Although we live in a world where we can produce enough food to feed billions of people, eliminating hunger and malnutrition is one of the biggest challenges we still face to this day. We are faced with inadequate food causing suffering and poor health, but also slowing progress in many other areas of development like education and employment and perpetuating a never-ending cycle of poverty.

The additional universal threat of COVID-19 continues to ravage the world, disrupting food supply chains and leaving more people suffering from food insecurity and malnutrition. But what can we do in times like these? In this article, we’ll give you some of the prevalent causes and some promising solutions to world hunger.

World hunger is a complicated issue that cannot be resolved easily, as it links to many other complex issues, including poverty, climate change, inequality, and conflict. The situation has only recently worsened as more and more people find themselves undernourished by the ongoing pandemic and the resulting global crisis.   

Some of the most prevalent causes include:

Intensified droughts and unpredictable rainfall make it difficult for farmers to cultivate good crops due to weather events, which also make it harder to support families in need.

The most vulnerable people are also the most affected as conflicts arise. Conflict leaves people displaced and disrupts local food production for long periods of time.

The role of women in the food sector consists of food producers, manufacturers, traders, and income earners as they play a crucial role in providing food for their families. The social and economic status of women in some places, however, limits their access to education, ownership of property, decision-making, and their right to produce food.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution to promote food security for every community around the world. However, there’s a need for the adoption and implementation of a variety of techniques to address the issues highlighted above and climate-adaptive farming is a great place to start.

We all want our families to have enough food to eat that is safe and nutritious. A world with less hunger will have a positive effect on the economy, health, education, equality, and social growth of our communities. Food is a key element to help everyone develop a better future. So how do we make food security a long-term reality in our world today? We’ll discuss in the following list a few ways we can all help solve world hunger.

Climate-adaptive farming supports farmers and communities in ways that allow them to generate sufficient food in the near future to sustain themselves while also replenishing local soil, adapting to their local context (whether urban or rural), and making long term changes that ensure farming will be more profitable and sustainable for the next generation. 

To increase agricultural production, preserve soil fertility, and make the most of scarce resources, World Renew comes alongside community farmers and village inhabitants to train them in  composting, intercropping, and other methods such as drip irrigation.

Access to quality education is one of the most important ways to ensure that all young children do not suffer malnutrition as adults. Education helps children to be self-sufficient in adulthood by providing them with a pathway to higher learning and the experience and skills needed for stable-income jobs.

However, it is also vital for children to be nourished while at school. This not only motivates them to go to school but also increases concentration and performance while in the classroom.

The majority of the farm work in the world is carried out by women. With 60-80 percent of the agricultural workers in Africa being women, most of them still have insufficient food to maintain themselves and their families despite the fact that they deal with food production all day.

Empowering women means giving access to agricultural resources, education, and financial services. It also includes promoting women’s access to good jobs and equal labor markets; which in turn contributes to long-term social and economic growth.

Take, for example, Ellen, who once struggled in desperation. With World Renew’s help, she was able to receive agricultural training, which has helped her become one of the 66 beneficiaries of her village. Today, she is an active farmer, growing vegetables and making extra income to support herself.

The immediate, if not the most sustainable, way to stop hunger is to provide food directly to those who are hungry. Food programs and successful food donations have proved an exceedingly effective way of achieving this. World Renew runs such programming through our International Disaster Response team, reaching out to refugee populations and those whose lives have been impacted by severe natural disaster or conflict.

While emergency food delivery is a vital component in addressing world hunger, all permanent food security solutions involve the equipping of communities to feed themselves.

You can also help stop world hunger by tackling the roots of the problem in your local context. Starting at home, you can buy or eat locally and aim for zero food waste. You can also join an organization like World Renew to help address these problems internationally. By following these solutions above, you will discover the best way to educate yourself, your families, and your friends on how you can contribute to alleviating world hunger.

World Renew provides world hunger relief programs and pushes for the global movement to end hunger by empowering communities and responding to emergencies. This is why World Renew collaborates with farmers worldwide so they can overcome their agricultural difficulties and find long-term flourishing.

We also partner with local community leaders and NGOs to help foster sustainable community development so that communities can find holistic pathways out of poverty.

Proverbs 22:9 teaches us – He who has a generous eye will be blessed, for he gives his bread to the poor.

Despite World Renew’s success in sustainable farming training, the economic fallout of the recent COVID-19 pandemic has caused families such as Kadzo’s to suffer due to the financial hardships that come with the pandemic. Which is why we need your help.

We are dedicated to achieving zero hunger by 2030. But we can’t do it alone, we need your support. Did you know that a gift of $200 gives a farmer the tools, training, and supplies they need to respond to climate change and grow enough food to feed their families for a year? You can donate to the World Hunger campaign or volunteer to do your part in helping to build a world where children no longer suffer from hunger with World Renew today.