World Food Day: Action for #ZeroHunger

By Julie Yeros

World Food Day is observed every year on October 16 to promote awareness and action for those suffering from hunger and for the need to ensure food security and nutritious diets for everyone.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) calls upon citizens, governments, farmers, corporations, and youth around the world to take action and to make the goal of #ZeroHunger a reality by 2030.

Teach kids about the global goal to achieve #ZeroHunger and that by changing simple day-to-day actions, they can reduce waste, eat better, and use the Earth’s resources more wisely and take on a more sustainable lifestyle.

World Food Day Key Facts

821 million people in the world still suffer from hunger even though the world produces enough food to feed everyone. 60% of them are women.
About 70% of the world’s extreme poor live in rural areas. Most of them depend on agriculture.
Hunger kills more people every year than malaria, tuberculosis, and AIDS combined.
Nearly 45% of infant deaths are related to undernutrition.
1.9 billion people (more than a quarter of the world’s population) are overweight. 672 million of these are obese. Adult obesity is rising everywhere at an accelerated pace.
3.4 million people die each year due to overweight and obesity. In many countries, more people die from obesity than from homicide.
$3.5 trillion (USD) is the yearly cost of malnutrition to the global economy.
By 2050 agriculture will need to produce almost 50% more food, feed, and biofuel than it did in 2012 to meet demand.
One-third of the food produced worldwide is lost or wasted.

Resource: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

World Food Day 2022 Theme

Leave NO ONE behind

2022 finds us with an ongoing pandemic, conflict, a climate that won’t stop warming, rising prices, and international tensions. This is affecting global food security.

We need to build a sustainable world where everyone, everywhere, has regular access to enough nutritious food.

No one should be left behind. –FAO

World Food Day Activities

Children’s Activity Book

We are all connected! From our food to our cultures, environment, and economies, we live in a globalized world. Climate change, conflict, and inequality can often leave groups of people behind because of who they are or where they live. Building a better, more sustainable future for all means no one can be left behind.

Find out how you can take action and be part of the change with the World Food Day Activity Book.

Download the FREE 2022 World Food Day Activity Book (available in several languages).

Poster Contest

Children and teens all over the world, from age 5 to 19, are encouraged to use their imagination and create a poster showing a world where no one is left behind, and everyone has access to healthy and affordable food.

Use the World Food Day Activity Book (above) for inspiration.

Entries are due by November 4, 2022. Click here for more information and to upload posters.

Stone Soup: A Story for World Food Day

This version of the classic tale was written for World Food Day in 2008 and focuses on the message that when we each give a little, we can achieve a lot.