By Minaz Kerawala, Communications and Public Relations Advisor
At any time, a hunger crisis should be an anomaly, because the Lord has enabled us “to bring forth food from the earth” (Psalm 104:14). In our time of unprecedented plenty, when certain individuals and corporations own more than entire countries and when some waste more food than many get to eat, a hunger crisis is a blight on our collective conscience.
That such a crisis exists is unquestionable. UN agencies estimate that 8.2 per cent of the world’s population, or about 673 million people, experienced hunger in 2024. That this represents a minute net improvement over the previous year is no comfort because the number of people for whom hunger reached acute levels has increased; the proportion of the population facing hunger in Africa has surpassed 20 per cent; and famines have been declared in Gaza and Sudan.
The hunger crisis “is not inevitable—it is a choice”
At an event held in Rome last week on the margins of the 53rd session of the Committee on World Food Security, Caritas Internationalis, World Vision and the World Council of Churches released a joint Faith Leaders’ Statement on the Right to Food and Nutrition. Dignitaries present included Church and civil society leaders; senior UN agency officials; and Michael Fakhri, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food.
Characterizing the statement as “timely,” Arif Husain, the chief economist of the World Food Programme, said, “Considering that 85% of the world’s population are people of faith, if they raise their voices, we can make governments act.”
The statement deems the ongoing hunger crisis “a violation of divine intention and human dignity.” Proclaiming that “the right to food is inseparable from the right to life,” it posits that “hunger in a world of plenty is not inevitable—it is a choice.
In keeping with their traditional key role in fulfilling what they call “humanity’s highest obligation” of “feeding the hungry and caring for the vulnerable,” the faith leaders commit to advocating for the concrete measures that they recommend governments take to tackle the hunger crisis around the world.
Hunger crisis: insights from experts
To help Canadians better understand what drives the hunger crisis and how it can be addressed, Development and Peace ― Caritas Canada (DPCC) co-organized a webinar entitled Hunger crisis: situations and solutions with Canadian Foodgrains Bank on Saturday, October 25, 2025 (watch recording below).
Moderating the webinar, Vanessa Pike, a food assistance and nutrition technical advisor at Canadian Foodgrains Bank, shared some chilling numbers. Worldwide, some 3 billion people cannot afford a nutritious diet, she said, adding that food poverty affects 1 in 4 children. She explained how malnutrition increases children’s risk of dying 11-fold, raises health care costs, reduces productivity, retards economic growth and perpetuates cycles of poverty.
Attributing the hunger crisis to the combined effects of poverty, inequality, conflict, climate change and economic challenges, Pike ended her presentation on a positive note, with the reassurance that malnutrition, though deadly and widespread, is not too difficult to treat. Over 90 per cent of severely malnourished children recover rapidly when given therapeutic foods, which are relatively inexpensive.
Hunger crisis: solutions in Somalia and Sudan
The webinar panel also included Europe Maalim, the head of programs at Trócaire Somalia, and Mary Wamuyu, the country director of Trócaire Sudan, who were in Canada to make presentations at the Canadian Conference for Global Health. They spoke about the nutrition, maternal health and livelihood support programs that DPCC and Canadian Foodgrains Bank are supporting in their countries.
Maalim explained how in Somalia, where 1.8 million children under 5 are acutely malnourished, our organizations’ support is making a concrete difference.
Our investment of nearly $11 million in the country since 2017 has enabled Trócaire to treat thousands of malnourished children; feed and inform their caregivers; help people augment their incomes; and boost food production by rehabilitating canals and soils, providing agricultural training and support, and improving seed storage and marketing. By now, Trócaire has achieved a cure rate of 98 per cent and reduced death rates among those they treat to below 1 per cent. Over the years, they have served 156,244 people at 28 centres in four districts of Somalia.
In Sudan, 2.5 years of conflict have left 12.8 million people displaced, 30.4 million people needing aid and 3.2 million children with acute malnutrition, Wamuyu reported. The day after she spoke, the rebel Rapid Support Forces captured the city of El Fasher. Since then, reports of intensified atrocities have sown fear that the situation will worsen considerably.
Wamuyu said that our support has allowed Trócaire to provide a comprehensive battery of solutions and supports to thousands of displaced and vulnerable people in Sudan’s Blue Nile and South Kordofan states. These include integrated health, immunization and nutrition services; projects designed to increase household incomes and food security; water, hygiene and sanitation services; and emergency aid.
In 2024 alone, Trócaire treated 4,612 children and 2,531 pregnant or lactating women for acute malnutrition and administered vitamin A supplements to 4,191 children in Sudan.
Canada’s contributions count and must be kept up
Both panellists concurred on the importance of Canadian aid.
“It is not an abstract thing,” Maalim said. “It is visible, tangible and lifesaving!” Appreciating that “when other donors step back, Canada stands firm,” she characterized the support Trócaire Somalia has receives from donors in this country as “a lifeline for the most vulnerable” and a symbol of “global solidarity.”
Echoing her sentiments, Wamuyu said, “Canadian aid is more than a donation—it is a demonstration of deep solidarity and compassion with people in Sudan.” To our donors, she said, “Your support has made a real difference in saving lives and protecting people’s dignity in the face of conflict, displacement and hunger.”
In addition to making these points during the webinar, Maalim and Wamuyu reiterated them during gatherings with our members in Halifax and Ottawa.
As essential and appreciated as the generosity of the thousands of individual Canadians who give to DPCC and Canadian Foodgrains Bank is, it cannot absolve the Canadian state of its responsibilities on the global stage. That is why Maalim and Wamuyu also took the time to explain the impact of official Canadian aid to the Senate and to representatives of Global Affairs Canada.
In a similar vein, Cooperation Canada, a civil society coalition that includes DPCC, frames aid outlays as not charity but a strategic investment and reminds the Government of Canada of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s campaign commitment to not cut foreign aid.
For that promise to be kept, Canada must, accounting for inflation, allocate no less than $10.6 billion to official development assistance in 2025-2026, as Cooperation Canada recommended in its submission to pre-budget consultations. With the budget about to be tabled on November 4, 2025, civil society groups are urging Canadians to sign a petition urging the prime minister and the finance minister to refrain from cutting foreign aid.