World Food Day is celebrated across the globe on October 16th every year. This day marks the anniversary of the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations. The day aims at tackling global hunger and striving to eradicate hunger across the world.
This year, the World Food Day commemorations will be jointly led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and the World Food Programme (WFP).
This year’s theme is Safe food now for a healthier tomorrow. The theme stresses on the various immediate and long-term benefits of consuming safe and healthy food especially now as the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic.
To mark the event, the agencies are supporting the distribution of 300 lunch boxes to vulnerable people, including refugees. The lunch boxes are prepared by CuisineLab, a social enterprise run by refugee chefs in Geneva, Switzerland and distributed throughout Geneva by Mater Fondazione.
To encourage consumption of safe food, World Food Day 2021 is raising awareness about the people who are not food secure. There are millions of people across the globe who are struggling with hunger, they do not have adequate food to survive. Starvation is a global crisis that needs to be addressed and tackled in order to save lives.
In Kenya alone, over 2 million people are staring at drought and hunger in Arid and Semi-Arid areas in the country.
In August this year, The Government of Kenya through the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) handed over a cheque of Ksh. 558 million to Equity Bank for disbursement to vulnerable families in the listed arid and semi-arid lands (ASAL).
Vulnerable households in Wajir, Marsabit, Mandera and Turkana Counties are set to benefit from the Hunger Safety Net Program (HSNP) which is part of the Government’s efforts to alleviate hunger in these counties.