 12 weeks of unpaid leave, but low-income women can ill afford to take time off without pay. Some employers voluntarily offer paid leave, but this almost always goes to higher-earning professionals rather than women who participate in WIC or Medicaid.

I hope you’re seeing how the pillars of a 1,000 Days infrastructure plan reinforce each other. This piece can only briefly mention a few components of a comprehensive 1,000 Days infrastructure plan. Suffice it to say there are many more.

In a recent blog post, I discussed the temporary expansion of the Child Tax Credit (CTC) in the American Rescue Plan. This expansion is expected to cut child poverty nearly in half. Poverty and food insecurity occur at higher rates in families with young children. Critics of the expansion contend, without evidence, that it will discourage parents, particularly mothers, from working. Low-income parents simply cannot afford not to work. What prevents parents, mostly mothers, from working—more than anything else—is  lack of affordable, accessible child care.

Bread President Rev. Eugene Cho and Blythe Thomas, Director of 1,000 Days, explain what a 1,000 Days infrastructure would accomplish in an op-ed published in The Hill.

WIC, Medicaid, paid leave, child care, and CTC expansion are some of the essential elements of a 1,000 Days infrastructure. Individually, each is vital to positive outcomes during the 1,000 Days; together and aligned, they are a transformational investment in the nation’s human infrastructure—our next generation.

Todd Post is senior researcher, writer, and editor with Bread for the World Institute.

The post The infrastructure plan our country needs appeared first on Bread for the World.

Read the article. 

The post The Hill: 1,000 days of family support can create years of American prosperity appeared first on Bread for the World.

“Last night, President Biden presented the American people with a groundbreaking plan to invest in our children and families,” said Rev. Eugene Cho, president and CEO of Bread for the World. “In a country with so much abundance, no child should be denied the opportunity to thrive. The president’s focus on nutrition assistance is particularly important as our nation continues to suffer its worst hunger crisis in modern history.”  

The American Families Plan calls for an expansion of vital children’s nutrition assistance programs. Children who are hungry – even for short periods of time – are susceptible to physical and intellectual delays that could set them back permanently. The plan would expand the free and reduced-price healthy school meals program and the summer EBT nutrition assistance program. Notably, the administration recently announced it would extend universal free school lunches through the 2021-2022 school year and expand pandemic EBT summer nutrition assistance.

The plan also calls for universal preschool, assistance to help families pay for child care, twelve weeks of paid family and medical leave, and would make permanent temporary tax credits that help families pay for health care under the Affordable Care Act. The plan would also make permanent the expanded Earned Income Tax Credit and the full refundability of the Child Tax Credit (CTC), while extending other expanded provisions of the CTC through 2025. While we welcome the commitment to extend the CTC provisions through 2025, permanently extending them would cut child poverty nearly in half and do more to reduce hunger among our nation’s children than any single policy has in decades.

“We are called on by God to love and care for our neighbors. We cannot merely offer our prayers to those struggling with hunger without taking appropriate actions to meet their physical needs (James 2:15-17). The proposals President Biden has offered would provide countless families an opportunity to lift themselves out of poverty and give millions of children a foundation to succeed,” said Cho. “We hope that Congress will act swiftly to pass these proposals.”    

The post Bread Applauds Biden’s Plan to Boost Nutrition for Children and Families appeared first on Bread for the World.

This is the fourth in a five-part series on transforming assistance to fragile contexts to end hunger.

Although Latin America has less than 10 percent of the global population, almost half of all COVID-19- related deaths have taken place there, and many of the low-income countries hit hardest in the first year of the pandemic are in Latin America.

Latin America soon emerged as an epicenter of the global pandemic despite the fact that COVID-19 cases did not appear in the region until much later than they were apparent in Europe and the United States.

A major reason for this is that the majority of Latin American countries faced myriad political and governance challenges before the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Corruption in government and low levels of both mandatory taxation levels and actual tax collection contributed to many problems that fueled the pandemic, particularly inadequate public health systems, very high levels of economic inequality, and poorly resourced public education systems.

In recent years, Venezuela has faced what some consider “the Americas’ greatest single humanitarian crisis.” The nation’s economy and political structure collapsed even though it possesses the world’s largest known petroleum reserves. More than 5 million people have now fled the country and an estimated 91 percent of those who remain live in poverty. Nearly a third of all Venezuelans—more than 9 million people— are food insecure or malnourished. These figures are expected to rise as the coronavirus continues to spread.

The dire pre-pandemic circumstances have exacerbated the death and suffering caused by COVID-19. 80 percent of Venezuela’s hospitals were understaffed and 60 percent were not equipped with basic necessities such as running water and reliable electricity.

For several years now, public protests have swept the country as people denounced the government’s poor policies and other shortcomings that led to an economic collapse and food shortages. In 2018, a disputed presidential election worsened the political situation. The Organization of American States, the European Union, and other international organizations declared that the result was not valid. 

According to a blog post from the U.S. Institute of Peace, the government has used the COVID-19 pandemic to oppress its critics; for example, quarantines that are necessary for public health are being used to “reestablish political and social control,” and the government is charged with concealing the true numbers of COVID-19 victims.

According to the International Crisis Group, Venezuela is now on the brink of a famine. Lines at public food distribution sites stretch for miles, clean water is scarce and medicine even scarcer. The country’s currency has been devalued so many times that it is worth almost to nothing, signaling surging rates of inflation. As early as the end of April 2020, inflation on food items had reached 251 percent. The only “option” for those who cannot find food in stores is to pay up to 10 times more on the black market, an impossibility for most.

In a further threat to food security, fuel shortages are preventing farmers from operating their equipment to plant crops. More than half of the agricultural land that produced crops in 2019 was projected to lie fallow in 2020. Some agricultural sectors are faring even worse—the dairy industry is working at just 12 percent of capacity and one in six sugar mills is currently operational.

Further problems in accessing essential supplies have been created by U.S. sanctions seeking to disrupt trade between Venezuela and Iran. U.S. sanctions on oil tankers traveling from Iran to Venezuela have caused the price of oil to increase by as much as 30 percent—this at a time when the pandemic caused global oil prices to fall to historic lows, and in a country rich in oil reserves.

The Venezuelan government has deployed the army to control rationing at gas stations across the country. Farmers wait hours in line for their insufficient rations of fuel, and those who can afford to buy more at exorbitant black market prices do this as well. The scarcity of fuel has repercussions further down the food supply chain as well—for example, produce often cannot be transported to distribution centers for lack of fuel.

Stay tuned to Institute Insights next month to wrap up this series on fragility with ways to move forward.

Jordan Teague is interim co-director, policy analysis and coalition building, and Rahma Sohail was the 2020 Crook fellow with Bread for the World Institute.

The post Fragility and hunger in Venezuela appeared first on Bread for the World.

2021 is a critical year for global action against malnutrition for two key reasons. As you might expect, one is that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant setbacks, and active recovery strategies are essential. The other reason is more proactive: countries are coming together this year for the Nutrition for Growth Year of Action.

This yearlong effort aims to mobilize new commitments and continue to build momentum to make faster progress on malnutrition. Later this year, world leaders will meet for a high-level event on Nutrition for Growth (usually known as N4G), hosted by the Japanese government.

Also, this fall the U.N. Secretary General will host a Food Systems Summit. “Food systems” means simply the various steps involved in producing, transporting, preparing, and consuming food. It is sometimes summed up as “farm to fork.” The goal of the summit is to alert the global community to the need to identify sustainable solutions to the major problems of the global food system and build partnerships to implement them.

In addition to ending hunger and all forms of malnutrition, action areas include shifting to sustainable consumption patterns, advancing equitable livelihoods, and building resilience to shocks. The U.N. is inviting communities everywhere to hold their own independent dialogues and has set up a way for groups to contribute their ideas to the Summit.

The Lancet, a U.K. medical journal, released its 2021 report on maternal/child nutrition on March 8. The report helps lay the groundwork for global leaders and other stakeholders to set priorities for the Year of Action and beyond. The evidence base that supports a list of key effective nutrition actions has been updated and new items added.

The report emphasizes that the knowledge to end childhood malnutrition exists—but it remains for governments to commit to putting this knowledge into practice and respond to the world’s broad and unfinished nutrition agenda.

The last year-end data before the pandemic, i.e., the statistics as of December 31, 2019, indicated that 144  million children were living with stunting due to chronic malnutrition in early childhood, and 47 million were affected by wasting. About 30 percent of the cases of wasting were classified as severe.

According to The Lancet report, globally 149 million children under 5 are affected by stunting, and nearly 50 million (49.5 million) children are affected by wasting, or acute malnutrition.

While the statistics may vary slightly–particularly depending on whether researchers attempted to include the impact of the pandemic, which would mean that those numbers are preliminary–the more important point is that both forms of child malnutrition are dangerous. Nearly half of all preventable deaths of children under 5 are caused by malnutrition.

Children affected by stunting have survived early childhood malnutrition but will likely face lifelong health problems and physical and cognitive delays. Wasting is caused by acute hunger. Children with wasting are far too thin for their height. Severe acute malnutrition, if not treated in time, often leads to death. Nearly 5 percent of children in low-income countries are affected by both stunting and wasting, meaning that they are up to eight times as likely to die as children who are not malnourished.

Bread for the World has been particularly active on nutrition issues since The Lancet published its first report on maternal/child nutrition in 2008. It is hard to overstate the influence that this landmark report has had on the nutrition community, including anti-hunger advocates.

The report established that the most critical time for human nutrition is the “1,000 Days” window between pregnancy and a child’s second birthday. Very young children are far more likely to die of malnutrition than older children or adults. Those who survive are very likely to suffer from the lifelong impacts of stunting.

The Lancet reports synthesize vast amounts of research data to compile a list of the most effective actions to prevent and treat malnutrition during this 1,000 Days period. These cost-effective, relatively straightforward nutrition actions can prevent malnutrition or identify and treat it early on.

Despite a far clearer understanding of what works, progress has been far too slow. Little was accomplished in the several years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, and no country is on track to meet all 10 World Health Assembly targets for 2025.

The significant gains of previous decades are now being reversed by the pandemic’s secondary effects. These include, for example, lockdowns to slow the spread of the virus and decisions to divert healthcare resources and providers to treat COVID patients.

Since March 2020, many young children and pregnant women have had only intermittent access, or none at all, to lifesaving health and nutrition services. Children have missed regularly scheduled screenings to identify and treat malnutrition before significant harm is done. Many have also missed key windows for vaccinations against childhood diseases that routinely take the lives of children in many countries.

This is why the Nutrition for Growth Year of Action is so important. Armed with knowledge, the global community needs to mobilize to stop further reversals of nutrition gains and resume moving forward as soon as possible.  

Michele Learner is managing editor with Bread for the World Institute.

The post Ending Malnutrition: A year of action appeared first on Bread for the World.

March is Women’s History Month in the United States, and on March 8, the world observed International Women’s Day. First and foremost, gender equity is a critical component of respect for human rights. It is also essential for every country intent on building a more prosperous future, without hunger, malnutrition, or any of humanity’s many other longstanding problems. No community can meet its goals if half its people are blocked from using all their talents to help meet those goals.

It goes without saying that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected nearly all facets of life for women around the globe. But before I say anything more about the pandemic’s global impact, I want to celebrate a significant victory for children in the United States. Please see our recent blog post for the details of a particularly important provision of the recently passed American Rescue Plan—the expansion of the Child Tax Credit (CTC). It may not seem important at first glance, but experts expect that it will cut child poverty nearly in half.

For the past several years, Bread for the World members have been urging Congress to improve two tax provisions with the potential to help many more families living with food insecurity: the CTC and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). The work of Bread’s grassroots advocates made a difference as a CTC expansion was included in the American Rescue Plan. Thank you and congratulations to all who supported improvements in the CTC and EITC!    

As the pandemic enters its second year, many people have paused to reflect on the enormous damage to virtually every country on Earth in only one year. In addition to the suffering of patients themselves and their families, even larger numbers have been forced to go without necessities as the global economy was brought nearly to a halt. Hundreds of millions of people lost their means of earning a living, whether that had been in a profession or job, or in the so-called “informal sector,” where people work as smallholder farmers, market women, tailors, midwives, and in many other capacities to sustain their communities and feed themselves and their families.

As noted most recently, another major impact of lockdowns and other restrictions imposed for public health reasons is that many people have been unable to access basic health care. This is particularly dangerous for young children, many of whom have missed screenings for malnutrition and immunizations against childhood diseases that remain deadly in many countries.

Recently we have also taken a look at the grim consequences of the pandemic for people living in situations that were already extremely difficult. In regions such as the Sahel, which stretches along the southern edge of Africa’s Sahara Desert, countries such as Burkina Faso and Niger had extremely high rates of child malnutrition during “normal” times, significant armed conflict, and frequent disasters linked to climate change.

In areas around the world that, like the Sahel, are severely affected by conflict and climate change, the pandemic has caused soaring rates of hunger and malnutrition. The number of people in acute hunger emergencies has more than doubled, to an estimated 271.8 million.

Women are facing particular hardships due to pervasive gender discrimination. The World Health Organization reports that in Africa, for example, the pandemic is worsening gender inequality and causing millions of women great physical, mental, and economic distress. The burdens of unpaid, labor-intensive household chores fall mainly on women, as does responsibility for caring for children. In many societies, this includes ensuring that children have food and clothing.

Women with small businesses have been hit hard. Oulimata Sarr, regional director of U.N. Women in West and Central Africa, said that the results of a study in 30 countries of 1,300 female-owned businesses found that, “The message is the same. We have lost the vast majority of our revenue.”

She added that some countries responded by giving women food and some cash transfers instead of capital to keep their businesses afloat, while in several countries, governments have given stimulus checks and packages to a number of well-organized business associations, most run by men. Sarr said that governments in the region need to respond to this gender financing gap.
 
