The FAO Office in Geneva kicked off its World Food Day commemoration activities with an interactive session with Year-6 students of the International School of Geneva on 14 October 2019. Director of FAO Office in Geneva, Ms Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett spoke with students and teachers about the work FAO is doing with countries and partners to end hunger and malnutrition (SDG 2) by ensuring everyone has regular access to enough high-quality food to lead active and healthy lives.  
She emphasized that the world produces enough food for everyone but roughly one third of the food produced gets lost or wasted.

Speaking about children she highlighted that many children still go to bed hungry at night since more than 820 million people suffer from hunger. While providing some key figures on stunting, wasting, obesity and overweight in children, Ms Rodrigues-Birkett, urge the children to eat healthy so that they can lead active and healthy life styles. She mentioned the growing rates of diabetes, heart disease and some cancers, that are directly linked to what we eat.

Students and teachers were actively engaged in the quiz session facilitated by Ms Wirya Khim, Natural Resources Officer and Youth and Children Focal Point of FAO Geneva, where children were able to test their knowledge on matters relating to healthy diets.  They were encouraged to consume a healthy diet including enough fruits and vegetables. Not too young to learn and teach, they exchanged their views on their choices of food in relation to the impact on the environment, for example, some foods take more natural resources (such as water) to produce.  Ms Khim reiterated that everyone has a role in reducing food loss and waste.

Ms Shona Wright, Middle School Principal of International School of Geneva and Ms Meriel Rhodes, Year-6 Teacher thanked the FAO Geneva for the continued collaboration to engage with students on sustainable natural resources management, food security and nutrition.

On 16 October 2019, the World Food Day Exhibition at the Geneva Central Train Station was also visited by many children and young adults. They were provided with brochures and activity books to learn more about healthy diets.

This year World Food Day is commemorated under the theme “Healthy Diets for a #ZeroHunger World” and calls for action across sectors to make healthy and sustainable diets affordable and accessible to everyone, while reminding us to eat healthily.