World Food Day

By Michelle Plummer

While food can be a luxury to some, it is a necessity for others. Established in 1981 by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, World Food Day hopes that all people recognize that food is a need and not a want.

The FAO aims to raise levels of nutrition across the globe, improve agricultural productivity at all levels, enhance the lives of rural populations and contribute to the growth of the world economy. It also provides assistance to countries changing their agricultural policy, to aid regions out of famine situations, to help implement appropriate technology and facilitate a neutral environment to discuss issues around food production.

Indiana is not immune to hunger issues. According to Feeding Indiana?s Hungry, one in ten Hoosiers are food insecure. It is hard to believe in a state our size that so many people still have to seek out food means.

In Indianapolis, organizations like Second Helpings, Inc. and Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana work tirelessly to help feed and provide food to those who do not have adequate intakes.

What Gleaners would like you to know about Indiana:

Some call it an epidemic. Others call it an outrage. Gleaners calls it a time to act.
Gleaners fights the hunger crisis in our community every day. One of their best tools is information?so that more people understand the problem, and more people can join Gleaners in the fight.
After all, increasing numbers of our fellow Hoosiers are sinking into poverty:

A staggering 12.9% of people in Indiana now live in poverty. That?s one of every eight people in the state. (Source: Census Bureau.)
Poverty is up by 50% in Marion County.
Eight of ten IPS students must receive free or reduced lunches.
In Gleaners? 21-county service area, more than 242,435 people live in poverty?and more than 89,895 of them are children. (Source: Census Bureau.)


The recent national economic crisis has hit elderly people, the working poor and hungry children especially hard. In 2008/2009 alone, calls to Connect2Help? for food assistance were up 38%.
Gleaners invites you to learn more?and to spread the word. Because the more Hoosiers know, the more effective all of us are at helping people in need.

What Second Helpings would like you to know:

Second Helpings prepares and delivers thousands of nutritious meals every day at no charge. Those meals feed people in shelters, day cares, community centers, and other programs that feed hungry people, but don’t have the budgets to pay for food.
It?s not easy to see how many people go hungry each day. But the reality is that more than one in ten Hoosier households face food insecurity, which means that they don?t know where the next meal will come from. The numbers can be disheartening: 40% of our nation?s hungry are children and one in nine seniors are food insecure.
When people are hungry, they can’t learn, can’t work, and can’t grow. Feeding hungry people doesn’t just fill bellies. It changes lives.
Americans throw away a lot of food ? an average of a pound a day for every man, woman and child in the country. That?s 27% of our available food supply going right into the trash.
Second Helpings rescues as much of that food as they can. In fact, every year they rescue over 1.5 million of pounds of food. Second Helpings takes resources that nobody wanted and uses them to fulfill the most fundamental need that people can?t live without ? the need to be nourished with healthy food.
Second Helpings works with our partners in the food service industry?distributors, caterers, restaurants, grocers, and others?to safely and efficiently collect surplus and perishable food that was headed for the landfill.

So, what can we all do on October 16 to help United Against Hunger’s World Food Day?

This World Food Day, consider letting others know about this important cause or donating to your local food banks and food pantries.