This Sunday was the Global Hunger Summit in London hosted by British Prime Minister David Cameron. With the eyes of the world focused on the London Olympics, the idea was to shift some of that attention toward the global hunger crisis afflicting nearly one billion people.
Adrian Lovett, Europe Executive Director of ONE, says: “The Prime Minister and the Vice-President of Brazil deserve real credit for seizing this moment to insist on the same ambition in the race to end extreme hunger and malnutrition. For too long, this scourge has failed to receive the global attention it deserves. Efforts to provide children the nutrients they need to grow and thrive have been under-funded and under-resourced.”
But now that the summit is over, the action must begin with child feeding for infants and meals for school-age children.
First priority is to secure life-saving food for children under five years of age. At that age the children are most vulnerable to physical and mental damage from malnutrition. Then for children over five you start providing feeding programs at school to help them grow physically and mentally.
If every nation has a comprehensive school lunch program we could drastically reduce child hunger and poverty while giving every child a chance to learn or even become an Olympian. Interestingly, the last time the Olympics were held in London was in 1948 when Europe was struggling to recover from World War II. School meals played a big role in helping rebuild from the destruction
Back in 2008, I wrote a short film called “Ending Child Hunger: School Lunches for Kids Around the World.” The film premiered at the College of Mount St. Joseph in February of that year. Now today, the film has been updated with more material about why school lunches are so important. World leaders need to align their foreign policy in support of child feeding.
So sit back and enjoy the film. You will hear from lots of people including Dwight Eisenhower, Herbert Hoover as well as correspondents from the World Food Programme discussing school meals in developing countries. You will hear from those who benefit from the feeding programs the most: children and their families.
Ending Child Hunger: School Lunches for Kids Around the World from William Lambers on Vimeo.
Ending Child Hunger: School Lunches for Kids Around the World from William Lambers on Vimeo.
Article first published as The Power of Film and Ending Child Hunger on Blogcritics.
Author William Lambers 