Author: Steve Hansch

WHES Co-sponsors Roundtable About Aid Toolbox

On June 19, 2025, a roundtable of two dozen experts about how international aid is designed and given will be held, co-organized by the World Hunger Education Service (WHES), the USAID Alumni Association, the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, and George Washington University.

In order to advise and inform the future of U.S. foreign aid as well as for other international donors, the roundtable will compare the range of tools used to give aid, from grants and contracts to loans and investments, from incentives and prizes to insurance and direct technical assistance.   Also discussed will be the use of competition to make awards to NGOs or commercial organizations, the design of awards to achieve scale and sustainability, and the roles of evolving tools such as blended finance and payment-for-performance.

Participants will include former U.S. government experts plus aid managers from European governments, the World Bank, U.S. foundations and NGOs.

A summary of findings will be made public afterwards.

This is part of a series of roundtables that WHES has been involved in organizing this year, and educational seminars for senior US policy makers in the 1980s and 1990s.  Prior roundtables included expert discussions about food/nutrition, basic education, the role of faith-based organizations, health and what average Americans care about in aid.

Questions can be directed to:  WorldHungerEd@gmail.com

World Expo in Osaka Japan Targets Zero Hunger

An exhibit focusing on world hunger has been on display for the past two weeks, ending today, June 15, 2025, at the World Expo in Japan.  World Expo 2025 Osaka Kansai is currently taking place in Japan under the theme “Designing Future Society for Our Lives”.

The exhibition promotes agrifood systems, improved nutrition, school meals and food aid., and is co-sponsored by three United Nations agencies:  the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the World Food Programme (WFP).

Visitors learn how innovation, investment, and collaboration can transform agrifood systems from farm to table via examples.  The IFAD representative in Japan explained:  “Hunger often remains a silent, invisible crisis. It rarely makes the headlines unless it becomes famine. Yet it continues to devastate lives every day, even though the world produces enough food for everyone. We can solve global hunger with the right investments, especially in small-scale food producers in developing countries, many of whom paradoxically suffer from hunger,.”  see:  https://www.ifad.org/en/w/news/the-fight-against-global-hunger-takes-center-stage-at-expo-2025-osaka

World Expos are held every five years.  The last three since 2010 have been in Dhubai, Shangai and Milan.  World Expos, officially known as International Registered Exhibitions, are a global gathering of nations dedicated to finding solutions to pressing challenges.  Each welcomes tens of millions of visitors, allow countries to build extraordinary pavilions and transform the host city for years to come.

 

Hunger Notes Co-sponsors Basic Education Roundtable

World Hunger Education Service (WHES) is co-hosting a roundtable of experts on June 12, 2025, a Thursday, to discuss American experiences and capabilities for supporting basic education overseas, including recommendations for how U.S. official foreign aid could re-incorporate early grade education, literacy, numeracy and inclusion again.

In 2025, aid to basic education through USAID and the Department of State’s Bureau for Population, Refugees and Migration were almost entirely terminated by the Administration, despite Congressional appropriations for education.

WHES joins with other groups including the nonprofit networks such as the Basic Education Coalition, the Global Campaign for Education/U.S., the University of Massachusetts Amherst  Center for International Education, and George Washington University in holding this June 12 roundtable online.

It includes experts from American NGOs working around the world, research institutes, associations, foundations, commervial providers, UNHCR, USAID, and other organizations.  It will discuss what unique or distinctive comparative advantages does the U.S. have in technical, financial or other assistance to basic education in lower-income countries?  It will cover how NGOs have been assisting curricula, IT technology solutions, teachers, administrators, PTAs, textbooks, and education management systems.

It will also look at lessons from past U.S. support via the McGovern-Dole program which provides school feeding to encourage attendance by girls in primary schools in dozens of countries (which were also cancelled in 2025 by the government).

Part of the discussion will look at inclusion of children with disabilities, and education in emergencies and conflicts, which had been a priority for both USAID and the Department of State, until this year.

This is one of a series of comparable roundtable meetings of experts, including discussions about food/nutrition, health/migration, environmental conservation, global health, technology, the roles of faith-based organizations, and the roles of Universities.

