Food Aid Facts

Today it is estimated that 925 million people across the globe suffer from malnutrition and hunger.

Meeting in 2000 to boost international cooperation in economic and human development, world leaders established 8 “Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).” Goal 1 is the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger and a key target is to halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger. According to the latest MDG progress report, the percentage of undernourished people decreased from 20% in 1990-1992 to 16% in 2005-2007, but progress has stalled, largely due to the food price spikes and economic crisis of 2008 and 2009. [click here for the UN’s Millennium Development Goals Report, 2010]

Children in rural areas are nearly twice as likely to be underweight than those in urban areas. Across developing countries, children from the poorest households are twice as likely to be underweight as children from the wealthiest households. Three-fifths of the poor in developing countries live in rural areas.  Half of all child deaths in developing countries are related to malnutrition and hunger.

In 2009, due to conflict and persecution, 27.1 million people were displaced from their homes and an additional 15.2 million people were refugees (residing outside their countries of origin).

In September 2010, the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) estimated that 30 countries are in crisis and need external assistance due to crop failures, conflicts, natural disasters, and high domestic food prices.

Low-income, food deficit countries (LIFDCs) depend on imports to meet their food needs and therefore are strongly affected by volatility in world market prices. With rising international cereal prices, FAO expects LIFDCs to import lower volumes in marketing year 2010/2011, but the cost of those imports will be greater than the year before.

The Food Aid Convention, 1999, is an agreement among donor countries to contribute to world food security and to improve international response to emergency and other food needs of developing countries. It describes the acceptable methods for providing food aid and includes minimum annual commitments for each participating country and the European Community. The United States has the largest minimum commitment of 2,500,000 metric tons.

In fiscal year 2009 (October 1, 2008-September 30, 2009), the United States provided more than $2.9 billion of food assistance to developing countries, providing approximately 2.8 million metric tons and reaching over 70 million people.

For fiscal year 2009, the funding levels and volumes for the three main U.S. food aid programs were:

*Program cost includes the cost of commodities, transportation to US port, ocean freight to destination port, inland transportation/storage/handling in the recipient country, and funds t

Most Frequently Used Commodities 2009:

1. Wheat 823,710 metric tons, 34% of all commodities
2. Sorghum 789,610 metric tons, 33% of all commodities
3. Corn 286,010 metric tons, 12% of all commodities
4. Pulses 207,670 metric tons, 9% of all commodities
5. Vegetable Oil 27,230 metric tons, 5% of all commodities