Open your fridge and you might find milk that’s gone bad, moldy fruit and leftovers you meant to eat “tomorrow.” It feels small, but it’s part of a massive global problem. Roughly one-third of food produced for people is lost or wasted-about 1.3 billion tons a year — even as millions of families struggle to afford enough to eat. When food is tossed, we also waste the land, water, energy and labor that went into growing, storing and transporting it. The climate cost adds up fast. In fact, the emissions tied to food loss and waste are so large that if it were a country, it would rank among the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters.

This article breaks down how and why food waste happens — from supply-chain “food loss” to the food we throw away at home — and why it makes global hunger worse by draining resources that could help feed people in crisis. We’ll also share simple, practical ways to reduce food waste at home, starting with smarter shopping, safer storage and a few fridge habits that keep food fresher longer. Along the way, you’ll see how cutting waste supports a bigger goal: building a food system that’s more affordable, more resilient and better for the planet.

How Much Food Do We Waste Every Year?

Globally, one trillion dollars’ worth of food goes to waste every year. That’s one-third of all food produced for human consumption ( 1.3 billion tons of it). Before we get into how all that food waste affects hunger, here are a few key facts to keep in mind:

1. Food loss is when food gets damaged as it moves through the supply chain (think rotting bananas and spilled milk). Food waste is when edible or surplus food is thrown away by retailers or consumers (like when restaurants order too much food and throw out the extras).
2. If wasted food were a country, it would be the third-largest producer of carbon dioxide in the world after the United States and China.
3. Rich countries waste as much food as sub-Saharan Africa produces. According to the U.N. Environment Programme, industrialized countries in North America, Europe and Asia collectively waste 222 million tons of food each year. Meanwhile, countries in sub-Saharan Africa produce 230 million tons of food each year.
4. Finally, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says that if we stopped wasting all that food, we’d save enough to feed 2 billion people . That’s more than twice the number of undernourished people across the globe.

Check out more facts about food waste.

How and Why Does Food Get Wasted?

In industrialized countries like the United States, 31 percent of food waste happens at retail and consumer levels. Think about all the food we toss out at home, what we leave on our plates at restaurants, and what ends up in grocery store trash bins. At an agricultural level, our food system produces imperfect or “ugly” foods that get trashed for no good reason.

There’s also a big difference between how food is wasted or lost in countries around the world. In developing countries, most food loss happens during or after harvest time. Farmers face problems like

• poor storage
• outdated technology
• not enough manpower
• transportation challenges getting crops to markets

Together, these problems mean that too many small-scale farmers are forced to watch their crops — and livelihoods — rot.

Why Is Food Waste Such a Big Problem?

We’re locked in a terrible cycle when it comes to food waste, climate change and hunger.

Wasted food requires energy, land, water and labor to produce, store, harvest, transport, package and sell. When we toss out food, we’re throwing away precious resources that could have been used to feed hungry people. And all that rotting food produces three billion tons of greenhouse gases like methane, directly contributing to climate change.

Read more about food waste, climate change and hunger.

How Reducing Food Waste Can Help End World Hunger

If we stopped wasting food, we could cut global emissions by 8 percent, free up valuable land and resources, and save enough food to feed 2 billion hungry people .

Here are a few ways the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is fighting food waste and loss:

1. Food Storage: Small-scale farmers can lose up to half of their harvest because they don’t have access to modern storage equipment. WFP provides them with silos and air-tight bags to cut their post-harvest losses from 40 to 2 percent.
2. Nonperishables: WFP’s typical food ration includes long-lasting staples like flour, dried beans, salt and cooking oil — all packaged in sturdy containers. These are all long-lasting foods so nothing spoils or gets thrown away.
3. Innovation: From hydroponics to virtual farmers markets, WFP is helping communities find new ways to grow, sell and store food despite challenging environments.
4. Policy: The U.S. Farm Bill authorizes distributing excess American-grown crops like rice, corn, wheat and soybeans to hungry people. It’s just one of the many policies WFP USA works on to end hunger.

