Emergency food: What do we eat tonight?
When families flee, hunger follows.
Written by Mauro Flammini
on October 22, 2026
Go. Now. Just move.
A young mother runs from a landslide with her children. A family flees the conflict in Sudan when the gunfire gets too close. A farming couple escapes while watching wildfire reduce their land to ash.
The mother reaches a makeshift shelter. The family crosses the border to a refugee settlement. The couple arrives at a displacement camp.
They are safe. They are hungry. They share the same question:
What do we eat tonight?
What a crisis leaves behind
No time to think. No time to pack.
The young mother left behind her kitchen. The bowl of cereal her youngest was eating is still on the table.
The family from Sudan left behind what little food they had stored. By the time they return home, it will have spoiled. If they can return home at all.
The farming couple left behind the field they had just planted. The harvest they were counting on is gone. So is their income.
Made it.
What do we eat tonight?
High-energy biscuits are great for young children. When mixed with water, they become a soft pablum that's safe for babies. (Photo: Rodrigue Harakandi)
What families need now: emergency food
How do I feed my baby? My young child? My teenager? Myself? There’s no stove. No pantry. No market. And everyone is hungry.
Emergency food from World Vision Canada helps provide:
- Food that’s ready to eat when families need it.
- Food that’s easy to carry and needs little or no cooking.
- Food that nourishes hungry children.
It can be high-energy biscuits for young children. When mixed with clean water, the biscuits become a soft pablum for babies. It can be breads and grains to help maintain nutrition and strength. It can be pulses like lentils, beans and chickpeas to provide calories, protein and other nutrients.
For the family from Sudan, it’s food to eat while they hope to return home.
For the farming couple, it’s food to keep their strength up as they work out what comes next.
For the young mother in the shelter, it’s a packet she can open and share with her youngest.
And for all, it’s one less thing to worry about.
This is what we eat tonight.
How emergency food gets there—and why World Vision stays
Does anyone have food here?
Yes.
Long before the landslide, the conflict or the wildfire, World Vision is already positioned to respond, with over 31,000 staff in 100 countries and seven strategically located warehouses worldwide, ready to deliver emergency food and supplies.
Within the first 72 hours, teams work to:
- Prioritize children. Especially those who require first-aid support or who have been separated from their families.
- Assess infrastructure. Safe delivery of emergency food is critical. Are the roads safe? Is the local airstrip accessible? Can bridges be crossed?
- Distribute emergency food packs and supplies. This can include high-energy biscuits, jerrycans for water, cooking pots and staples like grains.
But hunger does not end after 72 hours.
There is no telling when the young mother’s home will be rebuilt after the landslide. No timetable on when, or if, the family from Sudan can return home. No way to know when the wildfire that destroyed the farming couple’s fields will be out.
And no end to the need to eat.
One meal is not enough. My child is still so weak.
That is why World Vision stays. Not just for 72 hours. But for months. Or years if necessary.
Emergency food includes Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF). This peanut-based paste is fortified with protein, vitamins and minerals (Photo: Tigst Taye)
One meal of emergency food is just the start
We have eaten tonight. What about tomorrow and beyond?
Staying means food keeps reaching families who still have no food of their own.
It means, for example, a child under five with severe acute malnutrition can get Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF): a peanut-based paste packed with calories, protein, vitamins and minerals that needs no cooking or refrigeration. A full course of treatment can help a child recover in six to eight weeks.
For the young mother, it’s food that keeps coming while she waits for her home to be rebuilt.
For the family from Sudan, it’s food while they hope to go back home, however long that takes.
For the farming couple, it’s food while work begins to restore the land and the chance to grow their own and earn a living again.
Different crises. Different timelines. The same path:
- First, emergency food to get through the immediate crisis.
- Then, the nutrition and support needed to recover.
- Finally, the ability to grow, earn or access food again.
One day, I will feed my children myself again. At our home.
When families are in crisis, they often don't know where their next meal is coming from. (Photo: Lourino Pelembe)
Help answer the question
Somewhere tonight, another family is running.
They are safe. They are alive. And they’ll ask the question:
What do we eat tonight?
Your gift of emergency food helps ensure that when a family asks that question, the answer is already waiting.