can compassion” has inspired a second generation—several
countries that were once recipients are now themselves donors of food aid.
The United States is the world’s largest donor of food
aid. In 2011, the bulk of our spending went to help people
facing starvation in the Horn of Africa. It saved the lives
of people elsewhere as well—among them a little girl in
Guatemala. Gilma is 5 years old. When drought struck her
part of the country, all Gilma had to eat was whatever was
left over from her four brothers’ meal. She developed Severe
Acute Malnutrition—otherwise known as life-threatening
hunger. U.S. food aid in the form of Plumpy’nut—a nutrient-dense peanut-based food—helped her recover. Within
a few days, Gilma was much stronger. Before long, she will
be starting school.
An American Heritage: Taking Action
on Hunger
Several times during the 20th century, Americans supported efforts to reduce widespread hunger overseas. The
largest of these was the Marshall Plan after World War II.
Hunger and malnutrition in Europe had reached crisis proportions. Secretary of State George C. Marshall won approval for a major investment of resources to help revive the
European economy. “Our policy,” he explained, “is directed
against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos.”
President Harry Truman acknowledged the plan’s high
price tag (in today’s dollars, the Marshall Plan would cost
$115-$120 billion), but concurred: “I know every American feels in his heart that we must help to prevent starvation and distress among our fellow men in other countries.”
Ultimately, the Marshall Plan assisted 270 million people in
16 countries in Western Europe.
In 1954, not long after the Marshall Plan was completed, President Dwight D. Eisenhower established the current American food aid program, Food for Peace. In its first
decades, recipients included now-prosperous South Korea,
Italy, Austria, Germany, Poland, and Japan. In 2010 alone,
the program provided food to 55 million refugees, survivors
of natural disasters, and others in need. The program that
President Ronald Reagan called “an instrument of Ameri-
A Companion Tradition:
Promoting Health
Alliance to End Hunger
Sufficient nutritious food and good health go together.
Unfortunately, malnutrition and disease also reinforce each
other, since the immune system of a person weakened by
hunger cannot effectively protect her from illness. A person
weakened by illness cannot efficiently absorb the nutrients
he consumes. Lack of access to clean water and poor sanitation are also common in environments where hunger and
disease are major problems, and they exacerbate both.
Diseases such as measles and pertussis are very rarely fatal
in developed countries, where nearly everyone receives immunizations against a host of diseases in early childhood.
Childhood diseases are still a deadly danger in many poor
countries.
Through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), established by President John F. Kennedy
in 1961, the United States has supported mass immunization campaigns that have made a big difference. In the
1980s, efforts became more focused with the creation of
the Child Survival Initiative within USAID. To this day,
the program provides basic immunizations for 100 million
children annually ; it has already saved millions of lives.
Communicable diseases don’t respect national borders.
In 1977, history was made when smallpox became the first
caption
More than
99
Nearly half:
percent:
people in developing countries who, at any
given time, have a health problem caused
by unsafe water or inadequate sanitation
reduction in cases of polio,
worldwide, since 1988
2