Nutritious food is a critical building block for children's growth and development

The Need
Nutritious food is a critical building block for children's growth and development. Half of all childhood deaths can be traced to malnutrition. And when parents are weakened by hunger, they cannot work, grow crops or provide for their families.

Severe food shortages result from factors that often compound each other:

• Poor farming techniques
• Low soil fertility
• Poor access to quality seeds
• Poor control of crop pests
• Environmental degradation
• Drought and other natural disasters

Unless communities can establish secure sources of food to meet their nutritional needs, they have little hope of offering their children a healthy future.

Fast Facts

• 852 million people-most of them women and children-suffer from chronic hunger or malnutrition. Source: FAO State of Food Insecurity 2004
• Nearly 160 million children below the age of 5 are underweight. Source: UNICEF State of the World's Children 2006
• Children who are even moderately underweight are more than four times more likely to die from infectious disease than well-nourished children. Source: UNDP Human Development Report 2005

World Vision's Response
When people can provide food for themselves, they enjoy physical health along with a sense of dignity that strengthens their faith and family relationships. World Vision helps families in need worldwide through:

Food Aid

Feeding centers: Following a humanitarian crisis, World Vision establishes emergency feeding clinics and often provides supplemental food until the situation has stabilized.

Training and Supplies

Agricultural assistance : World Vision provides farmers with seeds and tools for raising crops and livestock.

Agricultural training : We teach farmers improved agricultural techniques such as crop rotation, drip irrigation, conservation farming and the planting of nitrogen-fixing trees that enrich depleted soil.

Nutrition education: World Vision trains parents in the importance of feeding their children foods that contain essential nutrients such as vitamins A and C.

Protecting Food Resources

Improving product storage : World Vision helps communities protect their available food resources with better storage techniques. In Mali, for example, we built granaries that decreased the annual food storage loss from 30 percent to 3 percent.

Marketing assistance : By identifying and providing resources for marketable products, World Vision helps farmers earn a stable income for their families. For example, we helped Brazilian farmers cultivate and market a crop of organic peppers after local environmental changes made it impossible to grow their previous crops.

Natural resource management : World Vision emphasizes the value of caring for natural resources. Farmers are taught to protect their greatest asset-their land-by preventing soil degradation, increasing sustainability, and enhancing productivity.

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World Vision Presents Plaque to World Food Programme Director

Walter Middleton, president of World Vision International’s food management resources group presents Jim Morris, executive director of the World Food Programme (WFP) with a plaque to express appreciation of his service, his advocacy on behalf of hungry children and his commitment to building an excellent working relationship between WFP and World Vision. Morris, who has led the WFP for the past five years, will leave this position in April 2007.

[(c) Mar. 2007/Nadine Carole/World Vision]
“The World Food Programme has no better friend, colleague, partner than World Vision," Morris said as he expressed thanks for the gesture. "You are an extraordinary organization, made better by your faith commitment."