World Food Day: Food For The Poor and World Food Program USA Join Forces to Help Children in El Salvador
COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (Oct. 14, 2024) – Believing that having access to food is a fundamental human right, leaders from Food For The Poor (FFTP), World Food Program USA, and the United Nations World Food Programme in El Salvador will join together on Tuesday, Oct.15 – the day before World Food Day – to celebrate their work together to support school meals. As part of that celebration, FFTP is planning to launch a campaign to further support these efforts aimed at addressing chronic malnutrition among children in El Salvador.
Acknowledged each year on Oct. 16, World Food Day is intended to raise awareness about global hunger and the importance of food security. At FFTP, the theme for this year’s World Food Day is, “From Empty to Plenty: Food is a Human Right.”
“We are taking the bold stand of declaring that all human beings rightfully should have access to food,” FFTP President/CEO Ed Raine said. “And we are asking donors to join us on World Food Day to help children move from empty to plenty – from having little to no access to basic nutrition, to receiving the support they need to thrive.”
Raine will be joined at FFTP headquarters by Barron Segar, President and CEO of World Food Program USA, and Riaz Lodhi, Country Director of the U. N. World Food Programme in El Salvador. They will meet with FFTP team members to share information about their collaboration and its anticipated impact.
Working with World Food Program USA and the U.N. World Food Programme in El Salvador, the partners are supporting the School Feeding and Health Program, known as PASE, which is the acronym for the Spanish translation of the program’s name (Programa de Alimentación y Salud Escolar). PASE is the leading social program implemented by the government of El Salvador, serving more than 1 million students, with the goal of increasing school enrollment and attendance and improving education outcomes.
On World Food Day, FFTP will launch a digital fundraising campaign to support World Food Program USA, the U.N. World Food Programme in El Salvador, and PASE’s efforts in the department of Sonsonate, where malnutrition is a serious issue. Every $1 donated to FFTP will provide $4 worth of Biofortik, an iron-fortified nutritional supplement, to a child in need.
With a $2 million investment from FFTP and its generous donors, the project will deliver Biofortik to approximately 60,000 children. Including the children already receiving the supplement, the gift will help combat anemia and chronic childhood malnutrition among more than 400,000 students over the next 18 months. The initiative will also benefit 500 small-scale sorghum and corn farmers in El Salvador, strengthening local agriculture and food security.
Despite some socioeconomic progress, El Salvador still faces challenges such as food insecurity, limited job opportunities, and low incomes. Other challenges include the impacts of climate change, gender inequality, and rising food prices due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
Childhood malnutrition remains a significant concern in El Salvador, where the U.N. World Food Programme reports that 14 percent of children aged 6 to 59 months suffer from chronic malnutrition. In addition, a recent World Bank study revealed that 25 percent of children under 5 suffer from anemia, while 10 percent are underweight for their height, and 5 percent are underweight for their age.
Biofortik is a nutritional supplement enriched with amino chelated iron, specifically designed to combat iron deficiency anemia. Made from high-quality protein, local corn and sorghum, and fortified with essential vitamins, Biofortik is preservative-free. A 30-gram serving, when mixed with milk or water, provides 10 percent of a child’s daily caloric needs and is consumed three times a week as part of the school snack program.
The first-of-its-kind partnership between FFTP and World Food Program USA, which initially began in April of this year, is unique in that it supports both nutrition and local production, with the overall goal of promoting healthy eating habits among schoolchildren while boosting local economic growth.
It begins at the farm level, empowering small-scale grain producers to grow the raw materials needed for Biofortik and continues with investing in improvements at a local Biofortik plant, funding upgrades to infrastructure, machinery, safety protocols, personnel training, and production processes.
“Together, we are addressing two critical areas in the effort to move from empty to plenty,” Raine said. “We are delivering the nutrition the children require as a basic human right, and we are providing resources on the farms and in the factory to help strengthen the economy, ultimately moving closer to our mission to alleviate poverty and malnutrition.”
To learn more, click the following link: https://foodforthepoor.donorsupport.co/page/2024wfd
About Food For The Poor
Food For The Poor, one of the largest international relief and development organizations in the nation, does much more than feed millions of hungry children and families living in poverty primarily in 15 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. This interdenominational Christian ministry provides emergency relief assistance, water, medicine, educational materials, homes, support for vulnerable children, care for the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance. For more information, please visit foodforthepoor.org.
About World Food Program USA
World Food Program USA, a 501(c)(3) organization based in Washington, D.C., proudly supports the mission of the United Nations World Food Programme by mobilizing American policymakers, businesses, and individuals to advance the global movement to end hunger. Our leadership and support help to bolster an enduring American legacy of feeding families in need around the world. To learn more about World Food Program USA’s mission, please visit wfpusa.org/mission-history.
Ernestine Williams
Communications
305-321-7342
[email protected]