Questions and interest can be directed to ForeignAidRoundtable@gmail.com, and/or WorldhungerEd@gmail.com

 

Status of McGovern-Dole School Feeding Unclear

In May 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) cancelled most of its existing foreign assistance programs, including those involving overseas school feedings.  These projects are referred to as “McGovern-Dole” that were projected for the future.

The overall program, named after former senators George McGovern and Bob Dole, has provided life-saving meals in a school setting to over 31 million of the world’s most vulnerable children and has been one of America’s signature child nutrition and food security programs.  In 2022, the program fed nutritious school meals to more than 2.7 million food-insecure children during the school year, while training teachers and rehabilitating schools, in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

All of these school feeding projects were implemented by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and/or the World Food Programme.  The recent, May 2025 cancellations occured abruptly, as NGOs were preparing to design and compete for new awards in more countries.  No rationale from the U.S. Administration was given, despite Congressional questions to USDA.  The Trump Administration has further deleted the program from its FY2026 budget request.  Currently, American NGOs, such as World Vision, Save the Children, Project Concern and Counterpart International are challenged by the loss sudden and unexpected loss of support.

Catholic Relief Services (CRS), one such NGO, announced how these terminations leave school-age children in the lurch:  “Beginning in July, more than 780,000 children across 11 countries will be left without their school meal, as 11 out of CRS’ 13 projects have been terminated—deepening the crises of hunger, malnutrition and poverty that already threaten their ability to learn, grow and thrive. …. In 2024, evaluations of our work highlighted increased literacy rates, economic growth and reduced absences due to hunger and illness. … A recent study in Guatemala and Honduras revealed that 76% of respondents cited three major benefits of USDA’s McGovern Dole School Feeding program that reduce migration: increased access to education, improved agricultural production and a stronger local economy.”

Civileats reports that “the canceled grants will mean less demand for U.S. farmer commodities, even as other trade policies are pinching growers.  And it will contribute to shrinking the United States’ soft-power influence around the world.”

McGovern-Dole school feeding programs have been seen as a way to encourage young girls to attend schools in settings where many girls find it difficult.

Evaluations of school feeding programs are common, such as by WFP, USDA, and NGOs.  A meta-analysis commissioned by the U.S. government in 2020 found that the effect of take-home rations on school participation is positive for all school children and is the same for girls as for boys, while the effect of in-school meals on school attendance is larger for girls than for boys.

Globally, an estimated 350-400 million children receive school feeding each year.  In years past, reviews by the World Bank and the respected International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) recognized the benefits of school feeding in terms of nutrition, educational gains, women’s empowerment, and long-term development.  In 2009, the World Bank published Rethinking School Feeding: Social Safety Nets, Child Development, and the Education Sector, cast school feeding as part of safety nets and as long-term investments.  In 2021, the World Bank and WFP launched an initiative that evaluated the efficacy of school feeding programs via experimental impact evaluations in countries like Burundi, Guatemala, Jordan, Malawi, and The Gambia.  Results from 2024 found that school meals, benefited an estimated 418 million children globally, enhanced educational outcomes (e.g., enrollment and retention) and acted as social safety nets during shocks.

Senators Bob Dole (Republican) and George McGovern (Democrat), who sponsored the enabling legislation for this school feeding aid, were both nominees of their respective parties for U.S. President, and both served in Europe during World War II.  Senator McGovern flew 35 precarious missions as a pilot during 1944-1945 from Italy over Germany and after the war flew food aid for the recovery of Europe.

Senator Dole championed humanitarian causes abroad.  He played a key role in mobilizing Senate support for Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1996, pressuring the Clinton administration and NATO to address the Bosnian War.  Senator McGovern served as the first Director of the U.S. Food for Peace Program before becoming a Senator.  During that time, he worked with the White House to create the U.N. World Food Programme, which was approved by the U.N. General Assembly in 1961 and launched in 1963.

Update: However, on May 12, 2025 USDA announced a call for Fiscal Year 2025 applications for McGovern Dole programming.  The priority countries listed are: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Honduras, Mozambique, Pakistan, Senegal, and Sierra Leone.

– S. Hansch, WHES Board

 

This article was updated and corrected on Nov 11, 2025 to note the status of this program remains unclear and that a new funding opportunity was announced. This is a developing issue.

 

Famine Early Warning System Restarted

Correction & Update:  Hunger Notes reported on March 19 about the cancellation of the important, 40-year-old Famine Early Warning System program, created and funded by USAID.  While true at the time, FEWS NET has been re-established. You can access it here.

