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Standing for the End of Hunger: A Declaration from Our Board of Directors

October 16, 2020

On World Food Day 2020, we called attention to the fact that food insecurity is fundamentally a human issue. Hunger is inextricably linked to a nexus of issues including inequality, conflict, climate change and corruption. Only in solving these together will any of them be solved on a sustainable basis.

In this spirit, our Global Board of Directors issued a declaration renewing their personal and collective commitment to the end of persistent hunger.

Our declaration.

On this day, the 16th of October 2020, the Global Board of Directors of The Hunger Project stands with the people living in conditions of hunger and poverty. We hereby renew our commitment to the end of the persistence of hunger.

For more than three decades, the proportion of people living in hunger declined. Yet, in the past five years, this trend began to head in the opposite direction. Now, the global COVID-19 pandemic, which has taken the lives of more than 1 million people worldwide, threatens to push 130 million more people into hunger by the end of 2020. Women and children are bearing the burden, and there are estimates that 20 million girls may not be able to return to school after the pandemic. This crisis is rooted in the deeply entrenched conditions of inequality, conflict, corruption and climate change.

In the 14,000 villages where The Hunger Project works worldwide, half a million local leaders ― two-thirds of them women ― have responded to this pandemic by taking action to ensure their neighbors are as safe as possible, resilient, and up to the challenge of confronting the virus. The villagers listen to these leaders, because they are the same individuals who lead their literacy classes, who teach them to value girls as much as boys, who work alongside them to grow nutritious food. This outpouring of courage, compassion and commitment is happening each and every day in rural villages worldwide.

We remain steadfast and clear.

  • We stand with the oppressed, disenfranchised and marginalized individuals living in conditions of hunger and poverty.
  • We stand for human dignity.
  • We stand for social justice, inclusion and equity.
  • We stand for gender equality.
  • We stand for the interconnectedness among all people and with our natural environment. 

We, the Global Board of Directors of The Hunger Project ― in partnership and solidarity with our sisters and brothers worldwide ― declare our personal and collective commitment to the end of the persistence of hunger.