Crisis reversing fight against world hunger

Food and financial crises have added 115,000,000 men, women, and children to the ranks of the world’s hungry since 2007, according to Josette Sheeran, executive director of the UN’s World Food Program.

But it isn’t a problem of food availability, she emphasized. “It is a problem of distribution -– and of greed, discrimination, wars, and other tragedies. There is enough food on earth for every human to have adequate access to a nutritious diet. This is indeed a challenge of the human heart.”

Calling on national governments to take the lead, Sheeran urged that a very small percentage -– 0.7 percent -- of financial stimulus plans be dedicated to fighting hunger.

She spoke February 3 at a Vatican press conference that presented the Lenten message of Pope Benedict XVI, in which he said that the Lenten fast can nourish a spirit that offers help to our suffering brothers and sisters.

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