The May 2025 prediction report is available here and  reports that “Conflict remains the most severe and widespread driver, particularly in settings with protracted violence or rising geopolitical tensions in East Africa, the Middle East, the Sahel, Central Africa, and Haiti. The  intersection of insecurity, inflation, and limited humanitarian access presents critical concerns across the most affected regions…the residual effects of prior droughts and floods are expected to contribute to food insecurity in parts of southern Africa, eastern Africa, and Afghanistan. Additionally, available weather forecasts suggest rainfall patterns in Sudan, South Sudan, and West Africa may mirror those of 2024, bringing flooding to riverine, wetland, and low-lying areas and dry conditions in the Gulf of Guinea. If this materializes, the resultant loss of cereal crops, cash crops, and livestock will be most acute in areas already impacted by concurrent conflict and economic shocks.”

 

– S Hansch, WHES

World Hunger Day

May 28 is World Hunger Day, a global initiative to raise awareness about global hunger and inspire action to address food insecurity and malnutrition.  World Hunger Day has been celebrating sustainable solutions to hunger and poverty since 2011, and this year targets the importance of “sowing resilience.”  See:  https://www.worldhungerday.org/

Hunger kills more than AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined, with 9 million deaths annually linked to malnutrition. Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are the hardest hit, with countries like Somalia, Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Sudan, and Yemen facing severe crises.

Initiated in 2011 by The Hunger Project, a nonprofit focused on ending hunger through community empowerment, World Hunger Day has grown into a global movement. In 2024, it reached an estimated 48 million people with its message.  The theme of “Sowing Resilience” for 2025 includes messaging about how every local food bank, community market, and volunteer effort is a sign of progress in a long and challenging journey.

In 2025, The Hunger Project hosted a dialogue featuring Rowlands Kaotcha (President and CEO of The Hunger Project) and Amath Pathe Sene (Managing Director Africa for The Africa Food Systems Forum) to discuss building resilience against hunger.

see:  https://www.awarenessdays.com/awareness-days-calendar/world-hunger-day-2025/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Multiple international aid agencies are leveraging World Hunger Day to highlight the urgency of the global hunger crisis through coordinated awareness campaigns. Organizations are utilizing social media platforms, educational workshops, and community engagement activities to reach diverse audiences and promote understanding of hunger’s root causes.  Feed My Starving Children (FMSC) is commemorating World Hunger Day by highlighting their Project Based Food Assistance (PBFA) initiatives, which represent a comprehensive approach to addressing hunger through both immediate relief and long-term development. The organization’s work in Nakwanya, Uganda, illustrates how aid agencies are moving beyond simple food distribution to support community self-reliance through collaborative initiatives that include maintaining beehives and growing crops like maize and beans that thrive in local climates.

Save the Children is using World Hunger Day to highlight the critical situation facing children globally, emphasizing that 153 million children around the world are facing food insecurity.  The organization’s emphasis on the “triple threat of conflict, climate change and economic cost” reflects how aid agencies are framing hunger as a multifaceted crisis requiring comprehensive solutions.  Mary’s Meals is commemorating World Hunger Day by highlighting their school feeding programs that reach over 2.6 million children daily with food and access to education. The organization’s approach demonstrates how aid agencies are using the day to showcase innovative solutions that address multiple challenges simultaneously. Their model recognizes that hunger affects educational outcomes and that school feeding programs can serve as entry points for broader community development initiatives.

The use of hashtags like #WorldHungerDay, #EndHunger, #ZeroHunger, and #SowingResilience demonstrates how agencies are creating unified messaging that amplifies individual organizational efforts.

In Geneva the U.N. World Health Assembly’s of WHO approving two nutrition-related resolutions.  One expanded provisions of the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes, which counteracts dangerous messaging to new parents about breastmilk powder which increases infant deaths, undermining breast feeding.

The second was the WHO Extension of the Comprehensive Implementation Plan on Maternal, Infant, and Young Child Nutrition: This resolution extended the implementation plan to the year 2030, to address malnutrition in mothers and young children.  It encourages  momentum to address persistent malnutrition, such as the 149 million children under five who were stunted and 45 million who were wasted globally as of 2022, along with addressing disorders such as anemia, overweight, and obesity in women.

