We must act to stop hunger crises

War and climate change are causing starvation across the globe, and the media and government are not giving enough attention to this crisis.

The civil war in Yemen has left 20 million people in desperate need of food. Save the Children says 85,000 Yemeni kids have died of hunger and disease since the war began. The civil war in Syria likewise has led to severe hunger for millions. Hunger could persist for years in these nations because of damage to agriculture and food production.

In the Horn of Africa, repeated droughts, caused by climate change, are creating a major hunger emergency. The Central African Republic and the Sahel region are also facing extreme hunger. In southern Africa, the World Food Program says a record 45 million people will be going hungry in the next six months because of drought. The WFP is appealing for funding. “We’ve had the worst drought in 35 years in central and western areas during the growing season,” says Margaret Malu of WFP in southern Africa.

Closer to home a hunger crisis in Central America is a root cause of migration to the United States. President Donald Trump has sadly not paid any attention to hunger, and has even proposed cuts to global food aid in his budgets. So it’s vital that Congress take action in a bipartisan fashion by passing the global nutrition resolutions (House Resolution 189 and Senate Resolutions 260) and committing to fighting child malnutrition.

Funding should be increased for the Food For Peace and McGovern-Dole global school lunch program. I partnered with WFP and Catholic Relief Services on a survey of global school feeding. When these programs are funded, they work. Democrats and Republicans need to unite to support hunger relief.

Like former Secretary of State George Marshall said after World War II, “hunger and insecurity are the worst enemies of peace.”

We can all take action. Students at Mount St. Joseph University in Ohio wrote letters to Congress supporting the global nutrition resolutions. They also created a FreeRice team to help WFP. Every school can do this. There is so much political drama in D.C.; the danger is vital issues like hunger can get pushed aside. So many lives and the stability of nations are at stake.

HANI MOHAMMED/AP A father gives water to his malnourished daughter in a hospital in Hodeida, Yemen, in 2018. An international aid group says about 85,000 children under age 5 have died of hunger and disease since the outbreak of Yemen’s civil war in 2015.