There is much more that could be said about gender equity and hunger in the context of the pandemic, ranging from women’s higher rates of unemployment to persistent reports of significant increases in domestic violence. But as COVID-19 vaccine supplies begin to arrive in lower-income countries, and the people of many countries have become increasingly adept at protecting themselves and their families from being exposed to the virus, I prefer to look ahead to spring in the hope that this year, hundreds of millions of people will be able to take significant steps to a better life.

Michele Learner is managing editor with Bread for the World Institute.

The post A Year Later: Regaining momentum appeared first on Bread for the World.

“We welcome passage of these resolutions, which demonstrate that hunger is not a partisan issue,” said Rev. Eugene Cho, president and CEO of Bread for the World. “With the pandemic pushing maternal and child malnutrition to levels not seen in decades, the United States’ continued leadership on global nutrition is more important than ever.”   

According to The Lancet and other experts, malnutrition resulting from the pandemic could cause an additional 6.7 million children under the age of five to suffer from wasting (life-threatening malnutrition) and is leading to the death of an additional 10,000 children each month. 

The House resolution, H.R. 189, was introduced by Reps. Roger Marshall (R-KS) and Jim McGovern (D-MA) and had 154 bipartisan co-sponsors. The Senate resolution, S.Res. 260, was introduced by Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Chris Coons (D-DE) and had 42 bipartisan co-sponsors. Bread was honored to work in coalition with InterAction and the broader nutrition community to secure passage in both chambers. 

“One of our most basic tasks as people of faith is to care for our children and feed those suffering from hunger. Good nutrition is critical for a child’s health, survival, and development. U.S. funded global nutrition programs have helped more than 22 million children reach their full potential in just the last decade. We hope that Congress makes good on these resolutions and increases funding for global maternal and child malnutrition in FY 2022,” said Cho.

The post House, Senate Pass Resolutions Supporting U.S. Leadership on Global Nutrition appeared first on Bread for the World.

By Jordan Teague, senior international policy advisor

In just five years, Kenya reduced its child wasting rate by 39 percent. It also made progress on child stunting, with a 35 percent decrease over nine years.

This rapid progress against malnutrition was made possible by improvements in many areas: delivering nutrition services, enacting nutrition governance legislation, strengthening supportive economic policies, developing a healthier food system, and building community resilience. Effective advocacy for nutrition and external support to the Kenyan government were also key ingredients in success. But Kenya faces difficulties in its efforts to further reduce malnutrition.

Two areas of difficulty are wide disparities among the country’s regions, and shortfalls in funding. Kenyans themselves must take the lead in overcoming these obstacles, but the U.S. government can support Kenya, along with other countries working to reduce malnutrition, in three main ways:

• Increase nutrition funding to help fill the funding gap.
• Invest nutrition resources for greater impact by increasing the share of nutrition funding in programs and making nutrition a key objective of agriculture and health programs.
• Target nutrition resources to the communities with the highest burden of malnutrition.

Kenya, with the support of many internal and external stakeholders invested in its success, has taken commendable steps to accelerate its progress on nutrition. These steps include prioritizing governance, increasing human resources capacity in nutrition within the health system, diversifying agriculture and people’s diets, investing in resilience, creating space for advocacy, and leading coordination efforts among all stakeholders.

While there has been progress on reducing stunting and wasting, Kenya still faces difficulties such as funding shortfalls and uneven progress that risks exacerbating nutrition disparities.View full report.

Recognizing that children are the greatest asset of our nation, my government is committed to ending child undernutrition.

— The Honorable Uhuru Kenyatta, President of Kenya

The post Briefing Paper: Accelerated Nutrition Progress in Kenya appeared first on Bread for the World.

By Jordan Teague, senior international policy advisor

There is no silver bullet that will end malnutrition, but this paper presents an agenda of policies and practices that offer a clear way forward when combined with investments in proven, effective nutrition services.

These include, for example, treatment or preventive treatment of children affected by wasting, multiple micronutrient supplementation for pregnant women, adequate breastfeeding/complementary feeding for infants, and Vitamin A supplementation for children.

In order to make significant lasting progress, all stakeholders—including the U.S. government—in all sectors will need to contribute to strategic, cohesive, and coordinated action to:

• Bolster nutrition governance structures and mechanisms
• Align investments with regional and national nutrition strategies, plans, and systems
• Invest in nutrition capacity in health services
• Invest in building both supply and demand for nutritious foods
• Improve equity in policies and practices in order to advance nutrition for people at highest risk
• Strengthen community resilience to protect nutrition gains

While positive gains have been made against malnutrition this century, urgent action is still required to reach good nutrition for all. This agenda of policies and practices, in addition to investment in proven, effective nutrition services—such as treatment or preventive treatment of children
affected by wasting, multiple micronutrient supplementation for pregnant women, adequate breastfeeding/complementary feeding for infants, and Vitamin A supplementation for children—offers a clear way forward. View full report.

“We have a unique opportunity to embrace the scale of the challenge ahead and commit to holistic, systemic changes…”

— Gerda Verburg, Scaling Up Nutrition Movement

The post Briefing Paper: An Agenda to Accelerate Progress on Global Nutrition appeared first on Bread for the World.

By Jordan Teague, senior international policy advisor

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, global levels of child malnutrition—measured by rates of stunting and wasting—had been decreasing.

Yet progress had not been fast enough, because good nutrition is essential to human life, health, and well-being.

This paper examines common elements among low- and middle-income countries that have made more progress on nutrition than many of their peer countries. While they are not necessarily causal factors, these elements contribute to an environment that enables accelerated progress on nutrition:

• Economic growth
• Availability and consumption of nutritious foods
• Women’s empowerment
• Equity and equality
• Water, sanitation, and hygiene
• Funding
• Social protection systems
• Good governance
• Peace and stability

These elements are more likely to spur accelerated progress when they are combined with investments in key nutrition services, such as treatment or preventive treatment for children affected by wasting, multiple micronutrient supplementation for pregnant women, adequate breastfeeding/complementary feeding for infants, and Vitamin A supplementation for children.

While there is no one-size-fits-all approach that will produce good nutrition for everyone, we have seen that countries that are making faster progress have several ingredients in common that support their success. The U.S. government and other key stakeholders should look more deeply at these characteristics that help make faster progress possible and adjust their nutrition investments to support them. View full report.

“Dealing with malnutrition means fixing all the links in the chain—food, health, sanitation, water, and care.”

– Lawrence Haddad, World Food Prize Laureate

The post Briefing Paper: Key Ingredients for Faster Progress on Nutrition appeared first on Bread for the World.

This week’s prayer is a preview of the devotional. The following words are excerpted from its Introduction.

“This devotional celebrates the hope, faith, and resilience of Latino communities, while also lamenting the evil of inequitable policies that, to this day, continue to oppress our people leading to hunger and poverty in the United States and south of the U.S.-Mexico border — even further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

This bilingual Latino devotional invites you to reflect biblically on the interconnectedness of hunger, malnutrition, and climate change, issues that negatively impact Latino communities in the United States and drive migration abroad.”

The following is a prayer from Rev. Jeanette Salguero’s devotional on domestic hunger and malnutrition.

Join us in prayer:

We invite you to use this bilingual devotional with your community of faith to reflect, pray, and act.

The post Prayers to End Hunger: Hispanic Heritage Month appeared first on Bread for the World.

With the virus now spreading in low-resource contexts and new waves of infection expected in the coming year, better nutrition for vulnerable people in the poorest countries—nutrition that provides the best possible immunity and strengthens resilience—is more important than ever.

Most at risk are pregnant women, infants, and young children. Without immediate action, experts estimate that an additional 10,000 children younger than 5 will die every month this year—four deaths per minute—because of the spike in wasting
(life-threatening malnutrition) caused by the pandemic. Preventing such an outcome requires urgent U.S. leadership to make swift investments and take quick actions to protect the nutrition needs of the most vulnerable mothers and children around the
world.

Good nutrition is critical for child survival, health, and development. It builds immunity, protects against illness and infection, builds resilience, and supports recovery. Of all deaths among children younger than 5, approximately 45 percent is attributable to malnutrition—either acute malnutrition or increased vulnerability to infections and other illnesses caused by malnutrition.

The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to double the number of people facing food crises, which will soar to 265 million in 2020 unless swift actions are taken, according to the U.N. World Food Programme. A rise in malnutrition is inevitable as the economic and health crisis becomes a global hunger crisis, and the secondary impacts reduce dietary quality, impair WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) practices, and threaten care services for mothers as well as the continuation of regular health and nutrition programs for children.

The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to double the number of people facing food crises unless swift actions are taken

The post Fact Sheet: COVID-19 Global Pandemic, Better Nutrition Protects Lives appeared first on Bread for the World.

Thanks to advocates like you, we’re already building momentum in Congress around nutrition. These webinars will inspire and equip you to take the next step. You will hear about progress made in our campaign, stories from fellow advocates in your region, and timely action steps you can take to help end hunger.

• East Regional Webinar (CT, DE, MA, ME, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VT) Hosted by Margaret Tran on Tuesday, May 19 at 4 p.m. ET, register here.
• Southeast Regional Webinar (AL, AR, GA, KY, LA, MD, MS, TN, VA, WV) Hosted by Min. David Street on Thursday, May 21 at 1 p.m. ET. register here.
• Midwest Regional Webinar (IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, ND, NE, OH, SD, WI) Hosted by Rev. Patricia Case, Nicole Schmidt and Zach Schmidt. Option 1 on Monday, May 18 at 8 p.m. ET, register here. Option 2 on Wednesday, May 20 at 1 p.m. ET, register here.
• West Regional Webinar (AK, CO, HI, ID, MT, NV, OR, UT, WA, WY) Hosted by Clark Hansen on Thursday, May 21 at 1 p.m. PT, register here.
• Southwest Regional Webinar (AZ, NM, OK, TX) Hosted by Lupe Conchas. Option 1 on Wednesday, May 20 at 3 p.m. CT, register here. Option 2 on Wednesday, May 20 at 7 p.m. CT, register here.

Please register for your regional webinar even if you are unable to attend. This ensures you will receive the recording and follow-up information.

If you missed the February webinars about the Offering of Letters, you can find those recordings on the Activist Corner.

The post 2020 Regional Webinars in May appeared first on Bread for the World.

“Thanks in part to U.S. leadership, the world has made tremendous progress against global maternal and child malnutrition,” said Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World. “USAID’s work has saved millions of lives and helped scores of children reach their full potential.”

S. Res. 260 was introduced by Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Chris Coons (D-DE) and had 42 bipartisan co-sponsors. Bread was honored to work in coalition with RESULTS, Save the Children, and CARE, and with Sens. Collins and Coons, to secure passage.     

“We commend Senators Collins and Coons for championing this resolution. Hunger is not a partisan issue and it is critical to have supporters in Congress on both sides of the aisle,” said Beckmann. “Now we look to the House to show leadership and approve this resolution.”

Good nutrition in the 1,000 days between a woman’s pregnancy and her child’s second birthday lays a strong foundation for her child’s health, physical growth, and brain development. U.S. funded global nutrition programs have helped 22 million children reach their full potential in just the last decade.

“Millions more women and children are being reached by nutrition programs thanks to Congress,” added Beckmann. “We must keep the momentum going.”

The post Senate Passes Resolution Supporting US Leadership on Global Nutrition appeared first on Bread for the World.

Julie Brewer has worked as a nutrition specialist implementing the WIC program in Montana; as head of the Montana Hunger Coalition; as a government relations analyst at Bread for the World, where she advocated for improvements in nutrition program policies; at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA); and, most recently, at the Office of Management and Budget, designing and administering federal nutrition policies.

Brewer knew before she went to college at the University of Montana that nutrition was her calling. A project for a high school home economics class catalyzed her interest. So, did growing up in a single-parent household, where the struggle to make ends meet meant that school lunch often depended on the generosity of classmates.

She studied nutrition in college and began to work for WIC after graduation. She found that it could be difficult to reconcile her work in providing expectant and new mothers with information about healthy foods and how to prepare them with the realities of their lives. It was common to hear, “This nutrition stuff is great, but we don’t have any food at home.”

WIC is designed only to supplement the diets of mothers and young children, not to provide all the food they need. When Brewer started her job, the list of foods that were eligible for WIC did not include fruits and vegetables, and their cost was prohibitive for families in deep poverty. WIC participants realized that fruits and vegetables are healthier, but they needed to buy cheap foods—such as ramen noodles or macaroni and cheese—that could be stretched and would at least keep children from feeling the pangs of hunger. They had to make the best of their very limited resources.

Getting to know women who participated in WIC was a transformative experience for Brewer. While she’d known hungry times as a child, it struck her that her clients and their children were enduring far worse. Her time with WIC Montana broadened her understanding of the types of reforms that would improve federal nutrition programs—and led her to advocacy.

While still working in Montana, Brewer attended a conference in Washington, D.C., where she was able to talk to members of the Montana congressional delegation about the importance of WIC. After she and her family moved to the East Coast in 2001, she joined Bread for the World’s Washington office, advocating for strong nutrition programs as well as for policies that would help solve the root causes of hunger in the United States.

In 2006, Brewer took a job in the Child Nutrition Division of USDA, administering school meal programs and the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP). The limitations of the SFSP were clear: only one in seven children who receive free or reduced-price school lunches also receives summer meals. Efforts to expand the number of sites around the country and reach more children have met with little success.

Seeing this, Brewer played a pivotal role in advocating for a change that could potentially make dramatic improvements in the well-being of food-insecure children in the summer months. She and her colleagues in the Child Nutrition Division advocated providing additional SNAP benefits to low-income families during the summer months so that they could afford to feed children the meals they usually received at school. In 2010, Congress agreed to fund a pilot program in 10 states and Indian Tribal Organizations, involving more than 100,000 households. The pilot SNAP expansion reduced child hunger in participating households by one-third.

