Alliance to End Hunger
U.S. food aid, such as the rations
distributed to women forced from
their homes by the 2011 Horn of Africa
drought, can literally save a human life
for $40.
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 American 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.
A Companion Tradition: Promoting Health
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.
More than
99
10 Essay 2
n
percent:
reduction in cases of polio,
worldwide, since 1988.
Bread for the World Institute
Nearly half:
people in developing countries
who, at any given time, have a
health problem caused by unsafe
water or inadequate sanitation.