Ways to Reduce Food Waste at Home

Food waste in the United States and other high-income countries is one of the easiest problems to solve. Here are few simple ways you can help:

1. Plan your meals and write a shopping list. And check your fridge to see what you’ve already got. This will help you avoid buying unnecessary food.
2. Careful buying in bulk — especially foods with a limited shelf life.
3. Ask if you can buy the “ugly” fruits or veggies that get left behind at grocery stores. There are even companies that will help you get direct access to this kind of produce, and it’s often cheaper.
4. Check the temperature setting of your fridge. Keep the temperature at 40 degrees Fahrenheit or below to keep foods safe. The temperature of your freezer should be zero degrees Fahrenheit.
5. And use your freezer! Freezing is a great way to keep food longer.
6. Make a spot in your fridge for food on its last legs — and have a plan to eat it.
7. If you have more food than you can eat, donate it or hand it off to a neighbor or friend.
8. Remember the food you took to-go and bask in the joy of restaurant leftovers!

As the FAO says, our food systems can’t be resilient if they aren’t sustainable. As we fight food waste at home and around the world, and make our food production systems more efficient, we can free up those resources for the hungry.

Learn more about food waste and global hunger.

Originally published at https://wfpusa.org.

El Niño is a natural climate pattern that can drive heavy rainfall, heat waves, droughts, fires, floods and storms around the world. Conditions have started and are expected to strengthen throughout the year and continue into 2027, potentially becoming one of the strongest on record.

For families already struggling to find enough food, weather shocks from El Niño can quickly lead to extreme hunger. However, because the impacts of El Niño can be forecast months in advance, WFP prepared for these shocks and acted early to protect communities.

What Is El Niño?

El Niño is the warm phase of a naturally occurring climate phenomenon called the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, or ENSO. During El Niño, parts of the Pacific Ocean become warmer than usual. The warmer water can change wind and rain patterns, making drought more likely in some areas and flooding more likely in others — and in some cases bringing both.

El Niño does not affect every country in the same way. Its impact depends on the season, location and local conditions. But in many places, it can make extreme weather more likely — and extreme weather is one of the main drivers of hunger.

How Extreme Weather Drives Hunger

Extreme weather can push families into hunger very quickly. During a drought, crops can die when rain comes late, is too weak or does not come at all. Grasslands and water sources can dry up, leaving animals without enough food or water. For farming and herding families, this means losing both food and income.

Floods and storms can be equally devastating. Floodwaters can wipe out crops, food storage and livestock. Storms can destroy roads and bridges, cutting people off from markets and aid. Families may be displaced from their homes and unable to cook, farm or earn income. In these moments, a weather emergency quickly becomes a hunger emergency.

This El Niño is also unfolding at a time when food systems are already under strain. High energy and fertilizer prices — linked in part to the crisis in the Middle East — are already affecting agricultural production and food prices. In parts of Asia, farmers have delayed or skipped planting rice because of rising costs. Climate shocks caused by El Niño could layer hardship on these communities .

Regions El Niño Could Affect

New WFP analysis projects that this 2026–2027 El Niño could push at least 49 million more people into acute food insecurity by the end of 2027. The largest impacts are expected in parts of southern and eastern Africa, southeast Asia and Central America.

Southern Africa and the Sahel

This El Niño is expected to bring significantly drier conditions to southern Africa. Drought and below-average rainfall during the main growing season could lead to reduced corn production and crop failures. In dry areas, less rain can reduce the amount of pasture and water available for livestock. These conditions could increase hunger in the region and leave families with few ways to recover.

Across all of Africa, countries at highest risk of El Niño impacts this year include Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

South & Southeast Asia

The impacts of El Niño across Asia and the Pacific are diverse, ranging from drought and wildfires to floods and cyclones depending on the country and subregion. It could weaken monsoon rains, which are important for rice, farming jobs and local food supplies. When rains are late or uneven, harvests can shrink and food prices can rise. This year, drier-than-normal conditions are expected across several countries in the region including Timor — Leste, the Philippines and parts of Pakistan. At the same time, above-average rainfall and flooding may affect countries such as Afghanistan.

Central America and the Caribbean

In Central America’s Dry Corridor, many small -scale farmers depend on rain to grow food like corn and beans. El Niño-related drought can destroy these crops , increase farmers’ debt as they borrow to cover the losses and driv e hunger across entire communities . It can also push families to leave home in search of food, work or safety. In the Caribbean, drought can hurt local food production while heavy rain, tropical storms and hurricanes can damage roads, markets, homes and jobs.

