About 30 “garden angels” gathered for breakfast to start planning this year’s growing season for the Fort Wayne Urban Farm’s Hunger Relief Project. “Garden angels” are what organizer Ephraim Smiley calls the helpers at the farm’s 17 acres of fresh produce plots at Fellowship Missionary Church in Fort Wayne, Indiana – people who, depending on their skills and interests, do everything from run a tractor or fix a cultivator to plant, weed, harvest and deliver free vegetables to people in need.
Author: Sarah Polaski
Indonesia is hungry for a better food policy
Despite years of reasonable economic growth, 19.4 million Indonesians are still unable to meet their daily dietary needs. Rainer Heufers, Executive Director of the Center for Indonesian Policy Studies (CIPS) and Arianto A Patunru, a Fellow in the Arndt-Corden Department of Economics and the Indonesia Project in the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University, argue that Indonesia must improve their domestic policies in order to achieve food security.
Afterschool suppers are a game-changer for reducing childhood hunger
Nearly 1.1 million low-income children benefited from federally-supported afterschool suppers in October 2016. For many low-income children, the suppers offered at afterschool programs through the federal Child and Adult Care Food Program help stave off hunger until they eat a school breakfast the next day.
Project improves food security in six African nations
Launched in 2012, the project funded by the government of Finland and called FoodAfrica Programme has helped improve the security and quality of food supply in Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal and Uganda. Program leaders said that the initiative that ends in June this year is centered on sustainable food production, food safety and nutrition, market access and agricultural extension.
SNAP Decisions: UConn Study Counters Food Stamp Misconceptions
A study by a researcher at the University of Connecticut’s Zwick Center for Food and Resource Policy has found that, contrary to widely held beliefs, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, does not encourage poor eating habits but actually causes a tangible decrease in the proportion of food expenditures spent on eating out.
Food distribution in drought-stricken areas improves nutrition in Kenya
Nutrition in drought-hit counties of Kenya has improved due to the availability of food supplies, a report shows. The improvement has mainly been attributed to improved food access indicators, including milk availability in arid counties and key emergency response interventions such as the Blanket Supplementary Feeding Programme.
By last month, the number of acutely malnourished children was 399,820 compared to 420,674 in July last year.
Fake processed food is becoming an epidemic in African urban life
An explosion of fake and counterfeit products in Africa are staples consumed to fulfill daily dietary needs and are likely contributing to the rising levels of malnutrition and cancer on the continent.
Malnutrition Not Just a Poor Country Problem
New research underscores the fact that malnutrition, while rampant in middle-income countries, is often ignored by donors, leaving those countries to bear the burden of nutrition programs.
Taking a space-age approach to food security
Satellite technology can play a key part in meeting the world’s ever-growing need for food, through the rise of high-resolution imagery. The World Bank and many NGOs are using satellite imagery to tailor programs for smallholder farmers.
Gender gaps: Bane of Africa’s agricultural R&D
Africa’s agricultural production is negatively affected by gaps in gender-responsive agricultural research, experts say.
The gaps include fewer agricultural female researchers than male counterparts. Gender-responsive research addresses the distinct needs and priorities of men and women.
According to the experts increased production and dissemination of gender-responsive research and innovations in agriculture could be a significant game-changer for Africa in realising food and nutrition security sustainably.
