World Food Day

On Wednesday, Oct. 16th, Frostburg State, like many institutions around the world, participated in World Food Day. World Food Day is an internationally recognized day celebrated over the globe. It is celebrated specifically on October 16th in order to recognize the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, which was established on that day in 1945. This unit of the UN aims to help eliminate hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition on a global scale. Hence, World Food Day itself emphasizes the need for humanity to take action in an effort to combat global hunger. It is on this day of every year that citizens from a multitude of countries come together to stress the need of the global community to eradicate global hunger in our lifetime.

Roughly 150 countries take place in this event and many of the events focus on what a painful paradox it is that our international community suffers from obesity and starvation simultaneously. Currently, roughly 672 people million people suffer from obesity whilst over 1.3 billion people are overweight. These statistics are twice as concerning when compared to the fact that over 820 million people throughout the world suffer from undernourishment. Pope Francis himself stated on Wednesday that “It is a cruel, unjust and paradoxical reality that, today, there is food for everyone and yet not everyone has access to it.”

Eliminating hunger on a global scale could save the lives of 3 million children worldwide each year. Ending child nutrition could increase a country’s GDP by 16.5 percent and undoubtedly aid the planet in an effort to become a safer and more prosperous home for all.

At FSU alone, 206.5 lbs of food were donated from both students and faculty. 75.5 lbs of those donations came solely from the Department of Geography and Sustainability Minor students. The remainder of this sum was collected by the Chesapeake Dining Hall and Chartwell’s Dining through individual donations from the campus and city community. Additionally, another PAWS Pantry food drive will be held by students who hold the Sustainability Minor ‪on Oct. 26th‬ and 27th, this coming Saturday and Sunday. This food drive will be held at Weis in Frostburg.