How WFP Prepares for El Niño and Weather Emergencies

WFP uses early warning systems and climate forecasts to track disasters and protect communities at high risk. This information allows WFP and partners to act days, weeks and sometimes even months before a climate shock occurs and mitigate the impact on food security. Anticipatory actions include:

• Early messages to warn families of impending disasters
• Cash transfers to stock up on essential supplies
• Ready-to-eat foods that require no water or cooking
• Stronger flood barriers and water storage systems
• Drought-tolerant or flood-resistant seeds for farmers
• Climate insurance to protect from financial losses

Acting early saves lives and allows people to prepare, survive and recover from climate shocks. As El Niño increases the risk of extreme weather this year, early action helps prevent a short-term shock from turning into a long-term hunger emergency.

Originally published at https://wfpusa.org.

Global hunger has been called the world’s most solvable problem. That’s true. But the number of extremely hungry people has more than doubled in recent years due to extreme weather, conflict, rising food costs, the socioeconomic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and now the war in Ukraine. That means it costs more money too. So, how much ?

Let’s start in 2012, when the United Nations developed 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) . The mandate of SDG 2 “Zero Hunger” was clear: to end hunger and all forms of malnutrition by the year 2030 .

For several years, the world was making good progress towards achieving SDG2 by the 2030 deadline. However, hunger levels have risen significantly recently and so has the price tag for fighting it.

Despite mounting challenges, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is still finding ways to deliver food to tens of millions of people every year. We know what it takes to end world hunger, and we know what it costs. We simply need the collective will to make it happen.

How Many People Are Hungry Right Now?

The number of people facing severe hunger has soared to 345 million.

Let’s start with the basics. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) defines hunger as “ an uncomfortable or painful physical sensation caused by insufficient consumption of dietary energy.” In other words: your stomach growls. Today, 828 million people on the planet are hungry — that’s 2.5 times more than the entire population of America.

Of those 828 million, 345 million are experiencing the most severe levels of hunger including starvation. These are the people the U.N. World Food Programme aims to serve.

What Would It Cost to Feed the Entire World?

The U.N. World Food Programme feeds over 100 million people facing severe hunger in more than 120 countries and territories every year. In 2021, we did this with a budget of $9.6 billion dollars, which was still $5.2 billion dollars short of our total funding requirements. Clearly, ending world hunger will require more money.

Back in July of 2021, U.N. World Food Programme Executive Director David Beasley told us it would take an estimated $40 billion each year to end world hunger by 2030 .

“That seems like a lot of money,” Beasley said. “But in the United States alone, in the last one year, the U.S. billionaires’ net worth increase was over $1 trillion.”

What About the $6 Billion Number?

You’ve probably heard the $6 billion dollars figure thrown around on social media or the news quite a bit. Back in October of 2021, the U.N. World Food Programme issued a one-time call to the world’s billionaires to help save millions of people on the verge of famine. At the time, 42 million people were on the brink of starvation across 43 countries.

“$6 billion to help 42 million people that are literally going to die if we don’t reach them,” said Executive Director David Beasley. “It’s not complicated.”

The math worked out like this: $6 billion dollars would provide the 42 million people living on the brink of famine with one lifesaving, nutrition-packed meal per day for a year. One meal costs the U.N. World Food Programme as little as $0.43 cents, so:

$0.43 cents per meal x 42 million people facing famine x 365 days a year = $6.6 billion

By the end of 2021, new data revealed that the number of people on the edge of famine had risen — pushing the price tag up to $7 billion dollars to save 45 million lives .

Can We End World Hunger?

Let’s review.

• There are 828 million people on the planet who are hungry. That’s 1 in 10 people.
• Of those, 50 million are on the brink of famine and desperately need help.
• The U.N. World Food Programme feeds over 100 million of the hungriest people each year.
• We need $7 billion dollars to deliver food the millions of people facing famine this year.
• We need $40 billion dollars per year to feed all of the world’s hungry people and end global hunger by 2030.

