Get Involved: Schools

YOUTH AND THE RUN FOR FOOD RACE

All young people love sports. Exercise helps develop a strong body and a balanced mind. We burn a lot of energy when we run, swim, or play. The Run for Food Race wants to draw people’s attention to the fact that many, way too many people not only don’t have enough energy to do some exercise, but also they don’t have even the minimum energy to survive! They are poor people living mainly in developing countries, they don’t have enough to eat nor enough money to feed themselves, and often they are children and young people just like you. This situation is not acceptable and something has to be done! If you are young and energetic and if you want to send a message to those who don’t know yet that almost 1 BILLION people are in this situation, participate in the Run for Food Race which will take place in Rome on October 16, 2011 and take the opportunity to spread the message. Get ready and discover why your participation to this event is so important!
Also, the money raised from the race will be donated to small-scale projects aimed at helping the populations in the Horn of Africa hit by drought and famine.

Additional Resources

Make this event an occasion to learn and discover something new! Don’t just go and run... everybody could do that, but not everybody knows what is really going on behind the scenes! Below are some useful resources that you should definitely check out.

	THE RIGHT TO FOOD is a rather complicated issue, but comics can help understand it, especially when they are "illustrated by young people for young people". Download the comics in PDF format at www.fao.org/docrep/010/a1300e/a1300e00.htm
	FAO KIDS is a complete database of information about a wide range of issues such as poverty, hunger, biodiversity, global warming, human rights and more: www.fao.org/kids/en/. In particular, www.fao.org/kids/en/hunger.html is dedicated to hunger and it includes data, maps, and even a quiz to test your knowledge about hunger.
	THE FAO CHILDREN AND YOUTH CLIMATE CHANGE portal contains activities, resources, events, competitions and projects related to biodiversity, climate change and other issues that concern youth: www.fao.org/climatechange/youth/en.
	The YUNGA WEBSITE includes useful information, news, challenge badges and activities of different kinds for young people. There is also a free newsletter you can register to if you want to be automatically informed when new resources become available. http://yunga-youth.weebly.com/
	FAO HUNGER is a portal dedicated to all issues related to hunger: causes, solutions, frequently asked questions, data and hunger definitions can be found at www.fao.org/hunger. Further information on the state of food insecurity in the world is provided with graphs and statistics at www.fao.org/publications/sofi/en/.
	FEEDING MINDS FIGHTING HUNGER is an international classroom for exploring the problems of hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity. Resources for teachers and students can be found here in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swahili: www.feedingminds.org. For a list of useful resources from this website, visit www.feedingminds.org/yw/youth_resources.htm. Find also some funny comics on the right to food at www.feedingminds.org/cartoon/rtf_en.htm.
	GENDER EQUALITY is a delicate issue and it becomes very important when related to hunger. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) website provides useful information on women empowerment.
	THE WAGGGS WEBSITE contains many resources and news on global issues such as climate change and hunger, including a Together we can change the world badge about the Millennium Development Goals: www.wagggsworld.org.
	WFP has created a very useful portal on hunger, discover all its contents here www.wfp.org/hunger/. Games and activities for all ages can be found at www.wfp.org/students-and-teachers/students/fun-and-learn. The website includes a traditional folktale on food and altruism - "The Stone Soup": documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/webcontent/wfp202398.pdf. Teachers are encouraged to try more classroom activities here www.wfp.org/students-and-teachers/teachers/classroom-activities.
	FOOD PRICE is very important when understanding the advantages and disadvantages of living in a developed or developing country. FAO has organized the world data related to food prices in a unique index called the FAO Food Price Index (FFPI) that measures the trends and modifications in the global food market. Take a look!.

Finally, since hunger cannot be separated by environmental issues such as climate change and biodiversity loss, it is important to stay informed about these as well. Here are some resources for you!