Nourish Our Future: International Nutrition Programs

This Sunday, May 4, during Fellow-sip time following worship, we will have an opportunity to write our Senators and Representatives, encouraging them to take steps to combat childhood hunger in our country and around the world. Following the lead of Bread for the World’s Nourish Our Future campaign, we will focus on four initiatives: 1) expanding the Child Tax Credit; 2) fully funding and modernizing the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); 3) addressing food insecurity on college campuses; and 4) providing robust funding for international nutrition programs. This is the last of four articles with background information on these areas of concern.

Today the topic is international childhood hunger. The following comes from Bread for the World’s fact sheet, “Why Global Nutrition Needs Robust Funding.”

“Soaring rates of severe malnutrition and famine make it clear that we need to ensure robust funding for global nutrition….

“UNICEF estimates that almost 45 million children under the age of 5 suffer from wasting (a condition whereby a child is severely thin for their height due to poor nutrition). Nearly half of all preventable deaths among children under five are attributed to malnutrition. And yet, we are only able to reach roughly 25 percent of children suffering from the most dangerous form of malnutrition.

“Despite progress over the past few decades, the world continues to lose more than two million young children to malnutrition every year.

“Most people living with malnutrition are concentrated in South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Central America. The causes of malnutrition and food insecurity are often rooted in and amplified by conflict and political instability, rising food prices, climate impacts, and the aftermath of COVID-19.”

To this list of factors that exacerbate malnutrition and food insecurity around the world we can add the shuttering of USAID by the Trump Administration. I find this action to be extraordinarily short-sighted and inhumane. Bread for the World gives us an idea of what is lost when we do not fund global nutrition programs:

“In 2023, USAID nutrition programs reached more than 39 million women and children globally with critical nutrition interventions, including:

“But the need is far greater. By robustly funding global nutrition programs, we can reach more women and children with evidence-based and highly effective treatment that saves lives and provides a brighter future for children and families.”

And you might be surprised to learn that “every $1 invested in nutrition results in up to $35 in economic returns.” That sounds like government efficiency to me.

All this is at risk in the elimination of USAID and in the budget resolution currently making its way through Congress, and it’s why citizens who care about hungry people need to speak out. I hope you will join me on Sunday by calling on our legislators to take meaningful action to nourish our future.