This may seem like an incredibly large amount of money and a near-impossible task. But it’s not really. In 2021, Americans spent nearly $11 billion dollars on Cyber Monday. Think about that. In just 24 hours, we shelled out more than enough dough to end famine. That’s why we know it’s possible to reach Zero Hunger. Because we’ve done incredible things before with the help of generous humanitarians like you.

It will take all of us to end world hunger, and no gift is too small. You can feed two hungry people a day for just a dollar. Every person who’s able to fill their plate and reach their full potential has a positive ripple effect on the well-being of their families, their communities and their nation.

However much you give, whether it be $5 or $5,000, you’re helping to save lives and feed the future. Ending hunger is one of the greatest challenges of our time. Together, it’s one of the world’s most solvable problems.

Help us end world hunger.

Originally published at https://www.wfpusa.org.

Conflict ravages countries in countless ways. And it’s the number one cause of hunger in the world, tearing families, communities, infrastructure, food systems and entire regions apart.

Let’s talk about six of the most devastating conflicts going on in the world today and how they’re pushing an unprecedented number of people into severe hunger. We’ll also see what the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is doing to fight back against the rising tide of starvation in the toughest places on the planet.

1) Ukraine

The war in Ukraine is the latest conflict to erupt. It has caused over a million refugees to flee the country and created a new humanitarian emergency in Europe.

However, Ukrainians sadly are not unfamiliar with conflict. In 2014, Russia invaded and annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. The move started an eight-year conflict that came to a violent head just last week. Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022 and the violence has resulted in destruction, casualties and hundreds of thousands of displaced people.

The U.N. World Food Programme worked in Ukraine from 2014–2018, providing cash and food vouchers to over 1 million people. Now, we have returned to begin emergency operations for the current war. Food relief will be delivered to hungry families inside of Ukraine along with people fleeing to neighboring countries.

Learn more about our work in Ukraine and donate today to help support Ukrainians.

2) Afghanistan

Afghans have suffered through so much: decades of civil war, foreign interventions, insurgency, a rapidly changing climate, and widespread political and economic insecurity. Here’s a quick overview of an incredibly complicated, complex situation:

In the 1980’s, Afghans suffered a violent fallout from local guerilla groups mounting an opposition to government forces. After the withdrawal of Soviet forces in 1991 came a brutal civil war that led to the formation of the Taliban and their expanding rule. After 9/11, a Western coalition targeted the Taliban and al-Qaida, waging a war that lasted more than 20 years. When the U.S. withdrew its troops from the country in August 2021, the government quickly collapsed and the Taliban regained power.

This recent upheaval has thrown the lives of Afghan families into turmoil and uncertainty yet again. Decades of conflict — combined with the impacts of climate change, gender inequality, economic instability and the COVID-19 pandemic — have caused deep hunger and suffering for Afghan communities across the country.

Conflict has cut off entire communities from livelihoods and access to services. And on top of the millions of refugees, hundreds of thousands of people have been internally displaced within their country’s borders and have nowhere to turn.

The U.N. World Food Programme has been on the ground in the country since 1963, and we’re still serving all 34 provinces in Afghanistan, pulling communities back from the brink of starvation. We work with local and regional partners to make sure food and other aid reach the most vulnerable, displaced and conflict-affected communities — from massive refugee camps to isolated villages. We’re also working to strengthen the long-term resilience of Afghans, focusing on women and supporting local economies.

Learn more about our work in Afghanistan, and donate to help feed families and save lives across the globe.

3) Ethiopia

Conflict in Ethiopia has been equally complex and drawn out. Between decades of fighting with neighboring Eritrea, internal power struggles and nearly two years of devastating civil war raging in the region of Tigray, Ethiopians have been forced to face war after war.

The conflicts have exacted a devastating toll on civilians. Communities are continuously caught in the middle — killed, displaced and pushed into starvation as conflict blocks aid and cuts off communication. The violence has also wreaked havoc on health facilities and other infrastructure, making it that much harder for us to reach and help people.

When things seem the most dire, the U.N. World Food Programme is there. We’re working to provide food aid in the face of conflict and doing everything we can to help communities build resilience to all kinds of shocks including extreme weather events and outbreaks of violence.

