Take a hunger quiz and make a free (to you) contribution to help hungry people

The soaring price of food in 2007-08 has dramatically increased hunger throughout the world. Roshni is an Indian child who lives in Madhya Pradesh state. Roshni weighs 6.3 lbs.-- her weight should be more like 10 lbs. About 60 percent of children in Madhya Pradesh state are malnourished. Photo: BBC	You Can!... take a hunger quiz and make a free contribution to help hungry people

This part of the Hunger Notes website enables you to learn make a free (to you) contribution to assist hungry people. We are inaugurating a hunger quiz to enable you to learn more about hunger by reading essential information on an important aspect of world hunger and answering several questions. When you answer this quiz, Hunger Notes will make a donation to assist people in crisis--see below for donation specifics.

What does hunger mean? What are various key definitions of hunger and how are they related

The questions below are based on this information, taken from World Hunger Facts.

World hunger refers to the second definition, aggregated to the world level. The related technical term (in this case operationalized in medicine) is malnutrition.¹

Malnutrition is a general term that indicates a lack of some or all nutritional elements necessary for human health (Medline Plus Medical Encyclopedia).

There are two basic types of malnutrition. The first and most important is protein-energy malnutrition--the lack of enough protein (from meat and other sources) and food that provides energy (measured in calories) which all of the basic food groups provide. This is the type of malnutrition that is referred to when world hunger is discussed. The second type of malnutrition, also very important, is micronutrient (vitamin and mineral) deficiency. This is not the type of malnutrition that is referred to when world hunger is discussed, though it is certainly very important.

[Recently there has also been a move to include obesity as a third form of malnutrition. Considering obesity as malnutrition expands the previous usual meaning of the term which referred to poor nutrition due to lack of food inputs.² It is poor nutrition, but it is certainly not typically due to a lack of calories, but rather too many (although poor food choices, often due to poverty, are part of the problem). Obesity will not be considered here, although obesity is certainly a health problem and is increasingly considered as a type of malnutrition.]

Protein-energy malnutrition (PEM) is the most lethal form of malnutrition/hunger. It is basically a lack of calories and protein. Food is converted into energy by humans, and the energy contained in food is measured by calories. Protein is necessary for key body functions including provision of essential amino acids and development and maintenance of muscles.

No one really knows how many people are malnourished. The statistic most frequently cited is that of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, which measures 'undernutrition'. The most recent estimate, released on October 14, 2009 by FAO, says that 1.02 billion people are undernourished, a sizable increase from its 2006 estimate of 854 million people. One billion people represent 14.3 percent or 1/7th of the estimated world population of 7 billion people. The increase has been due to three factors: 1) neglect of agriculture relevant to very poor people by governments and international agencies; 2) the current worldwide economic crisis, and 3) the significant increase of food prices in the last several years which has been devastating to those with only a few dollars a day to spend. Nearly all of the undernourished are in developing countries.

(The FAO estimate is based on statistical aggregates. It looks at a country's income level and income distribution and uses this information to estimate how many people receive such a low level of income that they are malnourished. It is not an estimate based on seeing to what extent actual people are malnourished and projecting from there (as would be done by survey sampling). [It has been argued that the FAO approach is not sufficient to give accurate estimates of malnutrition (Poverty and Undernutrition p. 298 by Peter Svedberg.] Undernutrition is a relatively new concept, but is increasingly used. It should be taken as basically equivalent to malnutrition. It should be said as an aside, that the idea of undernourishment, its relationship to malnutrition, and the reasons for its emergence as a concept is not clear to Hunger Notes.)

With this click, Hunger Notes will contribute $.05 to the Red Cross Red Cresent Societies and you will go to their website.

Hunger Notes thanks its contributors who have made this possible including Fridhem Lutheran Church of Funk, Nebraska, the St. Paul Lutheran Church of Palmer, Kansas, the Prarie Valley Parish Of Palmer, Kansas, the Faith Baptist Church of Starkville, Mississippi, the fifth grade students of Harbor Heights School of Gig Harbor, Washington, a group of 7th graders in Room 213 of Josephine Carson Locke Elementary School in Chicago, Illinois, and online donors including Eric Decker, Delary Laqua, Reid Harris III and Alvin Wilkens for their recent contributions to support our hunger quiz.

Donations to support our hunger quiz gratefully accepted. All donations will be used 100 percent to support hungry people.

Donate by check. Please sent your check to
World Hunger Education Service
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