Reflecting on the success of the pilots, Brewer explained, “Unfortunately, we can waste a lot of time trying to make people adapt to how we design programs, without reflecting the realities in their lives. I see my job as making sure policy reflects reality.”

Brewer was directly involved in the administration of the pilots. As she explained, what seemed like a simple, common-sense solution turned out to involve several thorny administrative issues. She and her colleagues worked patiently to resolve these problems, contributing to the success of the pilot program and, most importantly, to fewer hungry children.

The post Profile: Julie Brewer and an Advocate's Impact appeared first on Bread for the World.

Nearly half of all child deaths worldwide—that is, nearly 2.5 million preventable deaths of children under the age of 5 every year—are related to malnutrition. Much larger numbers of young children—149 million, or nearly one in every four—are affected by chronic malnutrition.

Malnutrition should not claim young lives and damage children’s health and futures in our time—particularly on such an enormous scale. The persistence of malnutrition is, at its core, an issue of global inequities as the majority of impacted families live in countries in South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Central America.

But there is good news! We have the knowledge and tools to improve nutrition, and global nutrition programs have worked. Peru, Ghana, and Kenya have rapidly reduced their rates of stunting (a sign that children have survived chronic malnutrition very early in life) since 2000. Perhaps best of all: more than 16 million fewer children under the age of 5 are stunted today than in 2012.

Improved nutrition for women and children will allow countries to improve health overall, put more kids in school, and expand their own economic growth. Bread for the World and its partners are asking Congress to provide $200 million for global nutrition in the fiscal year 2020 budget to jumpstart efforts to make faster progress on global nutrition and help the United States spur action from other partners.

Nearly half of all child deaths worldwide are related to malnutrition

The post Fact Sheet: Why We Need $200 Million for Global Nutrition Programs appeared first on Bread for the World.

USAID’s Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Strategy (MSNS) provides a roadmap to elevate and integrate nutrition as a priority for all of the agency’s work to support countries to achieve these goals.

While having the Strategy in place has elevated the profile of maternal and child nutrition at USAID and brought high-level action on nutrition, USAID must build on and strengthen its multisector nutrition efforts to accelerate progress on nutrition.

USAID should:

• Ensure sufficient, equitable, and well-targeted funding for global nutrition
• Set and monitor SMART targets for nutrition across the agency
• Provide analysis and guidance on programmatic strategies to maximize nutrition outcomes
• Establish permanent positions for nutrition focal points at headquarters and in missions

This briefing paper is intended to complement USAID’s assessment of the MSNS. It highlights both successes and challenges identified in our interviews and field research, and it offers recommendations for sustaining and strengthening the impact of the Strategy on progress toward the 2025 global nutrition targets and the 2030 goal to end malnutrition in all its forms. Download a summary of the paper.

“Optimal nutrition is fundamental to achieving USAID’s wider mission.”

The post Briefing Paper: A Multi-Sectoral Approach to Nutrition. Assessing USAID's Progress. appeared first on Bread for the World.

Worldwide, maternal and child malnutrition causes millions of deaths each year. In some countries, it holds entire generations back from reaching their economic potential.

The United States has been critical to global nutrition efforts for decades. We must continue to be a leader in supporting countries to end malnutrition. Losing U.S. momentum now would stall global progress, putting current and future generations in unnecessary danger of death or lifelong disability.

Key Points

• To end the need for foreign assistance, now is the time to act on ending malnutrition.
• While the trends show progress on maternal and child nutrition, the continuation of progress is vulnerable if the U.S. government steps back.
• Congressional leadership is critical to ensuring that the United States keeps its commitments, supporting country-led efforts to improve nutrition among mothers and their young children.

“Nutrition is the biggest missed opportunity in global health.”

Bill Gates, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

The post The U.S. Contribution to Ending Global Malnutrition appeared first on Bread for the World.

“Continued United States leadership is crucial if we are to end the epidemic of global malnutrition,” said Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World. “I commend Representatives Marshall and McGovern for highlighting the role of U.S. leadership on global nutrition, and the effectiveness of USAID’s lifesaving nutrition interventions.”   

“As an obstetrician-gynecologist for over 25 years, educating and providing my patients with resources on nutrition was a major focus of my work.  Brain development, bone density, and weight all start in the womb and healthy habits during pregnancy, and instilled afterwards play an important role in a child’s physical and intellectual capabilities” said Congressman Marshall. “The importance of nutrition in the weeks prior to conception, during pregnancy, while breastfeeding, and within the early years of infancy cannot be overstated. I will remain focused on advocating for healthy lifestyles in America and around the globe, and am proud to introduce this resolution.”

“Good nutrition saves lives.  It keeps children healthy.  And it results in healthier, more stable and productive families and adults,” said Congressman McGovern.  “This is a solvable problem. USAID and the international community have made significant progress over the last three decades in addressing undernutrition and malnutrition in children, but more needs to be done.  Over 151 million children in the world are undernourished.  It is critical for the United States to sustain our engagement on child nutrition and build on our success.  This is the best way for us to show the world what America stands for and use our influence to make a real difference in people’s lives.”

“Good nutrition is the cornerstone of all development efforts, not only for healthy individuals but also for the development of families, communities, nations, and the world as a whole,” said Roger Thurow, senior fellow of The Chicago Council on Global Affairs and author of “The First 1,000 Days.” “The costs of malnutrition touch every one of us. A stunted child anywhere becomes a stunted child everywhere; a lost chance at greatness for one child is a lost chance for us all.”

Good nutrition in the 1,000 days between a woman’s pregnancy and her child’s second birthday lays a strong foundation for her child’s health, physical growth, and brain development. Almost half of all child deaths worldwide are linked to malnutrition and 1 in 4 children worldwide are stunted.

“U.S. leadership has made a difference in hundreds of millions of children’s lives, but there is much more that needs to be done,” added Beckmann. “The progress against malnutrition must be accelerated, and the U.S. should help lead the way.”

The post Global Nutrition Resolution Recognizes Importance of U.S. Leadership appeared first on Bread for the World.

Good nutrition during the 1,000 days from a woman’s pregnancy to her child’s second birthday is crucial to ensuring the child’s health, physical growth, and brain development. Assisting mothers and children with nutrition must be accompanied by good bodily and household care practices, clean environments, and access to health services.

A great deal of progress has been made globally in reducing malnutrition, but there is still a long way to go. We need to accelerate progress on maternal and child nutrition to ensure that all women and children are able to live dignified, healthy lives. Nearly half of all preventable child deaths are linked to malnutrition, and in 2017, 151 million children were physically stunted, a consequence of chronic malnutrition.

Early childhood malnutrition also stunts a child’s future, limiting his or her ability to grow, learn, earn a living, become self-sufficient, and move out of poverty, due to malnutrition’s harmful effects on cognitive growth as well. Children suffering from poor nutrition are more vulnerable to illnesses in their early years and into adulthood. Expectant mothers who are malnourished are at higher risk of bearing malnourished children, perpetuating an intergenerational cycle of malnutrition.

As one of the largest donors to global maternal and child health programs, the U.S. has long led the international community in efforts to improve child survival. Through the 1,000 Days Partnership, the U.S. has helped raise awareness about the devastating impact of malnutrition and mobilized support for the global Scaling Up Nutrition Movement. The Sustainable Development Goals adopted by all nations in September 2015 aim to end hunger, malnutrition, and preventable child deaths by 2030. To
help achieve these ambitious and transformative goals, the U.S. must demonstrate continued leadership in improving global nutrition.

Experts in economics agree that fighting malnutrition should be the top priority for policy makers and philanthropists.

Copenhagen Consensus, 2012

The post Fact Sheet: Fortified for Life. How the U.S. Government Supports Global Nutrition. appeared first on Bread for the World.

In 2017, 11.8 percent of households in the U.S.—40 million people—were food-insecure, meaning that they were unsure at some point during the year about how they would provide for their next meal. While the number of food insecure households is still too high, it has been declining since the post-recession high of 14.9 percent in 2011.

Unfortunately, the overall food insecurity rate has not recovered to pre-recession levels. In 2007, 11.1 percent of U.S. households experienced food insecurity, compared to 11.8 percent in 2017. At the rate of decrease we saw this year, the United States would not end hunger until 2040.

All the nations of the world have agreed on development goals for 2030, including the goal of ending hunger. To end hunger by 2030, our country needs to see the same decreases it saw from 2014 to 2015, when the rate of food insecurity declined at a statistically significant rate of 1.3 percent. Ending hunger by 2030 will require strong political commitment and a comprehensive approach to address hunger’s root causes and accelerate progress.

Fact: More than 1 in 6 children in the United States live at risk of hunger

The post Fact Sheet: Hunger by the Numbers [2018] appeared first on Bread for the World.

In its first 60 years, Food for Peace reached more than 3 billion people living with hunger. In addition to responding to hunger crises, Food for Peace seeks to prevent them. The program works with vulnerable populations, helping communities identify and address the major underlying causes of hunger and malnutrition so that families can, in the future, feed and nourish themselves.

The most important nutrition window in human life is the “1,000 days” between pregnancy and age 2. Nutritional deficiencies during this time have significant lifelong impacts on individuals, communities, and entire countries. Even short bouts of malnutrition can have irreversible effects.

Many of the people trapped in hunger crises are pregnant women, babies, and toddlers in the 1,000-day period. Thus, food assistance that includes nutritious food for pregnant women and young children is both a life-and-death matter for individuals and an economic imperative for countries.

Even short bouts of malnutrition can have irreversible effects

The post Advancing Nutrition through Food Aid Reform appeared first on Bread for the World.

Because the world has made so much progress against hunger in recent decades, those who face hunger, malnutrition, and extreme poverty are increasingly likely to live in areas currently experiencing or recovering from crises. They are the hardest to reach and the most likely to be left behind.

Improving the lives of the most vulnerable people requires a focus on both meeting their immediate needs and enabling families and communities to move toward resilience.

Improving maternal and child nutrition must be a top priority. It is critical that the United States continue to provide support to vulnerable populations in effective ways that maximize improvements in nutrition.

The United States must work within the global community to address both immediate and long-term needs in food security and nutrition, especially in fragile and vulnerable contexts.

Case studies from Uganda and Malawi help us understand:

• Improving nutrition must be a goal of any decisions regarding the funding or implementation of U.S. food assistance programs.
• It is necessary for all aspects and areas of Food for Peace to emphasize and invest in better nutrition as an explicit objective.
• The United States must protect and continue funding for multi-sectoral food security and nutrition development programs for the most vulnerable populations.

Jordan Teague is international policy analyst for food security and nutrition at Bread for the World Institute.

“The intersection of humanitarian and development is resilience building…Unless we do them all, we won’t succeed.”

Mark Green, Administrator, USAID

The post Mind the Gap: Nutrition to Bridge Humanitarian and Development Efforts appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> https://www.bread.org/article/international-development-association-ida-and-nutrition/ Fri, 01 Sep 2017 15:15:00 +0000 https://www.bread.org/article/international-development-association-ida-and-nutrition/ Improving maternal and child nutrition is the most cost-effective investment in international human and economic development. Improving nutrition not only alleviates human suffering, but also improves the conditions that create poverty in the first place. For every $1 invested in nutrition, there is a return of $16 in improved productivity and decreased healthcare costs. Nutritional

The post International Development Association (IDA) and Nutrition appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> Improving maternal and child nutrition is the most cost-effective investment in international human and economic development.

Improving nutrition not only alleviates human suffering, but also improves the conditions that create poverty in the first place. For every $1 invested in nutrition, there is a return of $16 in improved productivity and decreased healthcare costs.

Nutritional needs around the world are still immense. 155 million children under 5 — about one in every four — suffer from chronic malnutrition, or stunting. At any given time, approximately 52 million children are acutely malnourished — a condition that leads to death if not promptly treated. At this writing, in the summer of 2017, 1.4 million children are at immediate risk of death from starvation and malnutrition in four countries at imminent risk of famine.

The International Development Association (IDA) is the World Bank’s fund for the poorest countries, those whose per capita gross national income is less than USD $1,215. In 2017, there are 77 eligible nations. IDA plays a key role in boosting nutrition for women and children in these vulnerable countries. By pooling Official Development Assistance contributions from individual donors, IDA provides significant and stable funding for basic services such as health and nutrition. Every $1 contribution from the United States leverages or attracts nearly $13 from other donors and the World Bank. IDA focuses on nutrition in both emergencies and long-term development contexts.

IDA will reach 400 million women and children with health and nutrition services over the next three years

The post International Development Association (IDA) and Nutrition appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> https://www.bread.org/article/how-the-u-s-farm-bill-can-help-end-hunger/ Mon, 28 Aug 2017 16:15:00 +0000 https://www.bread.org/article/how-the-u-s-farm-bill-can-help-end-hunger/ The U.S. Farm Bill not only sets most U.S. agriculture policies, but also authorizes both federal nutrition assistance programs and humanitarian relief for hunger emergencies overseas.  This wide scope makes the Farm Bill vital not only to farmers, but to other residents of rural areas, people anywhere in the United States who do not have

The post How the U.S. Farm Bill Can Help End Hunger appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> The U.S. Farm Bill not only sets most U.S. agriculture policies, but also authorizes both federal nutrition assistance programs and humanitarian relief for hunger emergencies overseas. 

This wide scope makes the Farm Bill vital not only to farmers, but to other residents of rural areas, people anywhere in the United States who do not have enough money for food, and countries where many people struggle with hunger and malnutrition. 

The Farm Bill can help put the United States on track to end food insecurity and hunger in our country and save millions of lives overseas. To do so, it must be designed with strong and resilient food systems and good nutrition as its top priorities.