2nd Annual International Food Aid Showcase, June 10 in Washington, D.C.

George Washington University (GW), in Washington, D.C. will host a gathering of NGO and food experts on June 10, 2025, to share lessons about overseas food aid and look ahead.  It is co-sponsored by Counterpart International (an international NGO), the Alliance to End Hunger, and GW’s Global Food Institute.   It will be held at the Milken Institute School of Public Health in Northwest D.C.

The day will include representatives from commodity associations, researchers in nutrition innovations and a gallery walk of tables and presentations.  This year’s showcase will convene a diverse group of stakeholders to exchange knowledge, spark collaboration, and explore the future of global food assistance.  The event comes at a time when American food assistance is undergoing turbulent change, with most food projects through NGOs and WFP cancelled.

Online access to this event will be available.

For more information see Counterpart International’s site:  https://www.counterpart.org/events/

To register, see:  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScRsZuFRNu0dm2o7ES1kxyQfw9QJXcFgJ0qGAvEQyh5M_eVMA/viewform

Wall of Fallen American USAID Staff

Until early 2025, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) showcased a memorial wall in the lobby of its Washington, D.C. headquarters, in the Ronald Reagan Building.  The Trump Administration had it torn down and removed on April 30, 2025 in the process of removing USAID both from the building and from the government.

Depicted here is an image of that wall.  Below are the names of the fallen American staff while serving abroad providing aid to poorer countries, employed by the U.S. government, USAID.  This list includes staff from the beginning of the Four Points Program, the Truman era precursor of economic and technical aid to developing countries, in 1950 to USAID in 1963 to the end of the Agency in 2025.  These 99 persons listed died while in service to their country in humanitarian assistance and international development.  Peter Morris (former WHES Board Chair writes “I personally knew Tresja Denysenko, who worked with the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) and died while on a DART team in Haiti.”  (This link to Linkedin is Tresja).

  • Ragei Said Abdelfattah
  • Frederick J Abramson
  • Bijnan Acharya
  • Debebe Agonafer
  • Richard Aitken
  • Margaret Alexander
  • Marilyn Allan
  • Rodrigo Santa Anna
  • Bruce Bailey
  • Rolando Barahona
  • Thomas Blaka
  • Robert W. Brown
  • David Bush
  • Anita Huovar Carroll
  • Kevin Carroll
  • Frederick Cheydleur
  • Normal Clowers
  • John Cone
  • Lino De La Cruz
  • Dresja Denysenko
  • Susan Doria
  • Chandler Edwards
  • Walter Stanley Eltringham
  • Stephen Scott Everhart
  • Frank Fairchild Jr.
  • Albert Farkas
  • Richard Fineley
  • Laurence Foley
  • Robert Franzblau
  • Donald Freeman
  • George Gates
  • Gladys Gilbert
  • DAvid Gitelson
  • Thomas Gompertz
  • Dale Gredler
  • Joseph W. Grainger
  • John Granville
  • Robert Handy
  • Robert Hebb
  • Charles Hengna
  • Gustav C. Hertz
  • Edward Hines
  • Oscar Holder
  • Robert Hubbard
  • Peter M. Hunting
  • James Hyde
  • Lisa Isidro
  • W.L. Jacobson
  • Sydney Jacques
  • Rudolph Kaiser
  • Donald Kobayashi
  • Kermit Krause
  • Robert LaFollette
  • Chaplain Lako
  • Nancy Lewis
  • Robert Little
  • Hugh Lobit
  • Jeffrey Lundstedt
  • Justin B. Mahoney
  • John McCarthy
  • William McIntyre
  • Luther McLendon
  • Mark Mitchell
  • Dan Mitrione
  • Dominic Morris
  • Dennis Mummert
  • Michael Murphy
  • John Nuhn
  • Thomas Olmsted
  • Dwight H. Owen, Jr.
  • Dolph Owens
  • John L. Oyer
  • Donald J. Pareteau
  • Carroll H. Pender Sr.
  • Ed Planta
  • Thomas Raggsdale
  • Abdelrahman Abas Rahama
  • Everette Dixie Reese
  • Jerry Rose
  • Francis Savage
  • Richard A. Schenk
  • Harold Sealock
  • Garnett Simmerly
  • D.M. Sjostrom
  • Joseph Smith
  • William D. Smith
  • William Stanford
  • Arthur Stillman
  • Eugene Sullivan
  • Clyde Summers
  • Ralph Brownlee Swain
  • Baudoin Tally
  • Antoinette Beaumont Tomasek
  • Andrew Tombe
  • John Paul Vann
  • Albert Votaw
  • James Wallwork
  • Jack Wells
  • Roberta Worrick
  • Thomas Worrick

Note:  this listing and wall does not begin to include the larger number of American NGO workers or contractors who died while serving overseas.

