16 October 2019

World Food Day

OUR ACTIONS ARE OUR FUTURE

As overweight and obesity rates soar worldwide, this year, World Food Day will call for action to make healthy and sustainable diets available and affordable to everyone.

At the same time, we are asking you to start thinking about what you eat.

Countries, decision makers, private businesses, civil society - and YOU – can take action to achieve healthy diets and #ZeroHunger.

Find out more!
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Join Us!

Whether you’re a business, NGO, journalist, media agency, city, or a civil society organization, you can call for action to achieve better nutrition and Zero Hunger! Plan a #WorldFoodDay event or spread the word, and let us know if you need our help.

We can provide you with a range of promotional materials in several languages – a poster, a brochure, event banner, web or social media graphics or our Activity book for kids.

See the highlights of WFD 2018 events here.

Key Facts

Hunger and obesity

While over 800 million suffer from hunger, even more people suffer from overweight and obesity.

Rising obesity

Over 670 million adults and 120 million boys and girls (age 5-19) are obese and over 40 million children are overweight.

Death by diet

Unhealthy diets, combined with sedentary lifestyles, have overtaken smoking as the world’s number 1 risk factor for disability and death worldwide.

The cost of obesity

An estimated 2 trillion dollars is spent each year to treat health problems caused by obesity.

Hidden hunger

Billions of people lack the essential vitamins and minerals their bodies need to lead an active and healthy life.

Unhealthy for the planet

Environmental damage caused by the food system could increase 50 - 90%, due to the increased consumption of processed foods, meat and other animal-source products in low- and middle-income countries.

A vicious cycle

Different forms of malnutrition can co-exist within the same household and even the same individual during their life and can be passed from one generation to the next.

Losing diversity

Of some 6,000 plant species have been cultivated for food throughout human history, today only 8 of them supply more than 50% of our daily calories.

Climate threats

Climate change threatens to reduce not only the quantity of crops, lowering yields, but also the quality or nutritious value.

poster contest

Poster Contest

We are calling on children and teens all over the world, from age 5 to 19, to use their imagination and create a poster that illustrates their idea of what needs to be done to make healthy diets available for everyone and how each of us can improve our diets.

Join the contest 2018 winners