The post How the U.S. Farm Bill Can Help End Hunger appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> https://www.bread.org/article/fact-sheet-nutrition-during-famine/ Thu, 04 May 2017 20:45:00 +0000 https://www.bread.org/article/fact-sheet-nutrition-during-famine/ Famine means that 20 percent or more of the households in an area have “an extreme lack of food and other basic needs where starvation, death, and destitution are evident.” Famine has been declared in two counties of South Sudan, while other areas of South Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia, and Yemen are experiencing food security emergencies

The post Fact Sheet: Nutrition During Famine appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> Famine means that 20 percent or more of the households in an area have “an extreme lack of food and other basic needs where starvation, death, and destitution are evident.”

Famine has been declared in two counties of South Sudan, while other areas of South Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia, and Yemen are experiencing food security emergencies that could soon become famines. 20 million people are at risk of starvation in these countries, including 1.4 million children at “imminent risk of death” from starvation and malnutrition.

The risks associated with malnutrition are intensified by famine. When pregnant women and children younger than 2 live in famine conditions, they are at even greater risk of the short-term consequences (acute malnutrition and death) and the long-term consequences (stunting, disease, and poverty) of early childhood malnutrition than in less dire situations.

The post Fact Sheet: Nutrition During Famine appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> https://www.bread.org/article/measuring-progress-on-hunger-and-extreme-poverty/ Tue, 02 Aug 2016 20:30:00 +0000 https://www.bread.org/article/measuring-progress-on-hunger-and-extreme-poverty/ Bread for the World’s mission is to build the political will to end hunger both in the United States and around the world. From 2000 to 2015, an essential part of fulfilling our mission at the global level was supporting the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)—the first-ever worldwide effort to make progress on human problems

The post Measuring Progress on Hunger and Extreme Poverty appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> Bread for the World’s mission is to build the political will to end hunger both in the United States and around the world. From 2000 to 2015, an essential part of fulfilling our mission at the global level was supporting the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)—the first-ever worldwide effort to make progress on human problems such as hunger, extreme poverty, and maternal/child mortality. The hunger target, part of MDG1, was to cut in half the proportion of people who are chronically hungry or malnourished.

The MDGs spurred unprecedented improvements. The goal of cutting the global hunger rate in half was nearly reached, and more than a billion people escaped from extreme poverty. Building on these successes, the United States and 192 other countries agreed to a new set of global development goals in September 2015, ahead of the MDG end date of December 31, 2015. Among the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are ending hunger and malnutrition in all its forms and ending extreme poverty. The SDG deadline is December 31, 2030.

The SDGs are universal—they apply to all countries in the belief that every country, regardless of its current level of development, can make progress. This report focuses on how the SDGs to end extreme poverty and hunger (goals 1 and 2) can be applied to the United States, and what existing measures and indicators could be used to assess progress. These are the SDGs most directly related to Bread’s mission. The MDGs applied only to developing countries, so in one sense, a U.S. plan to achieve global development goals is a new idea. On the other hand, the U.S. government, state and local governments, nonprofit groups, churches, community organizations, and individuals from all walks of life have a long history of initiatives to reduce hunger, poverty, and inequalities—and, of course, these efforts continue today. There are groups and individuals working on all 17 SDGs scattered throughout U.S. government and civil society. These initiatives aren’t (yet) considered actions toward meeting the SDGs, but that is what they are. The SDGs offer an opportunity to articulate a common vision and to tailor a framework for action to the work of the various stakeholders.

The SDGs are a renewed opportunity to make lasting progress against hunger and poverty by bringing together the world’s leaders and resources to tackle these multidimensional and interconnected problems. The United States is in a strong position to begin measuring progress toward the SDGs. The federal government already calculates some relevant indica-tors, and it collects additional data that could be used to mea-sure progress on other indicators. 

Although the United States has advanced capabilities in data collection, our data analysis does not consistently disaggregate data for all the subpopulations and geographic locations neces-sary to track progress for all people, as envisioned in the SDGs. There are also some communities and groups whose data is still not adequately collected, such as homeless people, undocu-mented immigrants, and people who identify as LGBTQ. In order to capture all their voices and their varied experiences, we must strengthen our national surveys and data collection methods. The federal government must lead the way in ensuring that we collect and evaluate all the data necessary to consistently capture the realities of U.S. hunger and poverty for everyone.

The post Measuring Progress on Hunger and Extreme Poverty appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> https://www.bread.org/es/desnutricion-sigue-alta-a-nivel-mundial/ Wed, 15 Jun 2016 12:15:00 +0000 https://www.bread.org/es/desnutricion-sigue-alta-a-nivel-mundial/ Washington, D.C.– Un nuevo informe determinó que la desnutrición aún es ubicua y no ha recibido la atención que merece. El Informe de Nutrición Global de 2016 (GNR por sus siglas en inglés) se lanzó hoy en siete capitales del mundo, entre ellas Washington, D.C. La desnutrición afecta a 1 de cada 3 personas en

The post Desnutrición Sigue Alta a Nivel Mundial appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> Washington, D.C.– Un nuevo informe determinó que la desnutrición aún es ubicua y no ha recibido la atención que merece. El Informe de Nutrición Global de 2016 (GNR por sus siglas en inglés) se lanzó hoy en siete capitales del mundo, entre ellas Washington, D.C.

La desnutrición afecta a 1 de cada 3 personas en el mundo. Entre los efectos de la desnutrición están la atrofia del crecimiento, la obesidad, la diabetes, y la cardiopatía. Se calcula que disminuye por 11 por ciento el producto interno bruto de países en Asia y África.

Durante el lanzamiento en Washington, D.C., patrocinado en parte por Pan para el Mundo, Estados Unidos anunció su nuevo Plan Global de Coordinación para la Nutrición del Gobierno de EE UU de 2016-2021. Pan afirma que el plan ayudará a las agencias estadounidenses a lograr de forma más eficaz las metas de nutrición global.

“Nos da mucho gusto que Estados Unidos haya cumplido un compromiso hecho en la Cumbre de Nutrición para Crecimiento de 2013, y que haya introducido su plan de coordinación para la nutrición global”, dijo Asma Lateef, directora del Instituto Pan para el Mundo. “La implementación del plan facilitará el monitoreo de las inversiones en los programas de nutrición global”.

La buena nutrición es el fundamento para la buena salud, la educación, y una vida productiva. Niveles elevados de desnutrición ponen en riesgo el progreso hacia el fin del hambre. Sin embargo, existen soluciones a la desnutrición, y con financiación adecuada se pueden aumentar.

Lamentablemente, el mundo no ha invertido suficiente en la nutrición, lo cual impide los esfuerzos para lograr las metas de nutrición global establecidas por la Asamblea Mundial de la Salud. “Esperamos que el nuevo plan para la coordinación global acelerará el impacto de las actuales inversiones de Estados Unidos en la nutrición”, dijo Lateef.

Según el informe, acabar con la desnutrición requerirá triplicar la financiación actual. La campaña Ofrenda de Cartas de 2016 de Pan para el Mundo exhorta a Estados Unidos a que duplique su financiación para los programas internacionales de nutrición. Aunque esto no sería suficiente, es un pago inicial con alto rendimiento.

“Esperamos que líderes en todas partes presten atención al llamado del GNR a que hagan compromisos ‘específicos, medibles, alcanzables, relevantes, y de tiempo limitado’ (SMART por sus siglas en inglés). Es clave para la responsabilidad. El plan de coordinación de Estados Unidos empieza a hacerlo, pero se tiene que reforzar con nuevos recursos”, dijo Lateef.

The post Desnutrición Sigue Alta a Nivel Mundial appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> https://www.bread.org/article/malnutrition-remains-pervasive-globally/ Tue, 14 Jun 2016 11:15:00 +0000 https://www.bread.org/article/malnutrition-remains-pervasive-globally/ Washington, D.C. – A new report finds that malnutrition remains pervasive globally and has not received the attention it deserves. The 2016 Global Nutrition Report (GNR) was launched today in seven major capitals across the world, including Washington, D.C. Malnutrition affects 1 out of 3 people globally. The effects of malnutrition include wasting, stunting, obesity,

The post Malnutrition Remains Pervasive Globally appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> Washington, D.C. – A new report finds that malnutrition remains pervasive globally and has not received the attention it deserves. The 2016 Global Nutrition Report (GNR) was launched today in seven major capitals across the world, including Washington, D.C.

Malnutrition affects 1 out of 3 people globally. The effects of malnutrition include wasting, stunting, obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. It is estimated to reduce the gross domestic product of countries in Africa and Asia by 11 percent.

During the Washington, D.C., launch, which Bread for the World co-hosted, the United States announced its new U.S. Government Global Nutrition Coordination Plan 2016-2021. Bread believes the plan will help U.S. agencies work together more effectively to achieve global nutrition targets.

“We are delighted the United States has fulfilled a commitment made at the 2013 Nutrition for Growth Summit and has released its global nutrition coordination plan,” said Asma Lateef, director of Bread for the World Institute. “The plan’s implementation will make it easier to track investments in global nutrition programs.”

Good nutrition is a foundation for good health, education, and a productive life. High levels of malnutrition put progress toward ending hunger at risk. However, solutions to malnutrition exist and with adequate funding can be quickly scaled up.

Unfortunately, the world has underinvested in nutrition, hampering efforts to achieve the global nutrition targets set by the World Health Assembly. “We hope the new global coordination plan will accelerate the impact of existing U.S. investments in nutrition,” said Lateef.

According to the global nutrition report, ending the malnutrition crisis will require a three-fold increase in funding. Bread’s 2016 Offering of Letters campaign calls for the U.S. to double its funding for its international nutrition programs. While this is not enough, it is a down payment with a very high return on investment.

“We hope leaders everywhere heed the GNR’s call to make ‘SMART’ commitments that are ‘specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.’ This is key to accountability. The U.S.’s global nutrition coordination plan begins to do that, but needs to be bolstered with new resources,” said Lateef. 

The post Malnutrition Remains Pervasive Globally appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> https://www.bread.org/article/comitan-mexico-marvin-garcia-y-sus-nietos-los-gemelos/ Sat, 30 Apr 2016 20:15:00 +0000 https://www.bread.org/article/comitan-mexico-marvin-garcia-y-sus-nietos-los-gemelos/ Han trascurrido casi 13 años desde que Marvin García regresó de Estados Unidos. Marvin es originario de Guatemala y ahora naturalizado mexicano. Es un hombre perseverante que está parcialmente ciego por cataratas. No puede abrir su ojo derecho porque es muy doloroso. Mantener a su familia de seis es especialmente difícil usando un solo ojo

The post Comitán, MEXICO: Marvin Garcia y sus nietos “los gemelos” appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> Han trascurrido casi 13 años desde que Marvin García regresó de Estados Unidos.

Marvin es originario de Guatemala y ahora naturalizado mexicano. Es un hombre perseverante que está parcialmente ciego por cataratas. No puede abrir su ojo derecho porque es muy doloroso. Mantener a su familia de seis es especialmente difícil usando un solo ojo para trabajar.

Marvin ha superado muchos obstáculos en su vida, desde huir a México como refugiado guatemalteco hasta cruzar el desierto de Arizona. Y sigue parado en sus dos pies luchando por una vida mejor para su familia.  

Ha sido difícil alimentar a su familia, cuando huyeron a México no tenían nada, ni tierra, ni dinero, ni siquiera muchas esperanzas. Todavía recuerda cuando saltarse las comidas era una cosa de todos los días, para que sus hijas, Kari y Susi, pudieran comer. La historia no cambió drásticamente cuando su esposa Victoria tuvo a su hijo Chuy, en ese entonces proporcionar tres comidas a sus hijos fue un verdadero reto, ya que estaban alquilando tierras para cultivar frijoles y maíz, y no siempre con una buena cosecha. La situación de los García mejoró después de que Marvin emigró a Estados Unidos, y fue capaz de ahorrar suficiente dinero para construir una casa modesta, pero su salud se deterioró después de vivir en Estados Unidos durante algunos años. A su regreso a México, tuvo que luchar años para poseer un pedazo de tierra, que finalmente consiguió a través de un programa con Agros.

A pesar de que su situación económica es más estable, su ingreso no es suficiente para proporcionar una dieta nutritiva para su familia. Su hija Kari recientemente quedó embarazada de gemelos y debido a la falta de micronutrientes esenciales en su dieta, sus bebes nacieron con bajo peso y han estado luchando con enfermedades respiratorias.

Marvin no pierde la esperanza de que sus nietos “los gemelitos”, como les llama de cariño, crezcan saludables. No pierde la esperanza porque siempre le pide a Dios que lo ayude a salir adelante. Así, con la gracia de Dios, Marvin, Chuy, Susi, Karen y los gemelitos siguen para delante.

Todavía hay 34.3 millones de personas en América Latina que no tienen suficiente para comer.

Fuente: UNICEF/OMS/Banco Mundial

• Delete
• Edit

• Delete
• Edit

The post Comitán, MEXICO: Marvin Garcia y sus nietos “los gemelos” appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> https://www.bread.org/es/el-porvenir-honduras-lesby-construye-un-futuro-para-su-hija/ Fri, 29 Apr 2016 11:15:00 +0000 https://www.bread.org/es/el-porvenir-honduras-lesby-construye-un-futuro-para-su-hija/ No es coincidencia que Lesby viva en la población “El Porvenir”. Ella siempre se ha enfocado en cómo mejorar si futuro y el de su bebé Selby. La vida en este municipio no es nada fácil, prácticamente el 40% de sus habitantes viven en extrema pobreza y el 16% de los bebés y niños enfrentan

The post El Porvenir, Honduras: Lesby construye un futuro para su hija appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> No es coincidencia que Lesby viva en la población “El Porvenir”.