The memorial wall was moved to a temporary display — seen at right, at the U.S. Department of State.  No information has been provided about where it will end up.

 Contributed by S Hansch and P Morris of the World Hunger Education Service

Roundtable on June 5 about American Foreign Assistance and Faith-Based Organizations

World Hunger Education Service (the nonprofit overseeing this Hunger Notes site), joins with Fordham University, HIAS, Lipscomb University, and George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health in organizing and convening a virtual (online) roundtable of experts on June 5, 2025, a Thursday,  to discuss how American faith-based organizations may be able to lead in the delivery of foreign aid against poverty, assisting development and providing humanitarian relief.

This will be a roundtable conversation with no panels or presentations, and is open to all faiths.

Invited organizations include operational NGOs, universities, research groups and other faith-based organizations in the United States.

Among the questions the roundtable will discuss are:

  •          How well do faith-based organizations blend donations from different sources (citizens, private sector corporations and foundations) to solve problems and relieve crises? Are they more localized, sustainable and cost-efficient in their assistance?
  •         In which sectors are faith-based organizations best at addressing, comparing for instance hunger, primary health care, basic education, food security, trade, industrialization, governance, marine conservation, or higher education?
  •         Looking ahead to future years, what expanded role should faith-based organizations play in executing new programs funded by the United Statessponsoring organizatons Government?

The roundtable will adhere to “Chatham House” rules in that no quote or perspective will later be attributed to any person or organization, whether in the meeting summary or by anyone attending.  Participants are asked to leave their organizational affiliations “at the door” and speak candidly, as experts, about the issues from their experiences over their careers.

This is one in a series of roundtable about the future of American foreign aid.

Interested faith-based organizations may email to:  WorldhungerEd@gmail.com, or ForeignAidRoundtable@gmail.com

Book Review: Hot, Hungry Planet

Lisa Palmer’s book, Hot, Hungry Planet, The Fight to Stop a Global Food Crisis in the Face of Climate Change, presents seven case studies of individuals working in different continents in the race against hunger, noting that “with a growing population, the demand for rice and other cereals is expected to rise by 14 percent every decade.”

A journalist, and affiliate of George Washington University’s Global Food Institute, Palmer explores how farmers are adopting new technologies and land management strategies to increase productivity while minimizing environmental harm such as “climate-smart villages,” where farmers apply solar-powered irrigation systems to manage and conserve water, reduce carbon emissions, and sell excess energy back to the local electrical grid.  Regenerative agriculture methods such as no-till farming and cover cropping can help capture and sequester carbon out of the  air.

Her case studies are drawn from farms in India, Uganda, Kenya, the U.S. Colombia, Syria and Indonesia.  She writes, “We are on the cusp of a global food crisis… How is the global food system meeting the demands of people right now?  Of the more than 7 billion people in the world, about 1 in 6 go to bed hungry every night.  This is not because we don’t have enough food.”  She points to the growing paradox:  “once people have sufficient funds to afford food, they almost immediately want better food, which puts greater strain on the food system.”   As a result, she observes, “the rapid rise of the global middle class is driving half the increase in the world’s predicted food consumption  To prevent more hunger, farmers would have to more than double their production by 2050.”

She extolls drought-tolerant maize and heat-resistant crop varieties.  She argues for plant-based proteins instead of livestock, which demands more inputs.

She points to advances in precision agriculture, using satellite remote sensing and drones for crop monitoring and soil sensors.  For growing urban populations, she points to vertical farms (indoor, high-tech farms using LED lighting and hydroponics) which can locate food production nearer to cities, reducing transportation costs and emissions.  She further gives examples of how integrating trees into agricultural landscapes (including “forest gardens”) can enhance biodiversity, improve soil health, and promote ecosystem services.

See:  https://smpa.gwu.edu/anneliese-lisa-palmer