16th October is World Food Day!
Mahatma Gandhi said, “The world provides enough for every man’s need but not for every man’s greed” totally resonating with the purpose of the World Food Day. Each day, tonnes and tonnes of food gets wasted across the globe and ironically millions and millions of people go hungry in the same world. Hunger is a global problem and it needs to be tackled in a well-concerted manner in association with the world organisations, governments, non-profit organisations, businesses, and general public.
World Food Day 2019
In order to address the various aspects of food insecurity and the ways to tackle it, World Food Day is celebrated with a specific theme each year. The theme for 2019 is,
“Our Actions Are Our Future. Healthy Diets. For a #Zero Hunger World.”
This year the events for World Food Day will focus on ensuring accessibility to nutritious food. It will also appeal to the mass to be conscious consumers of food – so that along with people getting nourished, the earth also gets nurtured! It is evident that there has been a dramatic change in our food habits due to rapid lifestyle change. This has led to increase in consumption of processed food as against fresh food thereby declining the nutrition quotient in us. This however is a personal choice and the answer lies within us. But a large section of people is deprived of nutritious food due to challenging socio-economic backgrounds which requires to be addressed as a whole community.
Food for education
Among the non-profits that work to tackle the hunger problem by ensuring food security, there is one category that solely focusses on providing free meals for school children. This food for education allows children from socio-economically backward classes to attend school and also receive a plateful of healthy meal for the day. The significance of these meals is much more than meets the eye. Food for education in the form of school meals:
• Bridges the gap between children and school;
• Allows children to attend school regularly;
• Promotes health and fitness;
• Improves performance in academic and co-curricular activities;
• Makes children confident about their abilities to achieve their goals;
• Empowers them to be resourceful citizens who can provide for themselves and their families in the future;
• Economic empowerment addresses the hunger situation to a great extent.
So, when you support organisations providing food for education, you directly contribute towards a #HungerFreeWorld.
Be the solution
Every child deserves to receive healthy and wholesome meals. By supporting non-profit organisation like The Akshaya Patra Foundation, you can make sure children receive their share of nutritious meals on each school day. Akshaya Patra is a mid-day meal NGO providing nutritious school lunch to more than 1.8 million children across 51 locations of 12 States and 2 Union Territories in India. Donate for children because your contribution will help end classroom hunger and prepare children for a better and brighter future.
This World Food Day, be an active contributor towards
“Healthy Diets. For a #Zero Hunger World.”
Author Profile:
The Akshaya Patra Foundation is an Indian NGO implementing the Mid-Day Meal Programme along with several child-centric initiatives. Your support to Akshaya Patra can potentially improve lives of millions of children across India by empowering them with health and education.