Ella siempre se ha enfocado en cómo mejorar si futuro y el de su bebé Selby. La vida en este municipio no es nada fácil, prácticamente el 40% de sus habitantes viven en extrema pobreza y el 16% de los bebés y niños enfrentan desnutrición crónica. Sin embargo, los niños en esta zona viven en mejores condiciones que en otros municipios fronterizos del sur donde casi la mitad de los niños padecen enfermedades crónicas, trastornos de aprendizaje y retrasos en el desarrollo como consecuencia de  desnutrición crónica.

Afortunadamente, Lesby tuvo acceso a cuidado prenatal en una clínica de su localidad, tuvo un embarazo sin complicaciones, y al cabo de nueve meses dio a luz a una hermosa y saludable bebé. Lesby recuerda que gracias a la educación que recibió en la clínica pudo balancear su dieta con más frutas, verduras y carne, lo que benefició enormemente a Selby. Pero, ¿cuál fue el precio de un embarazo sin contratiempos y un bebé sano y fuerte? El papa de Selby tuvo que migrar a Estados Unidos en busca de un mejor futuro para su familia. Tener a su pareja lejos dejó a Lesby con emociones encontradas, por un lado está agradecida por las oportunidades económicas que conlleva, y por otro lado, su hija no conoce a su papá. La separación de la familia ha sido lo más complicado.

El papá de Selby es uno de los aproximadamente 3.2 millones de centroamericanos viven y trabajan en Estados Unidos. Gracias a las remesas que Lesby recibe mes con mes desde Estados Unidos, ella pudo tener acceso a alimentos nutritivos durante su embarazo, y más tarde suficiente dinero para participar en un programa de Habitat for Humanity para construir su casa. Un hogar donde ahora Selby podrá jugar, comer, y dormir dentro de un ambiente seguro.

Todavía hay 34.3 millones de personas en América Latina que no tienen suficiente para comer.

Fuente: UNICEF/OMS/Banco Mundial

• Delete
• Edit

• Delete
• Edit

The post El Porvenir, Honduras: Lesby construye un futuro para su hija appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> https://www.bread.org/es/sierra-de-los-cuchumatanes-guatemala-alexander-y-sheili-superan-la-desnutricion-cronica/ Thu, 28 Apr 2016 12:45:00 +0000 https://www.bread.org/es/sierra-de-los-cuchumatanes-guatemala-alexander-y-sheili-superan-la-desnutricion-cronica/ Catarina Pascual, madre de cuatro hijos, vive en la sierra de los Cuchumatanes, Guatemala. Ella no sólo nació dentro de una familia sumida en la extrema pobreza, sino que ha tenido que criar a sus cuatro hijos por sí misma &mash; Antonio de 17, Juana de 6 y, sus gemelos, Alexander y Sheili de 17

The post Sierra de los Cuchumatanes, GUATEMALA: Alexander y Sheili superan la desnutrición crónica appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> Catarina Pascual, madre de cuatro hijos, vive en la sierra de los Cuchumatanes, Guatemala.

Ella no sólo nació dentro de una familia sumida en la extrema pobreza, sino que ha tenido que criar a sus cuatro hijos por sí misma &mash; Antonio de 17, Juana de 6 y, sus gemelos, Alexander y Sheili de 17 meses.

Los gemelos fueron recibidos al mundo por una madre fuerte y amorosa, pero el hambre, la desnutrición crónica y las enfermedades también los aguardaban.

Catarina vive de prestado para sobrevivir. La familia vive en una casa que le presta una vecina, donde una habitación hace las veces de cocina, dormitorio y más.

Vivir para sobrevivir

Catarina no posee animales ni tierra que pueda utilizar para cultivar sus propios alimentos. Para proveer a su familia, Catarina lava a mano pilas de ropa sucia, pero el trabajo es escaso en una aldea donde pocas personas pueden pagar ese servicio. 

Sus gemelos nacieron con muy bajo peso y ha sido una batalla dura para vencer el nivel de desnutrición que presentaron durante su primer año de vida. En ese tiempo, Catarina le pedía a Dios “la fuerza para alimentar a mis hijos y mantenerlos saludables”. Ella sintió que sus oraciones fueron respondidas cuando se enteró de un programa de ayuda alimentaria  disponible para niños menores de 2 años de la Agencia Internacional para el Desarrollo de Estados Unidos (USAID). 

• Delete
• Edit

Para reducir la desnutrición crónica de sus gemelos

A través del programa, ella recibió mensualmente una ración de arroz, frijoles, harina de maíz/soya fortificada y aceite además de capacitación para reducir la desnutrición crónica de sus gemelos. Recibir estos productos básicos deja libre parte de su ingreso, que ahora puede utilizar para comprar frutas, vegetales, azúcar, sal, avena y otros productos que suplementan la dieta familiar, una opción que no tenía antes. Más importante aún, ahora puede alimentar a sus hijos tres veces al día, sin lugar a dudas un incremento nutricional para los gemelos, quienes exhibieron los efectos negativos de la mala nutrición que sufrieron a temprana edad.

Catarina pasó de “ver a mis hijos sufrir debido a la escasez de alimentos que experimentábamos” a comenzar su camino para dejar atrás el hambre y alcanzar la seguridad alimentaria. 

• Delete
• Edit

Todavía hay 34.3 millones de personas en América Latina que no tienen suficiente para comer.

Fuente: UNICEF/OMS/Banco Mundial

• Delete
• Edit

The post Sierra de los Cuchumatanes, GUATEMALA: Alexander y Sheili superan la desnutrición crónica appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> https://www.bread.org/article/field-focus-packing-a-nutritional-punch/ Thu, 07 Apr 2016 14:15:00 +0000 https://www.bread.org/article/field-focus-packing-a-nutritional-punch/ Editor’s note: Bread’s 2016 Offering of Letters: Survive and Thrive focuses on the nutrition of mothers and children in developing countries. Sometimes, however, it’s challenging for Americans to understand the connection between the letters they write to Congress and what happens on the ground in far-away places in the work of ending hunger. This is

The post Field Focus: Packing a Nutritional Punch appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> Editor’s note: Bread’s 2016 Offering of Letters: Survive and Thrive focuses on the nutrition of mothers and children in developing countries. Sometimes, however, it’s challenging for Americans to understand the connection between the letters they write to Congress and what happens on the ground in far-away places in the work of ending hunger.

This is a shortened version of an article from the online edition of the May/June 2014 issue of Frontlines, the news magazine of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which is the focus of the request to Congress in this year’s Offering of Letters.

By Fungma Fudong and Pallavi Dhakal

Married at 17, Meena Gurung from Lamjung district, a remote mid-hill region of Nepal, suffered the loss of her firstborn child without her husband by her side. He, like an estimated 2.1 million Nepali men, had gone abroad to work. Gurung relies on subsistence farming for her livelihood and has little or no access to a variety of diverse and nutritious goods, such as green leafy vegetables and protein, to ensure proper nutrition. As a result, she and her child were malnourished.

A byproduct of poverty, poor nutrition is a major public health concern across Nepal’s rural areas, where about 80 percent of the population lives, and death is all too common.

One out of 19 children dies before his or her fifth birthday due to treatable causes, such as pneumonia, diarrhea, and malnutrition. Over 40 percent of children under age 5 suffer from stunting, a severe form of chronic malnutrition in which a child suffers permanent physical and cognitive damage, resulting in serious health, social, and economic consequences.

“Such nutritional deficiencies mean a whole generation of workers in Nepal with reduced economic potential,” says Shanda L. Steimer, director of USAID/Nepal’s Office of Health and Planning. “For a resource-limited country like Nepal, this has devastating consequences for the country’s socio-economic development and anti-poverty efforts.”

To address this and build a brighter future for Nepal, the Nepal Government developed a five-year nutritional plan of action in 2011 that promotes a lifetime of optimal health and nutrition for mothers and their children. To complement this effort, USAID introduced the Suaahara program, which means “good nutrition” in Nepali, in 25 of Nepal’s most undernourished districts.

A Plan of Action

Suaahara works closely with the government to improve the health and nutritional status of pregnant and lactating women and children under 2. The project integrates nutrition, agriculture, food security and health activities such as small-scale backyard farming; poultry farming; improved child feeding practices; and nutrition, hygiene and maternal and child health care education.

The Suaahara project relies primarily on a cadre of 50,000-plus female community health volunteers and community extension workers to deliver health and agriculture messages and services in communities, many of whom have been trained by Suaahara. Sample messages include the health benefits of exclusive breastfeeding, timely transition from breastfeeding to complementary feeding (solid and semi-solid foods) from 6 to 24 months of age, and washing hands before feeding children.

In just two years, Suaahara has improved food security and nutrition for 74,000 families. The prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding of children under 6 months has increased from 46 to 68 percent, and the number of children between the ages of 6 and 23 months meeting their minimally recommended nutrition intake increased from 36 to 47 percent.

• Delete
• Edit

Second Chances

When Gurung gave birth to her second baby, Yushida, she was still unfamiliar with the importance of proper nutrition for infants. In her effort to make her daughter healthy, she started feeding her non-nutritious food such as rice porridge mixed with unclean water at 5 months. Yushida suffered frequent bouts of diarrhea as a result.

Gurung was pregnant for a third time when she met Ram Maya Shrestha, a local female community health volunteer, who was hosting a session in her village for “1,000 days” mothers — those who are pregnant or have children under 2.

“Thanks to the training and constant counseling in the village for pregnant women and new moms, there have been significantly fewer deaths of babies in our village,” says Shrestha.

Recently, Gurung gave birth to a healthy baby girl, Supriya, in a hospital with a skilled birth attendant. She plans to exclusively breastfeed her for the first six months.

“Compared to my elder daughter, Surpiya does not fall sick as often. In my ignorance, I was doing everything wrong while raising Yushida, but thanks to Suaahara training and Ram Maya Shrestha, I have finally learned to do the right things for the healthy development of my two daughters,” says Gurung.

Pallavi Dhakal is with Save the Children.

• Delete
• Edit

The post Field Focus: Packing a Nutritional Punch appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> https://www.bread.org/article/the-nourishing-effect/ Thu, 26 Nov 2015 00:15:00 +0000 https://www.bread.org/article/the-nourishing-effect/ 2016 Hunger Report — The Nourishing Effect: Ending Hunger, Improving Health, Reducing Inequality A new study commissioned by Bread for the World Institute shows that last year alone, hunger and food insecurity increased health expenditures in the United States by $160 billion. The study is highlighted in the Institute’s new report, The Nourishing Effect: Ending

The post The Nourishing Effect appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> 2016 Hunger Report — The Nourishing Effect: Ending Hunger, Improving Health, Reducing Inequality

A new study commissioned by Bread for the World Institute shows that last year alone, hunger and food insecurity increased health expenditures in the United States by $160 billion. The study is highlighted in the Institute’s new report, The Nourishing Effect: Ending Hunger, Improving Health, Reducing Inequality.

“Nowhere are the hidden costs of hunger and food insecurity greater than in health care,” said Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World. “Access to nutritious food is essential to healthy growth and development, and can prevent the need for costly medical care. Many chronic diseases — the main causes of poor health as well as the main drivers of healthcare costs — are related to diet.”

Food insecurity is associated with higher rates of depression, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and other physical and mental health conditions. Food assistance programs such as SNAP (formerly known as food stamps) and school lunches save money in the long run by improving educational and health outcomes.

Government resources that could go toward programs such as early childhood education or reducing the national debt are instead spent in emergency rooms and hospitals to offset the costs of hunger and food insecurity. The $160 billion is equivalent to more than a third of the U.S. government’s annual deficit.

The study was carried out by John Cook of Boston Medical Center and Children’s HealthWatch, and Ana Paula Poblacion of Universidade Federal de São Paulo in Brazil.

“The old adage that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure has never been more appropriate,” said Asma Lateef, director of Bread for the World Institute. “Investments in federal nutrition programs are critical and much more needs to be done to ensure that vulnerable and underserved communities have access to healthy foods.”

Ending hunger and food insecurity will allow millions of people to do better in school, be more productive at work, and live healthier lives. The Nourishing Effect offers recommendations for healthcare providers, anti-hunger advocates, and policymakers to help make a healthier, hunger-free U.S. a reality.

Hunger and food insecurity have increased health expenditures in the United States by $160 billion in recent years

The post The Nourishing Effect appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> https://www.bread.org/article/new-report-exposes-hidden-costs-of-hunger-in-health-care/ Mon, 23 Nov 2015 23:00:00 +0000 https://www.bread.org/article/new-report-exposes-hidden-costs-of-hunger-in-health-care/ Washington, D.C. — A new study commissioned by Bread for the World Institute shows that last year alone, hunger and food insecurity increased health expenditures in the United States by $160 billion. The study is highlighted in the Institute’s new report, The Nourishing Effect: Ending Hunger, Improving Health, Reducing Inequality, released today. “Nowhere are the hidden

The post New Report Exposes Hidden Costs of Hunger in Health Care appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> Washington, D.C. — A new study commissioned by Bread for the World Institute shows that last year alone, hunger and food insecurity increased health expenditures in the United States by $160 billion. The study is highlighted in the Institute’s new report, The Nourishing Effect: Ending Hunger, Improving Health, Reducing Inequality, released today.

“Nowhere are the hidden costs of hunger and food insecurity greater than in health care,” said Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World. “Access to nutritious food is essential to healthy growth and development, and can prevent the need for costly medical care. Many chronic diseases — the main causes of poor health as well as the main drivers of healthcare costs — are related to diet.”

Food insecurity is associated with higher rates of depression, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and other physical and mental health conditions. Food assistance programs such as SNAP (formerly known as food stamps) and school lunches save money in the long run by improving educational and health outcomes.

