A Nobel Prize Winner’s Quest to End Global Hunger

At any given moment during the pandemic, more than 100 United Nations World Food Program airplanes have been aloft, delivering rice, lentils, and cooking oil to people on the brink of starvation. Those planes, and others that the organization has chartered, have shuttled humanitarian workers to areas in the grip of armed conflict and carried enough face masks, gowns, gloves, and ventilators to medical clinics across the world to fill 30 Olympic-size swimming pools.

Supported by governments around the globe and private donations, the World Food Program’s work has been so important to keeping hope alive around the world that in October it was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

But even with that accolade, it is struggling to meet the needs of the world’s poor. In the 79 countries where the organization works, last year it provided food to about 100 million people, falling short of the estimated 149 million people in those countries who face starvation.

Covid-19 has made the situation even worse. The organization estimates that more than a quarter of a billion people will be facing starvation globally by the end of the year.

When the organization saw signs the coronavirus would become a big problem, it realized its planes would be pressed into service to make up for the lack of commercial flights and that it would need to transport medical equipment and personnel for other relief groups.

The organization tripled the provisions in its regional warehouses. It set up major supply depots in Belgium, China, the United Arab Emirates, and six smaller hubs across the world. Its fleet of 20-odd cargo ships supplement the flights, and 600 trucks carry food inland to cities and hard-to-reach villages. That effort allowed it to serve people like Alice Tinsheme, shown here with her grandson David, as she takes home her food rations from a feeding program in Lagos, Nigeria.

In the year ahead, the World Food Program aims to serve 138 million people, more than 30 percent more than last year. To do so would require doubling its support to about $15 billion worldwide.

Contributions from governments will help reach that goal, says Barron Segar, head of World Food Program USA, but without the support of foundations, corporations, and individuals, the world will not be able to address what he calls the most catastrophic event the program has faced in its history.

“The consequences are pretty simple and devastating: People are going to die.”