Run for Food Race against Hunger
5th Edition in Rome
Sunday, 17 October 2009 – 10.00 hours
Stadium delle Terme di Caracalla
Details for participants
When and where: Sunday, 17 October 2010 inside the Stadium (Terme di Caracalla) open from 8.00 hours with a Food Fair and Cultural activities by the FAO Staff Coop. Race starts at 10.00 hrs. from Via delle Terme di Caracalla, Roma 00153.
Distance: 10 kilometres competitive race and 5 kilometres non-competitive race.
Race: Competitive for those with a valid FIDAL card
Registration/Inscription Fee: 10 EURO
Registration: Registrations can be made at the office (0930-1300 and 1600-1930 hrs) of G.S. Bancari Romani, Viale Marco Polo, 108 - Telephone: 06 57288029
E-mail: info@runforfood.it
Web site: www.runforfood.it to download the registration form
The race and the World Food Day 2010
The 5th Edition of the Run for Food race will be organized by the Athletic Association Bancari Romani (GSBR) in partnership with Food and Agriculture of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the World Food Programme (WFP), Bioversity International, and the FAO Staff Coop and with the support of the Comune di Roma and Nike. This year, the race will take place on Sunday, 17 October 2010 at 10.00 hours, and will consist of a five kilometre ‘fun run’ ( or walk) as well as a ten-kilometre competitive race through the historic centre of Rome starting and ending at the Stadium Terme di Caracalla, just outside FAO headquarters.
As in previous years, this race will take place in the framework of the World Food Day and this year the theme is “United against hunger”, which was chosen to highlight with many players working together and helping each other – more food can be produced, more sustainably in the fight against world hunger and to boost agricultural investment in those regions where the poor and hungry live.
There are now almost 1 billion malnourished people in the world, meaning that almost one sixth of all humanity is suffering from hunger. On the eve of the World Summit on Food Security held at FAO in November 2009, FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf, launched an online petition to reflect the moral outrage of the situation of one billion hungry undernourished people in the world. FAO launched a petition addressed to governments to keep the issue of hunger and resources needed high on the international development agenda. This 1 Billion Hungry Project has a target of collecting one million signatures by using events, web sites, media and social media such as facebook, twitter and YouTube. between now until the third week of November where a handover ceremony will be organized at FAO Headquarters. The online petition calls upon governments to make the elimination of hunger their top priority.
With all the advances in science and technology, the world has the means to eliminate hunger but this will require the firm commitment of all sectors of society. The power of the sport can contribute to mobilize public opinion and resources towards the eradication of hunger.
This is why FAO, IFAD, WFP, Bioversity International and the FAO Staff Coop together with Comune di Roma and GSBR are joining forces to battle hunger and extreme poverty.
The symbol of the campaign is a yellow whistle, which acts as a metaphor to “sound the alarm”’ of the existence of chronic hunger. On the 1billionhungry.org website, there is a counter that indicates how many people already signed the petition. Signatures can either be numeric (via the website or social media) or physical, by using signatures sheets (available on the 1BH website).
Aims of the 5th Edition of the Run for Food
1) Awareness raising on the fact that hundreds of millions of people worldwide don’t get enough to eat each day and for them, hunger can lead to illness and temporary or permanent damage to their health.
2)Fund raising: the registration/inscription fees of the race will be donated to the "Fruit Trees for Haiti" TeleFood initiative of FAO.
This project is designed to bring attention to the desperate need for tree-planting in Haiti (country devastated by the earthquake on 12 January 2010) as well as providing an educational tool to aid environmental education in the country. Once mature, fruit trees also provide additional nutrition for poor children. The "Fruit Trees for Haiti" initiative builds on FAO's experience in rolling out school gardens in developing countries. Buildings surrounded by trees are also better protected from the flooding that occurs in the Haitian rainy season. Only € 3.70 donation to the initiative buys an avocado or mango tree for a Haitian school garden, and covers fertilizer and other inputs.
TeleFood Programme: FAO launched the TeleFood Programme in 1997 after the first World Food Summit as an annual campaign of awareness-raising events (broadcasts, concerts, sports) and other activities to harness the power of media, celebrities and concerned citizens to help fight hunger. Donations to TeleFood finance small, self-contained agriculture, livestock and fisheries projects that help poor families produce more food; not a penny is spent on administrative costs. Although small in scale and cost, TeleFood projects make a significant impact.
For more information: http://www.fao.org/getinvolved/telefood/en/
3) Collect signatures in the framework of the 1billionhungryproject to put pressure on the politicians for the elimination of hunger and consider the eradication of this drama as top priority in their policy. This year the registration/inscription form will contain an extra box where the participants can indicate that they also sign the petition.