Government resources that could go toward programs such as early childhood education or reducing the national debt are instead spent in emergency rooms and hospitals to offset the costs of hunger and food insecurity. The $160 billion is equivalent to more than a third of the U.S. government’s annual deficit.

The study was carried out by John Cook of Boston Medical Center and Children’s HealthWatch, and Ana Paula Poblacion of Universidade Federal de São Paulo in Brazil.

“The old adage that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure has never been more appropriate,” said Asma Lateef, director of Bread for the World Institute. “Investments in federal nutrition programs are critical and much more needs to be done to ensure that vulnerable and underserved communities have access to healthy foods.”

Ending hunger and food insecurity will allow millions of people to do better in school, be more productive at work, and live healthier lives. The Nourishing Effect offers recommendations for healthcare providers, anti-hunger advocates, and policymakers to help make a healthier, hunger-free U.S. a reality.

The post New Report Exposes Hidden Costs of Hunger in Health Care appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> https://www.bread.org/article/development-works-short-essays-explaining-myths-and-realities-about-development-assistance/ Mon, 31 Aug 2015 14:00:00 +0000 https://www.bread.org/article/development-works-short-essays-explaining-myths-and-realities-about-development-assistance/ Seven short essays make the case for effective international development assistance. Each short essay answer key questions from why development assistance is so important and what impact it has to whether the U.S. can afford it and where we should concentrate our efforts. The essays clear up common misconceptions about development assistance and tell stories

The post Development Works: Short Essays Explaining Myths and Realities about Development Assistance appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> Seven short essays make the case for effective international development assistance.

Each short essay answer key questions from why development assistance is so important and what impact it has to whether the U.S. can afford it and where we should concentrate our efforts.

The essays clear up common misconceptions about development assistance and tell stories about people who are improving their lives with the help of U.S. development assistance.

Development Works is for Bread members and activists, Hunger Justice Leaders, adult Sunday school teachers, and others who need information about our international advocacy work.

This series helps people get a clearer picture of what is happening today in the struggle against global hunger and extreme poverty.

The post Development Works: Short Essays Explaining Myths and Realities about Development Assistance appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> https://www.bread.org/article/eitc-and-ctc-missing-from-tax-break-conversation/ Tue, 04 Aug 2015 13:15:00 +0000 https://www.bread.org/article/eitc-and-ctc-missing-from-tax-break-conversation/ By Amelia Kegan Nearly two hours. The Senate Finance Committee on July 21 spent nearly two hours talking about expired tax benefits. Many items came up during those two hours: biodiesel, conservation easements, stationary fuel cells, bonus depreciation, how much extending tax credits retroactively actually incentivizes behavior, and the need to make many of these

The post EITC and CTC missing from tax break conversation appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> By Amelia Kegan

Nearly two hours. The Senate Finance Committee on July 21 spent nearly two hours talking about expired tax benefits. Many items came up during those two hours: biodiesel, conservation easements, stationary fuel cells, bonus depreciation, how much extending tax credits retroactively actually incentivizes behavior, and the need to make many of these tax credits permanent.

What didn’t come up? The two tax credits that prevent more people from falling into poverty than any other program in the United States, outside of Social Security. The only two tax credits that specifically benefit low-income working families. The two tax credits that have been proven to get more parents into the workforce, improve test scores among children, and help families move into the middle class.

What tax credits didn’t come up in those two hours? The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC).

Just like the other tax breaks discussed during the committee’s markup of a bill to extend certain expired tax provisions, Congress must act to prevent key provisions of the EITC and CTC from expiring. Just like some of the other tax breaks discussed during the markup, these credits — with their recent improvements — should be made permanent.

True, these improvements don’t expire until 2017, but senators repeatedly spoke up about how certain credits should become permanent. They talked eloquently about how businesses need certainty. But no one said a peep about making the current EITC and CTC benefits permanent. No one talked about certainty for low-income working families, struggling to put food on the table and making ends meet.

Unlike the other tax credits that were discussed, the EITC and CTC don’t affect foreign pensions. They don’t affect fisheries in the American Samoa. And they don’t reward companies for capital investment.

Many of the tax benefits in the markup bill are good.  But this is about priorities. And as long as we’re talking about prioritizing bonus depreciation for capital investment, then we also should prioritize preventing 16.4 million people, including 7.7 million children, from falling into or deeper into poverty. We should prioritize preventing 50 million Americans from losing some or all of their EITC or CTC. This is what will happen if Congress fails to continue the EITC and CTC improvements.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), a real EITC and CTC champion (and Bread for the World Lobby Day award recipient), got called away during the bill’s markup. He planned to introduce an amendment to make the 2009 EITC and CTC improvements permanent. But with his absence, no other senator raised the subject.

Are you outraged over the silence around the EITC and CTC? Then take a moment to email your senators.

Take Action on this Issue      Learn more

Amelia Kegan is deputy director of government relations at Bread for the World.

Photo: Heather Rude-Turner, reading to her son Isaac, depends on the Earned Income Tax Credit to help support her family. Laura Elizabeth Pohl/Bread for the World.

The post EITC and CTC missing from tax break conversation appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> https://www.bread.org/article/lets-close-the-child-hunger-gap/ Thu, 23 Jul 2015 10:45:00 +0000 https://www.bread.org/article/lets-close-the-child-hunger-gap/ By Matt Gross Last month, I joined Christina Hite and hundreds of other Bread members in Washington, D.C., to ask our elected leaders to end childhood hunger. Christina works with her church, Imago Dei in Peoria, Ill., to serve hot meals through the Summer Food Service Program, a federally funded summer meals program that is

The post Let’s close the child hunger gap appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> By Matt Gross

Last month, I joined Christina Hite and hundreds of other Bread members in Washington, D.C., to ask our elected leaders to end childhood hunger.

Christina works with her church, Imago Dei in Peoria, Ill., to serve hot meals through the Summer Food Service Program, a federally funded summer meals program that is implemented by local nonprofits, schools, and churches. Peoria has one of the largest summer meal gaps — discrepancies between the number of kids who receive a free or reduced-price meal during the school year and those who receive one in the summer — in the country.

Christina has witnessed both the important impact this summer meal program has and its limitations in reaching all who need it. That’s why Christina came to D.C. in June to talk with elected officials. And that’s why she’s working hard to set up an in-district meeting with Rep. Cheri Bustos, her representative in Congress. Ending child hunger is part of her summer plans. Will it be a part of yours?

August is a perfect time to be in conversation with our elected leaders. As senators and representatives are home for the month of August, they host town hall meetings and are available for in-district meetings at their offices. While personalized letters and emails are an effective advocacy tool, in-person conversations with your member of Congress can have an even bigger impact. Check out these advocacy tools and contact your regional organizer for any additional help.

This August, be a part of an end to child hunger. Plan to attend a town hall meeting or set up a meeting with your member of Congress in their district office. Thank you for your advocacy. Together we can close the child hunger gap and ensure that all are fed during the summer and all year long.

Matt Gross is the deputy director of organizing and grassroots capacity building at Bread for the World.
 

The post Let’s close the child hunger gap appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> https://www.bread.org/article/schools-out-for-the-summer-but-hungers-not/ Thu, 16 Jul 2015 13:30:00 +0000 https://www.bread.org/article/schools-out-for-the-summer-but-hungers-not/ The post School's out for the summer (but hunger's not) appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> The post School's out for the summer (but hunger's not) appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> https://www.bread.org/article/child-nutrition/ Mon, 18 May 2015 11:00:00 +0000 https://www.bread.org/article/child-nutrition/ Lunch ‘n’ Learn At precisely 11:20 a.m. on a cold, late-fall morning, the bell rings at Anne Frank Elementary School in Philadelphia, Pa. A minute later, the morning stillness in the cafeteria is disrupted by the conversations and shouts of more than 200 second graders. They file into the room by classroom and go through

The post Child Nutrition appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> Lunch ‘n’ Learn

At precisely 11:20 a.m. on a cold, late-fall morning, the bell rings at Anne Frank Elementary School in Philadelphia, Pa. A minute later, the morning stillness in the cafeteria is disrupted by the conversations and shouts of more than 200 second graders. They file into the room by classroom and go through the line to pick up their lunches. For the next couple of hours, the large room is filled with noise and energy.

Among the first group of students eating a school-provided lunch daily is Aidan, the 7-year-old son of Barbie Izquierdo. His sister, Leylanie, age 9, will eat lunch during her grade’s appointed time 40 minutes later.

This lunchtime routine plays out every weekday at the school and in schools across the United States. Whether it’s breakfast in the morning before classes or lunch at midday, the food provided to school children under national nutrition programs gives them the energy they need for the next few hours of learning. Meals provided after school or at day-care centers are also important parts of the national nutrition program.

While these children don’t think about it, the food that is subsidized by the federal government is quietly nourishing their bodies and brains so they can learn and grow. As Mickey Komins, the principal at Anne Frank Elementary—and probably any educator—will tell you, “We’re teaching for a lifetime — not just for that day.”

Teaching today and laying the foundation for students’ futures entail not just classroom instruction but making sure students have full stomachs so their minds can be fed. Feeding students involves staff at all levels in every school that carries out any of the government’s child nutrition programs, from administrators down through teachers and cafeteria workers.

One cafeteria worker who sits at a cash register at the end of the food line at the Philadelphia school tells a student, “Go back and get a fruit cup.” Workers know the students they see every day and make sure they are following the government’s nutrition guidelines by eating something from each of the major food groups — protein, grains, and fruits and vegetables. Cafeteria managers sometimes use students to test new menu items or encourage students to try a new vegetable. In these ways, students are also being educated on eating well and developing healthy habits for a lifetime.

There’s such a thing as a free lunch

All Philadelphia public schools provide every student with a free lunch regardless of their family income, a practice at many schools across the country where a high percentage of students would qualify for free meals. At many other schools, family income determines whether a student pays the full price, reduced price, or gets a meal completely free.

At the end of the school day, Barbie comes to the school to pick up Aidan and Leylanie. Leylanie does her assigned chore of washing the dishes while Barbie sits with Aidan and helps him with his homework. Barbie asks her children every day what they had for lunch. She is reassured that they receive a solid, nutritious meal during their school day. One day a week, Aidan and Leylanie eat a free breakfast at school with their classmates, but they choose to eat breakfast at home on the other days.

“If school couldn’t provide lunch for children, there would be a lot of children going home with probably nothing to eat at all,” says Barbie. This isn’t the case for her children now, but it used to be. “There were times when I had to send my kids to bed because I didn’t have enough food for them to eat. So had they not received any type of food in school, then they would have had nothing.” The single mother was on SNAP (formerly known as food stamps) just a couple of years ago after losing her job.

• Delete
• Edit

Just like everybody else

Barbie moves to the kitchen to begin preparing dinner, a dish of noodles with broccoli. When dinner is ready, the family eats together at the dining room table. “People always think that we’re asking for a handout because we’re on welfare or public assistance,” explains Barbie. “And what we’re really asking for is the opportunity to show them that we’re just like you. We’re smart, we have wants, we have needs, we have dreams. We want the best for our kids just as they want the best for their kids. We just grew up in different circumstances.”

Barbie is currently taking classes toward her associate degree. She is interested in working in the field of criminal justice. “If I can build my life to a place where they don’t have to worry about their home being taken from them and they don’t have to worry about opening the fridge and nothing being in there, then I’ve accomplished everything.”

• Delete
• Edit

“What we’re really asking for is the opportunity to show them that we’re just like you.”

Barbie Izquierdo

• Delete
• Edit

What Do We Want Congress to Do?

Bread for the World is urging Congress to pass a child nutrition bill that protects nutrition programs and gives more hungry children access to the meals they need to thrive.

• Delete
• Edit

The post Child Nutrition appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> https://www.bread.org/article/bread-for-the-world-launches-campaign-to-reauthorize-child-nutrition-programs/ Thu, 29 Jan 2015 15:00:00 +0000 https://www.bread.org/article/bread-for-the-world-launches-campaign-to-reauthorize-child-nutrition-programs/ Bread for the World launched its 2015 Offering of Letters: Feed Our Children campaign today, urging Congress to strengthen national child nutrition programs when the law governing them comes up for reauthorization this year. “One in five children in the United States lives at risk of hunger,” said Christine Melendez Ashley, senior domestic policy analyst

The post Bread for the World Launches Campaign to Reauthorize Child Nutrition Programs appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> Bread for the World launched its 2015 Offering of Letters: Feed Our Children campaign today, urging Congress to strengthen national child nutrition programs when the law governing them comes up for reauthorization this year.

“One in five children in the United States lives at risk of hunger,” said Christine Melendez Ashley, senior domestic policy analyst at Bread for the World. “Child nutrition programs are vital because they ensure that our children get nutritious meals and have the energy to grow and learn.”

The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 funds and sets policy for national child nutrition programs and must be reauthorized every five years. It includes school lunch and breakfast programs, summer feeding programs, after-school and child care feeding programs, and The Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Together these programs serve about 29 million low-income children annually.

Bread wants Congress to continue the strong investments in national child nutrition programs and to improve children’s access to feeding programs. For every seven low-income children getting a lunch at school, only four get breakfast, and only one receives meals during the summer, a time when children are most at risk of hunger. Improvements to these programs should not be paid for by cuts to other vital safety net programs.

“Both sides of the aisle agree that hungry children, especially in a wealthy country like ours, is unacceptable. The various child nutrition programs are testament to the bipartisan support that is still found in Congress, support that will hopefully continue to ensure that nutritious food for children is not a privilege,” said Ashley.

Thousands of churches representing nearly 50 diverse Christian denominations throughout the United States will participate in Bread for the World’s 2015 Offering of Letters campaign. As part of a worship service or mass, people of faith will write letters to their members of Congress urging the reauthorization of national child nutrition programs. They then offer these letters to God before they are delivered to their members of Congress.