We’ve even partnered with singer, songwriter and record producer Abel Tesfaye, better known as The Weeknd. The son of Ethiopian immigrants to Canada, Abel donated $1 million to World Food Program USA in support of our work in the country (the equivalent of 2 million lifesaving meals) and even joined us as a Goodwill Ambassador.

“My heart breaks for my people of Ethiopia as innocent civilians ranging from small children to the elderly are being senselessly murdered and entire villages are being displaced out of fear and destruction. I encourage those who can to please give as well,” he said.

Learn more about Ethiopia and help send food to families facing hunger across the globe.

4) South Sudan

South Sudan’s declaration of independence from Sudan in 2011 turned it into the world’s newest nation. It also ushered in an era of violence that continues to this day.

The South Sudanese Civil War — a multi-sided conflict between government and opposition forces — put communities through nearly a decade of violence, poverty and hunger. Despite multiple internationally supported attempts at ceasefires and peace treaties, violence towards civilians continues.

More than 7 million people — 60 percent of the entire population — still doesn’t know where their next meal will come from.

We’ve been on the ground in South Sudan since it first gained independence, providing millions of people with a lifeline of food and specialized nutritional assistance. Across the country, our food security projects have kept families alive.

Learn more about South Sudan, and donate to send lifesaving food to families in places like South Sudan and other conflict-affected areas.

5) Syria

It’s been over a decade of hellish conflict for families across Syria, and there are now more Syrian refugees in the world than citizens of any other country. The ongoing civil war involves the government, rebel forces, various domestic groups, foreign countries and ISIS. It started as part of the wider Arab Spring protests in 2011, escalating each year with humanitarian atrocities, country-wide devastation and millions of civilian deaths.

Today, large-scale hostilities and mass displacement — especially across the north — combined with a total breakdown of the economy mean people are facing crippling levels of poverty and food insecurity.

“We are tired, worn out and now hungry too as the economic situation takes its toll,” said Hanan, a Syrian mother of four. “I have not been able to get any fresh food, dairy or eggs for my children for the last four months.”

Some 12.4 million people — almost 60 percent of the population — are hungry and don’t know where their next meal will come from. This is a 57 percent increase since 2019 and the highest number ever recorded in the history of Syria.

We’re working across the country, assisting over 5 million people every month, and we’re ramping up support for vulnerable mothers and children through school meals, specialized nutrition and more.

Learn more about what’s happening in Syria and donate to help save lives across the globe.

6) Yemen

Even before fighting broke out in early 2015, Yemen was one of the poorest countries in the Arab world. Now, nearly a decade of war has left thousands dead and more than 4 million people displaced. Fighting between government coalition forces and Houthi rebels in the country continues to harm and displace Yemeni families.

The conflict’s impact on the country’s infrastructure has been devastating, with major overland routes and airports severely damaged. A blockade on the coast of Yemen has limited the amount of humanitarian aid entering the port. 16.2 million Yemenis are food insecure — and malnutrition rates among women and children remain among the highest in the world.

We’re doing everything we can to pull Yemeni families back from the brink of disaster. The U.N. World Food Programme provides nearly 13 million people with cash and food assistance across the country, along with specialized nutrition assistance for moms and kids. We’re also helping Yemen build a more sustainable future, working to reach and train more than 1 million people with projects to rebuild roads, irrigation systems, schools and health facilities.

Find out more about what’s happening in Yemen and donate to send food to those who need it around the world.

Food Security: It’s the Key to Peace and Stability

Hunger fuels conflict, and conflict fuels hunger. These six countries are stark examples of this vicious cycle.

It’s why the U.N. World Food Programme was awarded the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize for our work to prevent the use of starvation as a weapon of war. If we want to fight for peace, we need to fight to solve hunger. And we can’t do it without your help.

Learn more about how conflict affects hunger.

Originally published at www.wfpusa.org.

Some of the most vulnerable are orphans. Kids who have lost one or both parents to age, sickness or violence. Children whose futures depend on their strength and ability to learn and succeed without the support of their mothers and fathers.

Some of the greatest names of our time — Eleanor Roosevelt, Nelson Mandela, Malcolm X, Ella Fitzgerald, Leo Tolstoy, J.R.R. Tolkien, Babe Ruth, Louis Armstrong, Marie Curie, Steve Jobs — grew up as orphans, and they changed history.

