Everybody has a role to play in achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger by 2030, and each of us can contribute to this goal in different ways. We can learn to produce more with fewer resources, find ways to reduce food loss and waste, adopt healthier and more sustainable diets, and urge other people, countries and institutions to do their part as well.
Here are four examples of people from different walks of life who have found ways to use their professional skills to support the Zero Hunger effort.
When Selina Juul was a teenager in her native Moscow, food shortages in post-Soviet Russia made it difficult for families to put food on the table. Today, as a communication professional in Denmark, Juul encourages consumers, food distributors and policymakers to put a dent in food waste by promoting food sharing.
Juul is a European Young Leader 2018 and the founder of the Stop Wasting Food movement in Denmark, a member of the EU Platform on Food Losses and Waste. She blogs, gives TED Talks, lobbies policy makers and dialogues with organizations like FAO to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals of eliminating hunger and halving food waste by 2030.
“Due to our work, in the last six years, Danish consumers have reduced food waste by 14 000 tons,” Juul says. In the summer of 2018, the Danish government agreed to set up a think tank on food loss and waste due to her idea.
Like Juul, Darine el Khatib uses her skills as communication and media professional based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates to call for reductions in food waste, the sharing of surplus foods, and nutrition education for vulnerable families to help them improve their food choices and general health.
El Khatib, who is from Lebanon, is also FAO’s Special Goodwill Ambassador for Zero Hunger for the Near East and North Africa. Even before joining FAO’s effort, El Khatib launched a campaign against hunger on the Middle East’s popular Fatafeat TV food channel.
“I partnered with food banks in Egypt and Sudan and non-profit organizations in Lebanon,” says El Khatib. “We packed dried foods like oil, lentils, rice, spaghetti, which could last a long time, and we went to underprivileged areas in Sudan, Egypt and Lebanon and Syrian refugee camps in Lebanon.”
The Fatafeat campaign also raised awareness in schools and households of affordable nutrition and the need to respect our food. El Khatib also produces social media videos to show how all of us can help to achieve Zero Hunger by making small changes to our daily lives like eating leftover foods, recycling and saving energy.