Easy Ways to Fight Food Insecurity with an iPhone

If you have a smartphone, fighting food insecurity is just a click away. Read on to learn how innovative solutions to hunger are improving the world through technology.

Food Genius launches dish rating site to support charity

Food Genius, a Chicago based food data analytics company, recently announced the launch of FoodGenero.us, a restaurant dish ratings site. Food Genius will donate money to Feeding America based on the number of votes submitted on Food Genero.us each month.

CEO Justin Massa says “Food Genero.us allows users to learn more about their tastes and how restaurants describe dishes, while at the same time helping feed a hungry family.”

Hunger Fighting App in Arizona

Every night across the country, millions of Americans go to bed hungry while local restaurants, hotels, and catering companies throw away uneaten food. The solution? Flash Food, a student-designed, social-media powered app that fights hunger and reduces food waste.

Flash Food was created by six Arizona State University students. Here's how it works: Volunteers can respond to the notifications from participating "donors" and come pick it up the food. People who have registered with Flash Food and indicated that they need a meal then receive notification that there's food available.

The program is still in its pilot stage, but has strong potential to serve the Phoenix community. Eric Lehnhardt, one of its founders, says food providers have plenty of incentive to participate in the program.

"No one wants to see food go to waste, especially when you know there are people in your community who would love to be able to receive that food."

Feeding the Future

People in the world have access to mobile phones in greater supply than running water and toilets. This technology has the power to transform families living in the developing world, particularly farmers, whose lives can change from day to day depending on soil conditions, crop yields, and drought.

Farmers in Africa are now using cell phones for banking and insurance services, which is transforming how they interact with money. Check out the Fast Company video highlighting more about this program.

Hunger in the Spotlight at 2012 London Olympics

Families are starving. Children are living in caves and eating leaves. Drought is creating impossible conditions for farmers. Tomorrow, on August 12, 2012, world leaders are meeting in London for a summit on undernutrition led by British Prime Minister David Cameron. As they meet, millions people face a future of hunger throughout the world.

A World Away

Sometimes it's easy to go about our daily lives without our thoughts ever leaving U.S. borders. It's a product of our lifestyle, in a way. We're focused on other (albeit important) things, that it leaves little time to address the latest humanitarian crisis, but the world is starving.

This year, the United Nations estimates that 18 million people face hunger in Mali, Niger, Senegal, and six other West African nations. (By contrast, roughly 3 million people were affected by the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.) Even in the U.S., a summer drought may cause food prices to rise during the second half of this year.

Humanitarian Response Needed

Aid workers say slow-brewing crises like droughts rarely generate the level of news coverage and donations that earthquakes or tsunamis do, even when the number of people who need help is higher.

To fight hunger, aid agencies depend on donations from governments and the public in order to carry out its programs. Ertharin Cousin, the director of the UN World Food Programme, says:

"The Global Hunger Event comes at a time when the eyes of the world are focused on the pinnacle of human physical achievement at the London Olympics. For far too many children, a lack of food and nutrition means that, sadly, they will never have a chance to compete in life."

Get Involved

The following organizations support hunger relief throughout the world, and are focused on supporting the Sahel region of Africa.

• Action Against Hunger

• CARE

• Oxfam International

• United Nations World Food Programme

• To support the crisis with your social capital, join the petition at www.sahel2012.org.

President Obama and the Moral Imperative of Hunger

Last Friday, on May 18, 2012, President Obama addressed the Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security. Here's a brief quote from his speech:

“As President, I consider this a moral imperative. As the wealthiest nation on earth, I believe the United States has a moral obligation to lead the fight against hunger and malnutrition—and to partner with others. So we take pride in the fact that—because of smart investments in nutrition, agriculture and safety nets—millions of people in Kenya and Ethiopia did not need emergency aid in the recent drought. Still, when tens of thousands of children die from the agony of starvation, as in Somalia, that’s unacceptable. It’s an outrage.”

Our government's New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition is a "shared commitment to achieve sustained and inclusive agricultural growth and raise 50 million people out of poverty over the next 10 years by aligning the commitments of Africa’s leadership to drive effective country plans and policies for food security; the commitments of private sector partners to increase investments where the conditions are right; and the commitments of the G-8 to expand Africa’s potential for rapid and sustainable agricultural growth."

Leaders have committed to making food security a priority in their individual countries, and plan to work toward raising 50 million people out of poverty over the next 10 years.

Hunger Hits Home: Recap

Sometimes it's easy to think of hunger as a global problem. The hunger crisis affects places like the Horn of Africa, not our own neighbors, but in fact, the opposite is true.

The other day I was walking my dog and saw a group of elementary school children walking home. I couldn't help but wonder which of them would go to bed hungry, because 1 in 5 children in America do. We have plenty of food, but it's not accessible to everyone. On April 14th, the Food Network documentary Hunger Hits Home, followed three families trying to make ends meet.

Here are a few of the takeaways from the April 14th premiere:

• "Hunger is a political condition. We have the food. We have the programs. We have everything but the political will to end it. We're the United States of America, the richest country on the planet and not a single community is hunger free. We should be ashamed." -Rep Jim McGovern, MA (D)
• Childhood hunger exists in every community in America, and more than 16 million children struggle with hunger. That's more than the populations of New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Philadelphia combined.
• "It's important to see ending childhood hunger as a national security issue, education and economic competitiveness issue. There's a lot at stake for our country." -Bill Shore, President, Share Our Strength
• For one family living in New York, it's a 45 minute subway ride to find healthy food. Across New York City, many families find themselves in the same trap.
• 11 million children aren't eating breakfast who qualify for these meals. The good news is that change makers are in our communities right now. The principal at one school championed a Breakfast in the Classroom program, ensuring that children who qualify for free meals are accessing them every morning in the classroom. The school has seen positive changes in the children who eat breakfast, noting improved academic performance and reduced instances of visiting the nurse.