In some cases, orphaned children seek out warmth and love from extended family or from shelters. But many of the world’s orphans end up living on the street.

The mission of the World Food Programme (WFP) is improving the lives of the planet’s most vulnerable people, including orphans, by providing them with the nutrition they need to build a brighter future for themselves.

Ebola in West Africa

The 2013–2016 Ebola epidemic in West Africa was one of the largest global health crises in recent history, taking more than 11,000 lives in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. It was brutal. Facing difficult quarantines and sick family members, communities here were able to rely on WFP for crucial food assistance from the very beginning.

Little Assa lost her mother to Ebola in February 2015. But danger still loomed. There was a chance she might have the virus too. Assa was hospitalized at the Ebola Transit Center of Guékédou, Guinea. Fortunately, she tested negative and was able to return home to her father and three older brothers in the Kankan region.

Ebola took a toll on the lives of her family. But hope was not far. With a 30-day food package—including the essentials of rice, oil, beans and salt—provided to orphans and their families or caretakers, Assa’s family was given a second chance. They could have the nourishment they needed during a time of mourning and a time to rebuild their lives.

Some 270 miles away in Kenema, Sierra Leone sits the Kambui Child Advocacy Group for Women and Children’s Center, where at least 50 Ebola-orphaned children receive shelter and counseling, along with nutritious food from WFP.

The kids here include 10-year-old twin sisters Princess and Janet and 9-year-old Osman. All three lost their parents — employees at the nearby Kenema hospital — to Ebola. But all three continue to dream. Princess wants to become a nurse, Janet a lawyer and Osman a teacher.

They dream of better lives, but most importantly, they dream of making life better for the children in their communities.

Violence in the Central African Republic

Madame Gilberte Wadji is a beaming woman who opened her orphanage in Bangui, Central African Republic in 2007. For years, this home for kids relied exclusively on donations, but as the violence of the country’s ongoing conflict swelled, Madame Gilberte realized she needed more support.

During the peak of the crisis in early 2014, 36 children lived here with seven more on a waiting list until the orphanage could access the resources needed to provide them with proper care. WFP stepped in, covering some school fees and providing daily meals.

Some of these kids were abandoned in the trash, like Anne-Sophie and Emanuel, and others simply walked in. Eleven-year-old Naomi was already an orphan living with her aunt, but violent clashes separated them. She received help in a displaced camp before she sought out Madame Gilberte on her own.

Many of these children arrived without a full name, and they were gifted with Madame Gilberte’s surname. They’ve found a family and a home.

HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe

On some days, 56-year-old Netsai would be able to eat one meal, but on others, she would eat nothing so the kids at home could have enough nourishment.

“It’s just about surviving day by day,” she says. “What can I do if that is what the Lord has chosen?”

But time was running out for her 5-month-old granddaughter, Kudakwashe, who lost her mother to HIV just days after giving birth. The baby, also HIV-positive, was now losing weight.

Thankfully, nurses at the local health clinic suggested they seek assistance from WFP. Two months of nutritional support later, Kudakwashe was looking at a healthier weight and better days to come. For her dear grandmother—who takes care of eight orphaned children in all—it was a relief and a testament to her granddaughter’s name, which means “God’s will” in Shona.

When we consider the most vulnerable, children come first. And orphaned children have it the toughest. Without the love and care of their parents, life is filled with unknowns.

But with the support of other guardians, there is hope.

Why care for an orphan? Why, other than the spiritual and moral reasons that compel us?

Because children have potential. No matter who they are, where they come from—when given the nourishment and the tools to find their way, these kids can do anything.

— Aliya Karim, World Food Program USA

Become a monthly donor and give to vulnerable communities and children like these. Be a #ZeroHunger Hero and support them for the long haul.

This January, millions of Americans will make New Year’s resolutions to kick off 2017. From breaking bad habits to developing good ones, these resolutions often focus on ways to improve one’s life.

Now imagine if each of these resolutions also helped save lives in the process — like the 795 million people worldwide who go to bed hungry each night.