For more than 40 years, Bread for the World members have written hundreds of thousands of letters to Congress every year. This annual campaign has consistently won lasting victories for children, men, and women who struggle to put food on their tables.

Bread for the World’s Offering of Letters materials are available here.

The post Bread for the World Launches Campaign to Reauthorize Child Nutrition Programs appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> https://www.bread.org/article/when-women-flourish-we-can-end-hunger-the-2015-hunger-report/ Mon, 24 Nov 2014 15:15:00 +0000 https://www.bread.org/article/when-women-flourish-we-can-end-hunger-the-2015-hunger-report/ The Hunger Report identifies the empowerment of women and girls as essential in ending hunger, extreme poverty, and malnutrition around the world and in the United States. Women face barriers that limit their ability to engage fully in economic activity. Women are also more likely to earn less or work in low-wage jobs. The report

The post When Women Flourish … We Can End Hunger | The 2015 Hunger Report appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> The Hunger Report identifies the empowerment of women and girls as essential in ending hunger, extreme poverty, and malnutrition around the world and in the United States. Women face barriers that limit their ability to engage fully in economic activity. Women are also more likely to earn less or work in low-wage jobs.

The report also shows that women’s willingness to share men’s breadwinning responsibilities has not been matched by men’s willingness to share unpaid household work or caregiving responsibilities. Though domestic work is a public good in the same way that education, clean water, clean air, and the food supply are, it is not recognized as such. Women constitute half the global population.

In many countries, women and girls are more likely to suffer from hunger and malnutrition than men and boys. Poverty and lack of education contribute to this disparity. However, giving women greater control of their income and assets would increase their bargaining power in the household and the market economy. Research has shown that this benefits their families and leads to widespread improvements in a country.

The post When Women Flourish … We Can End Hunger | The 2015 Hunger Report appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> https://www.bread.org/article/ending-child-hunger-in-the-united-states/ Sat, 01 Nov 2014 22:00:00 +0000 https://www.bread.org/article/ending-child-hunger-in-the-united-states/ In 2013, 15.8 million U.S. children were at risk of hunger. For children, even brief periods of hunger carry consequences that may last a lifetime. Many children suffer from nutritional deficiencies, sometimes referred to as “hidden hunger” since they can cause serious health problems in children who don’t “look hungry.” Nutrition affects mental health and

The post Ending Child Hunger in the United States appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> In 2013, 15.8 million U.S. children were at risk of hunger. For children, even brief periods of hunger carry consequences that may last a lifetime.

Many children suffer from nutritional deficiencies, sometimes referred to as “hidden hunger” since they can cause serious health problems in children who don’t “look hungry.” Nutrition affects mental health and academic achievement as well as physical health. But the damage caused by food insecurity is unnecessary and preventable. Federal nutrition programs help millions of children eat well; these programs must be maintained and strengthened to provide more eligible children with healthier food.

When Congress reauthorizes child nutrition programs in 2015, the emphasis must be on enabling programs to serve all eligible children well — from WIC for infants, to meals at daycare for preschoolers, to school lunch, breakfast, and summer food for elementary and secondary students. The United States simply cannot afford the consequences of allowing children to go without the nutritious food they need. Strong child nutrition programs must be a top national priority.

The post Ending Child Hunger in the United States appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> https://www.bread.org/article/bread-for-the-world-applauds-first-ever-usaid-nutrition-strategy/ Thu, 22 May 2014 11:30:00 +0000 https://www.bread.org/article/bread-for-the-world-applauds-first-ever-usaid-nutrition-strategy/ Washington, D.C. – Today at the Chicago Council Global Food Security 2014 event in Washington, D.C., Dr. Rajiv Shah, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), made good on his promise to launch the agency’s first-ever global nutrition strategy. The release of this strategy comes just one year after being announced at an

The post Bread for the World Applauds First-Ever USAID Nutrition Strategy appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> Washington, D.C. – Today at the Chicago Council Global Food Security 2014 event in Washington, D.C., Dr. Rajiv Shah, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), made good on his promise to launch the agency’s first-ever global nutrition strategy. The release of this strategy comes just one year after being announced at an event cohosted by Bread for the World and Concern Worldwide.

“The fact that USAID has developed an agency-wide nutrition strategy is another sign of U.S. leadership in efforts to scale up maternal and child nutrition globally,” said Asma Lateef, director of Bread for the World Institute. “It reflects a strong commitment to augment the effectiveness of its programs, especially those in the Feed the Future Initiative, and to hold itself accountable to improving nutrition, particularly in the critical 1,000-day window of opportunity between pregnancy and age 2.”

According to the strategy, undernutrition contributed to 3.1 million (45 percent of all) preventable child deaths in 2011. That same year, stunting impacted more than 165 million people worldwide—including 52 million children under five. The USAID nutrition strategy recognizes the essential role that nutrition plays in human development and the devastating personal, social, and economic impacts of chronic malnutrition on an individual, a community, and a country.

The strategy will support commitments the United States made as part of the Global Nutrition for Growth Compact agreed at last year’s Nutrition for Growth Summit, including reaching 500 million pregnant women and children under two by 2020; averting 20 million additional cases of stunting by 2020 (a World Health Assembly milestone); and preventing 1.7 million deaths by 2020 through efforts to reduce stunting, increase breastfeeding, improve zinc supplementation, and boost coverage of treatment of severe acute malnutrition.

“In the year since announcing the strategy, USAID has engaged a broad set of stakeholders, resulting in a stronger finished product and more effective, efficient implementation,” added Lateef. “This has also laid the groundwork for the forthcoming ‘whole-of-government’ plan from the Obama administration. We look forward to continued cross-agency coordination to help improve nutritional outcomes for women and children around the world.”

Save the Children’s president and CEO, Carolyn Miles, Bread for the World’s president, Rev. David Beckmann, and 1,000 Days’ Executive Director, Lucy Sullivan, said in a statement today, “The USAID Global Nutrition Strategy is an important step in the right direction, and we look forward to continuing to work with the administration as it develops a whole-of-government plan to coordinate efforts across all agencies and programs that contribute toward improved nutritional outcomes for women and children.”

The post Bread for the World Applauds First-Ever USAID Nutrition Strategy appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> https://www.bread.org/article/learning-from-u-s-nutrition-investments-in-tanzania-progress-and-partnerships/ Wed, 01 Jan 2014 22:00:00 +0000 https://www.bread.org/article/learning-from-u-s-nutrition-investments-in-tanzania-progress-and-partnerships/ A wide range of projects are currently being funded in Tanzania to improve nutrition outcomes, guided by the government’s National Nutrition Strategy. Steps are being taken to strengthen internal management and coordination of nutrition affairs through the Prime Minister’s office and with support from the global SUN Movement. A key change is that ministries are

The post Learning from U.S. Nutrition Investments in Tanzania: Progress and Partnerships appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> A wide range of projects are currently being funded in Tanzania to improve nutrition outcomes, guided by the government’s National Nutrition Strategy. Steps are being taken to strengthen internal management and coordination of nutrition affairs through the Prime Minister’s office and with support from the global SUN Movement. A key change is that ministries are being asked to recognize and measure their nutritionsensitive programs in addition to their nutrition-specific interventions.

The United States has made significant investments in Tanzania’s National Nutrition Strategy through Feed the Future and other programs. Developing nutrition strategies for USAID and for the whole of U.S. government presents an opportunity to complement and reinforce existing efforts to improve nutrition outcomes and to help build the evidence base for actions, as called for in the Lancet series on maternal and child nutrition.

This paper looks at efforts to scale up nutrition in Tanzania, identifying successes and challenges in program implementation and coordination that deserve consideration as projects are planned in other Feed the Future countries and elsewhere.

The post Learning from U.S. Nutrition Investments in Tanzania: Progress and Partnerships appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> https://www.bread.org/article/harmonizing-nutrition-monitoring-and-evaluation-across-u-s-government-agencies/ Wed, 01 Jan 2014 22:00:00 +0000 https://www.bread.org/article/harmonizing-nutrition-monitoring-and-evaluation-across-u-s-government-agencies/ Addressing the high burden of undernutrition in developing countries through multisectoral, evidence-based approaches is increasingly recognised as a top global priority. 2013 resulted in the establishment of new global nutrition targets endorsed by governments and international stakeholders. The United States is a leading donor to nutrition efforts globally and is developing a new inter-agency Nutrition

The post Harmonizing Nutrition Monitoring and Evaluation Across U.S. Government Agencies appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> Addressing the high burden of undernutrition in developing countries through multisectoral, evidence-based approaches is increasingly recognised as a top global priority. 2013 resulted in the establishment of new global nutrition targets endorsed by governments and international stakeholders. The United States is a leading donor to nutrition efforts globally and is developing a new inter-agency Nutrition Strategy.

Achieving global nutrition targets will demand that nutrition objectives and measures be more purposefully and consistently applied across all relevant U.S. government funded projects. Operational and technical guidance, as well as tools for integrating nutrition, exist that can be harmonized, adapted and applied. Internal nutrition technical capacity across government departments and agencies will need to be strengthened, at headquarters and in the field. Results from improved monitoring and evaluation will help show Congress that funding nutrition-related programs is a smart investment of appropriated funds.

An evidence base of improved outcomes will help sustain political momentum, and will enable the United States to continue being a leader in improving global nutrition through its development assistance efforts.

The post Harmonizing Nutrition Monitoring and Evaluation Across U.S. Government Agencies appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> https://www.bread.org/article/a-global-development-agenda-toward-2015-and-beyond/ Sun, 01 Sep 2013 22:00:00 +0000 https://www.bread.org/article/a-global-development-agenda-toward-2015-and-beyond/ The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) endorsed by 189 countries in 2000 are an unprecedented global effort to achieve development goals that are identified collectively, achievable, and measurable. Progress can be effectively monitored since there are specific targets for reducing hunger, reducing child and maternal mortality, improving access to clean water, etc. Globally, substantial progress has

The post A Global Development Agenda: Toward 2015 and Beyond appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) endorsed by 189 countries in 2000 are an unprecedented global effort to achieve development goals that are identified collectively, achievable, and measurable. Progress can be effectively monitored since there are specific targets for reducing hunger, reducing child and maternal mortality, improving access to clean water, etc.

Globally, substantial progress has been made toward many MDG targets — including cutting in half the proportion of people living in poverty. Every major region of the world made progress. The targets for MDG 1 are to cut in half the proportion of people living with hunger and poverty by December 2015. The poverty target has been met. The hunger target has not, yet it is within reach if all countries are willing to do their part.

Progress against malnutrition has been too slow. Globally, one in four children is stunted. The United States should provide leadership and work within the global community to forge a universal set of global development goals to succeed the MDGs. These goals should include a stand-alone goal to end hunger and achieve food security and good nutrition, and they should advance women’s economic empowerment, community resilience, and effective institutions.

The post A Global Development Agenda: Toward 2015 and Beyond appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> https://www.bread.org/article/why-development-assistance-cant-wait/ Sat, 01 Dec 2012 11:45:00 +0000 https://www.bread.org/article/why-development-assistance-cant-wait/ This essay stresses the urgency of poverty-focused development assistance.  It explores the irreversible damage that is caused by malnutrition in the first 1,000 days of life.  Includes a section of “Myths and Realities” about U.S. foreign assistance.

The post Why Development Assistance Can't Wait appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> This essay stresses the urgency of poverty-focused development assistance.  It explores the irreversible damage that is caused by malnutrition in the first 1,000 days of life.  Includes a section of “Myths and Realities” about U.S. foreign assistance.

The post Why Development Assistance Can't Wait appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> https://www.bread.org/article/implementing-nutrition-sensitive-development-reaching-consensus/ Thu, 01 Nov 2012 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.bread.org/article/implementing-nutrition-sensitive-development-reaching-consensus/ The Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement is an unprecedented, multi-stakeholder global effort to improve maternal and child nutrition. Both the 2008 Lancet Series on Maternal and Child Undernutrition and SUN Framework for Action underscore the importance of both nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions. Thanks to a large evidence base, nutrition-specific interventions are well-defined. They include treating

The post Implementing Nutrition-Sensitive Development: Reaching Consensus appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> The Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement is an unprecedented, multi-stakeholder global effort to improve maternal and child nutrition. Both the 2008 Lancet Series on Maternal and Child Undernutrition and SUN Framework for Action underscore the importance of both nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions.

Thanks to a large evidence base, nutrition-specific interventions are well-defined. They include treating acute malnutrition, increasing micronutrient intake, and promoting exclusive breastfeeding, addressing the immediate causes of undernutrition.

Nutrition-sensitive development addresses the underlying factors that contribute to malnutrition — including hunger, poverty, gender inequality, and poor access to safe water and health services — by integrating nutrition actions into other sectors. Unlike nutrition-specific interventions, nutrition-sensitive development lacks a common definition, which is needed for aligning efforts and measuring impact. More research and documentation of proven approaches to integrating nutrition-sensitive actions into multisectoral programs will build the evidence base.

This policy brief seeks to contribute to a wider conversation that we hope will lead to some consensus.

The post Implementing Nutrition-Sensitive Development: Reaching Consensus appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> https://www.bread.org/article/scaling-up-global-nutrition-bolstering-u-s-government-capacity/ Sun, 01 Jul 2012 01:00:00 +0000 https://www.bread.org/article/scaling-up-global-nutrition-bolstering-u-s-government-capacity/ The United States, recognizing malnutrition’s devastating impacts, especially on children between pregnancy and age 2, is a global leader in scaling up nutrition. Reducing maternal/child undernutrition is a priority for Feed the Future (FTF) and the Global Health Initiative (GHI). Additional resources are creating opportunities to build nutrition programs and technical capacity. The growing Scaling

The post Scaling Up Global Nutrition: Bolstering U.S. Government Capacity appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> The United States, recognizing malnutrition’s devastating impacts, especially on children between pregnancy and age 2, is a global leader in scaling up nutrition. Reducing maternal/child undernutrition is a priority for Feed the Future (FTF) and the Global Health Initiative (GHI). Additional resources are creating opportunities to build nutrition programs and technical capacity. The growing Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement1 includes 27 developing countries. FTF and GHI support many SUN national nutrition strategies.

