World Food Day Resolution Calls for Action Against Hunger
16 October 2022, Washington, DC – The 2021-2022 World Food Day Congressional resolutions call for the people of the United States to express their concern for the plight of hungry and malnourished people worldwide by taking action and marking 16 October as World Food Day.
World Food Day marks the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations on 16 October 1945 in Quebec, Canada and promotes global action to address hunger and promote healthy diets for all. This 2022 World Food Day theme is “Leaving no one behind. Better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life for all.”
In 2021, 828 million people globally faced hunger, 193 million people required humanitarian assistance for survival, and conflict was the main driver of high acute food insecurity for 139 million people across 24 countries and territories. Meanwhile, 3 billion people cannot afford healthy diets, and 1 in 8 adults is obese, a problem on the rise in all regions of the world.
The Senate World Food Day Resolution (S.Res.414), co-sponsored by Senator Chris Coons (D-DE), Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS), Sen. John Boozman (R-AR) Sen.Patrick Leahy (D-VT), and Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), was unanimously passed by voice vote in 2021. The House World Food Day Resolution (H.Res.703), introduced in 2021, by Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME) has 16 bipartisan co-sponsors from Representatives across the United States.
In addition to legislators, prominent leaders across the United States, including the Mayor of the District of Columbia, Muriel Bowser, expressed official support for World Food Day. Mayor Bowser issued a proclamation acknowledging that “implementing sustainable and holistic solutions that incorporate long-term development, inclusive economic growth, and greater resilience can transform agrifood systems to create a world where everyone has regular access to enough nutritious food”.
“FAO appreciates the long-standing partnership with the United States of America and its commitment to FAO’s mandate of building efficient, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable agrifood systems for better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life for all, leaving no one behind,” said the FAO Director-General during his recent visit to the USA. “Particularly at this time when alarming levels of food insecurity have underscored the need for sustained investment in the agricultural sector and rural communities.”
The United States is the single largest contributor to FAO’s emergencies and resilience programs and continues to be among the most significant voluntary contributors to FAO overall. This year, the U.S. government has already provided FAO with a total of $252 million in voluntary contributions, the highest levels of contributions FAO has received in a single year, exceeding U.S. voluntary funding for all of 2021.
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