Now is the time to strengthen U.S. leadership by systematizing nutrition within development assistance. The existing operational structure is fragmented and complex, while funding to scale up nutrition remains inadequate. Action on five fronts is needed: an overarching nutrition strategy with a transparent budget; a high-level nutrition focal point; increased capacity in Washington and the field; harmonized nutrition guidance; and strengthened monitoring.

The post Scaling Up Global Nutrition: Bolstering U.S. Government Capacity appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> https://www.bread.org/article/from-laquila-to-camp-david-sustaining-the-momentum-on-global-food-and-nutrition-security/ Tue, 01 May 2012 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.bread.org/article/from-laquila-to-camp-david-sustaining-the-momentum-on-global-food-and-nutrition-security/ Increases in global hunger and poverty caused by sudden spikes in the prices of staple foods in 2007-2008 and 2010-2011 have underscored the urgency of improving agricultural productivity in developing countries to lift people out of poverty and improve food and nutrition security. In July 2009, G-8 leaders, gathered in L’Aquila, Italy, responded to the

The post From L’Aquila to Camp David: Sustaining the Momentum on Global Food and Nutrition Security appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> Increases in global hunger and poverty caused by sudden spikes in the prices of staple foods in 2007-2008 and 2010-2011 have underscored the urgency of improving agricultural productivity in developing countries to lift people out of poverty and improve food and nutrition security.

In July 2009, G-8 leaders, gathered in L’Aquila, Italy, responded to the global food price crisis. The U.S. proposal to invest significantly more effort and resources in agriculture won support from other donor countries, who committed to providing $22 billion in financing for agriculture and food security over three years. This became known as the L’Aquila Food Security Initiative (AFSI).

The United States is on track to fulfill its pledges of $3.5 billion, but according to 2011 estimates most donors were falling short. Feed the Future is the United States’ primary contribution to AFSI.

As G-8 president in 2012, the United States has an important opportunity to build on the progress made in the last three years to increase investments in smallholder agriculture and integrate nutrition into agriculture and food security efforts. Continued food price volatility and future challenges to food security, including population growth and climate change, require sustained investments.

At the Camp David G-8 Summit, leaders should build on this foundation and tackle the unfinished agenda, prioritizing nutrition, community resilience, capacity building, women’s empowerment, and agricultural research.

The post From L’Aquila to Camp David: Sustaining the Momentum on Global Food and Nutrition Security appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> https://www.bread.org/article/enabling-and-equipping-women-to-improve-nutrition/ Thu, 01 Mar 2012 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.bread.org/article/enabling-and-equipping-women-to-improve-nutrition/ Malnutrition during the 1,000 days between pregnancy and a child’s second birthday has irreversible physical, cognitive, and health consequences, reducing a person’s lifetime earning potential. For many countries with high rates of hunger and malnutrition, the low status of women is a primary cause. Women often have less education, lower economic status, and limited decisionmaking

The post Enabling and Equipping Women to Improve Nutrition appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> Malnutrition during the 1,000 days between pregnancy and a child’s second birthday has irreversible physical, cognitive, and health consequences, reducing a person’s lifetime earning potential. For many countries with high rates of hunger and malnutrition, the low status of women is a primary cause. Women often have less education, lower economic status, and limited decisionmaking power in the household and community — all of which contribute to poorer nutrition. 

The status of women is a key determinant of maternal and child feeding practices as well as decisions about how food is distributed and consumed within the household. The end result is higher levels of malnutrition among women and girls than among males. Gender roles and inequities are a critical consideration in lanning and implementing programs to improve nutrition among pregnant and lactating women and children younger than 2.

The post Enabling and Equipping Women to Improve Nutrition appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> https://www.bread.org/article/linking-nutrition-and-health-progress-and-opportunities/ Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.bread.org/article/linking-nutrition-and-health-progress-and-opportunities/ In the last few years, there has been an unprecedented global effort to scale up maternal and child nutrition. The effort is prompted by increasing recognition of the devastating and largely irreversible impact of undernutrition on children in the 1,000-day window from pregnancy to age two — and by a growing consensus on a set

The post Linking Nutrition and Health: Progress and Opportunities appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> In the last few years, there has been an unprecedented global effort to scale up maternal and child nutrition. The effort is prompted by increasing recognition of the devastating and largely irreversible impact of undernutrition on children in the 1,000-day window from pregnancy to age two — and by a growing consensus on a set of evidence-based, cost-effective nutrition interventions. The United States has been a leader in the global effort and has made maternal and child nutrition improvements a primary objective of its Feed the Future and Global Health initiatives.

Nutrition has been an issue neglected for far too long, so the recent attention to maternal and child nutrition creates a unique opportunity to make progress. Scaling up and making meaningful, measurable progress against malnutrition will require both additional resources and new ways of working. It will mean supporting national nutrition strategies that are country-owned and -driven, ensuring coordination across sectors to improve nutrition outcomes, and investing in human and institutional capacity to scale up at the global and country levels. Leveraging linkages among nutrition, health, and agriculture sectors can signifi cantly increase the benefi ts of nutrition investments.

The post Linking Nutrition and Health: Progress and Opportunities appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> https://www.bread.org/article/improving-food-aid-to-improve-maternal-and-child-nutrition/ Wed, 01 Feb 2012 01:00:00 +0000 https://www.bread.org/article/improving-food-aid-to-improve-maternal-and-child-nutrition/ The United States is the world’s largest provider of food aid products — procured by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and distributed by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) through partner organizations overseas. A growing body of scientific evidence shows that early childhood nutrition interventions, aimed at the critical “1,000 Days” window from

The post Improving Food Aid to Improve Maternal and Child Nutrition appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> The United States is the world’s largest provider of food aid products — procured by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and distributed by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) through partner organizations overseas. A growing body of scientific evidence shows that early childhood nutrition interventions, aimed at the critical “1,000 Days” window from pregnancy through a child’s second birthday, are extremely effective and cost-efficient ways to arrest the lifelong effects of malnutrition.

More than 100 country governments and civil society organizations have signed on to the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement, which supports efforts to expand effective nutrition programs to undernourished pregnant women and young children. Reducing maternal and child malnutrition is a key priority of the U.S. government’s Feed the Future and Global Health initiatives.

There are opportunities to reform food aid to better align it with the objectives of these two programs. The U.S. Government Accountability Office has reported on inefficiencies in U.S. food aid procurement and distribution, while Tufts University has released an important study of ways to improve the nutritional quality of food aid. With debate on the next farm bill beginning, now is the time to improve this essential program.

The post Improving Food Aid to Improve Maternal and Child Nutrition appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> https://www.bread.org/article/rebalancing-act-updating-u-s-food-and-farm-policies-the-2012-hunger-report/ Mon, 21 Nov 2011 14:15:00 +0000 https://www.bread.org/article/rebalancing-act-updating-u-s-food-and-farm-policies-the-2012-hunger-report/ The 2012 Hunger Report calls for changes in U.S. food and farm policies to meet the challenges of the 21st century. The national nutrition programs should do more to ensure that people in poverty have access to the foods they need for good health and to succeed in school and on the job. Farm policies

The post Rebalancing Act: Updating U.S. Food and Farm Policies | The 2012 Hunger Report appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> The 2012 Hunger Report calls for changes in U.S. food and farm policies to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

The national nutrition programs should do more to ensure that people in poverty have access to the foods they need for good health and to succeed in school and on the job. Farm policies should encourage production and distribution of healthy foods and help farmers manage risk more efficiently.

U.S. food aid should make sure that mother and children in the critical 1,000-day window between pregnancy and a child’s second birthday get the nutrients they need. Agricultural development assistance should target smallholder farmers.

The post Rebalancing Act: Updating U.S. Food and Farm Policies | The 2012 Hunger Report appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> https://www.bread.org/article/our-common-interest-ending-hunger-and-malnutrition-the-2011-hunger-report/ Mon, 22 Nov 2010 14:15:00 +0000 https://www.bread.org/article/our-common-interest-ending-hunger-and-malnutrition-the-2011-hunger-report/ 2011 is a time of opportunity to achieve lasting progress against global hunger and malnutrition. For the United States, it is a time of renewing our commitment to this objective and strengthening partnerships with countries that are eager to work together in this common interest. The dramatic surge in global hunger as a result of

The post Our Common Interest: Ending Hunger and Malnutrition | The 2011 Hunger Report appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> 2011 is a time of opportunity to achieve lasting progress against global hunger and malnutrition. For the United States, it is a time of renewing our commitment to this objective and strengthening partnerships with countries that are eager to work together in this common interest.

The dramatic surge in global hunger as a result of a spike in food prices in 2007-2008 galvanized support in both rich and poor countries for raising agricultural investments to the top of their development priorities. It also brought into focus the long-term consequences of hunger, especially for the youngest children.

During the 1,000 days from pregnancy to a child’s second birthday, the consequences of malnutrition are irreversible. Malnutrition and hunger are one and the same in the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Progress toward MDG 1, eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, is measured by reductions in the number of underweight children. In 2008, the distinguished medical journal The Lancet attracted international attention with a series of articles on maternal and child malnutrition — in particular finding that a third of all early childhood deaths are the result of malnutrition. Nutrition is important in meeting all of the MDGs.

The United States should take the lead in strengthening international institutions that are complementary to U.S. bilateral assistance in fighting hunger and malnutrition.

The post Our Common Interest: Ending Hunger and Malnutrition | The 2011 Hunger Report appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> https://www.bread.org/article/the-mdg-summit-strengthening-the-u-s-role-in-accelerating-progress/ Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:45:00 +0000 https://www.bread.org/article/the-mdg-summit-strengthening-the-u-s-role-in-accelerating-progress/ The U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) generated unprecedented levels of commitment to dramatically cut poverty and disease, improve access to education and health, and promote gender equity and environmental sustainability. Over the past decade, the MDGs have become in many ways the most accessible set of global benchmarks — embraced by governments, civil society actors,

The post The MDG Summit: Strengthening the U.S. Role in Accelerating Progress appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> The U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) generated unprecedented levels of commitment to dramatically cut poverty and disease, improve access to education and health, and promote gender equity and environmental sustainability.

Over the past decade, the MDGs have become in many ways the most accessible set of global benchmarks — embraced by governments, civil society actors, grassroots and youth-focused groups, and celebrities alike.

However, progress on the MDGs as a whole is a mixed bag, particularly in Africa, where many of the MDG targets will not be met. For most of the past decade, global hunger has steadily increased, particularly in 2008-2009 as a food price crisis emerged in tandem with the global economic downturn. One of the most important requirements for progress on the MDGs is clear leadership at the country level, including the integration of the goals into national planning.

With a focused strategy, based on measurable results, the United States can redouble its efforts to accelerate progress on the MDGs.

The post The MDG Summit: Strengthening the U.S. Role in Accelerating Progress appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> https://www.bread.org/article/new-hope-for-malnourished-mothers-and-children/ Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:45:00 +0000 https://www.bread.org/article/new-hope-for-malnourished-mothers-and-children/ Many developing countries have had success in reducing malnutrition. But malnutrition remains pervasive and, in many countries, comes at a very high cost. Each year, millions of children die from malnutrition; millions more suffer ill health and face long-term physical and cognitive impairment, leading to lost productivity. The period between conception and the first two

The post New Hope for Malnourished Mothers and Children appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> Many developing countries have had success in reducing malnutrition. But malnutrition remains pervasive and, in many countries, comes at a very high cost. Each year, millions of children die from malnutrition; millions more suffer ill health and face long-term physical and cognitive impairment, leading to lost productivity. The period between conception and the first two years in a child’s life are critical.

The Obama administration’s initiative to fight hunger offers an opportunity to improve nutrition of mothers and children around the world. In addition to the focus on increasing agricultural productivity and raising rural incomes, the administration should scale up nutrition interventions and integrate nutrition into its development programming. It should use improvements in maternal and child nutrition as a key indicator of success. It should support country-led strategies, coordinate with other donors and ensure that U.S. actions and policies do not undermine nutrition objectives.

The post New Hope for Malnourished Mothers and Children appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> https://www.bread.org/article/the-millennium-development-goals-facing-down-challenges/ Thu, 01 May 2008 19:45:00 +0000 https://www.bread.org/article/the-millennium-development-goals-facing-down-challenges/ The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) represent an unprecedented partnership among nations to better the lives of hungry and poor people across the globe. As the 2015 target date approaches, many developing countries have already made extraordinary progress, improving the lives of millions of people. But not all countries or regions of the world are on

The post The Millennium Development Goals: Facing Down Challenges appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]> The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) represent an unprecedented partnership among nations to better the lives of hungry and poor people across the globe. As the 2015 target date approaches, many developing countries have already made extraordinary progress, improving the lives of millions of people. But not all countries or regions of the world are on track to meet the MDGs.

Developing nations face many barriers to achieving the MDGs, some unique and country-specific, others broadly shared. Common problems faced by fragile nations can be grouped into four areas: poor starting conditions; weak governance and institutions; conflict and instability; and environmental degradation.

To meet the MDGs and create a sustainable path to development, countries must adopt policies and programs to overcome these problems. Developed countries have a role to play in overcoming these barriers. Aid donors, particularly the United States, must ensure that development assistance is flexible enough to help countries address these challenges and meet the MDGs.

The post The Millennium Development Goals: Facing Down Challenges appeared first on Bread for the World.

]]>