Here at World Food Program USA, we’d like to offer five ways to make your New Year’s resolutions better by improving the lives of others:

1) Exercise More

Getting ready to go from the couch to a 5K? Why not help feed families in need by using Charity Miles, a free smart phone app that lets you earn money for your favorite charity — including WFP USA — while you walk, run or bike.

2) Write More Letters

Hoping to rediscover the lost art of letter-writing? Write to your lawmakers on WFP USA’s behalf. By speaking up, you can make sure global hunger relief remains a top priority in Congress. Remember: Your voice matters.

3) Get More Involved

Looking for ways to engage your community or workplace? Host a WFP event or fundraiser with your friends, neighbors or coworkers. Organize a potluck or cook-off featuring regional dishes inspired by one of the 81 countries where WFP works. Share photos and stories about how WFP empowers families with good nutrition.

4) Shop Smarter

Spend your money on socially responsible companies like UPS, MasterCard or eBay, one of WFP USA’s corporate partners. Every time you buy an item on eBay, for example, you can make a donation to WFP USA to help families in need. Or support small businesses like BeCause, a handmade jewelry shop on Etsy that supports WFP’s school meals program.

5) Invest Better

Want to make better investments in 2017? Donate to hunger relief — one of the smartest and most affordable ways to invest in our collective future. Just 25 cents provides a nourishing meal to a hungry child. Each dollar spent on children’s nutrition generates as much as $138 in healthcare costs and increased productivity. As The Economist points out, some of the world’s leading business analysts argue that improving access to food has the biggest impact on a nation’s well-being.

If you’re looking for ways to improve yourself this year, why not help improve the world while you’re at it? Learn more by visiting wfpusa.org/help.

5 Ways To Make Better New Year’s Resolutions was originally published in Age of Awareness on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

As the Paris Climate Agreement goes into effect, climate-smart villages in Senegal are giving small-scale farmers the chance to take action now to adapt to a changing climate.

It took 55 countries representing at least 55 percent of the world’s emissions to ratify the Paris Climate agreement and bind its signers to tackle one of the most important challenges of our time — the causes and consequences of climate change.

Now comes the hard part: Bold action to realize the unprecedented agreement’s potential and vision.

In advance of the start of next week’s COP22 climate conference in Marrakech, Morocco, the United Nations and climate advocates worldwide are calling for urgent and ambitious investments to change the trajectory of a warming planet.

Helping farmers and their communities adapt and build resilience to climate change is core to the work of the World Food Programme (WFP) empowering vulnerable communities across the planet to feed themselves. As part of its mission supporting WFP’s work, World Food Program USA is one of more than 70 organizations that form the Earth to Marrakech coalition to raise the volume and visibility of international climate discussions.

In advance of COP22, we reached out to Robert Zougmoré, a soil scientist based in Mali with CGIAR’s Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security, to talk about living laboratories of climate action called “climate-smart villages.”

For almost two decades, Robert has worked on soil and water management. He now works with communities in West Africa to learn what challenges everyday farmers face and test how modern technology and climate-smart agriculture can complement indigenous knowledge to adapt and build resilience to increasingly erratic and unpredictable weather patterns.

Q: You took a recent trip to a climate-smart village just a couple of weeks ago. Can you tell us where you traveled and what the farmers and the farms look like in this village?

Robert: We were in Senegal. We visited a village called Daga-Birame, where we have been implementing and testing with the community climate-smart agriculture options in a bid to scale up the promising technology options that may come out from this research.

We emphasize the management of climate-related risk for these rural communities, especially for agricultural production. So in a given village, we try to use climate as an entry point to guide the decisionmaking about what to do to lessen climate risk and crop failure. It’s a participatory process through which we provide knowledge on climate information to the communities with agricultural extension services. Together, we make a sort of diagnosis of what are the climactic crosswinds, what are the current opportunities in the village in terms of technology and practices. This means farmers will suggest their own practices to face these climatic risks, but also researchers that are among the team will suggest what research can bring in. And together, the choice of promising technologies and practices are chosen for testing by the communities.

Q: Can you give us an example of the kind of traditional knowledge that a farmer in Senegal might have?

Robert: Farmers in Senegal used to rely on the mystic definition of the rainy season. There are people who can tell what would be the trend of the rainy season. Even nowadays, they are still using this kind of information but in combination with modern climate information provided by the National Meteorological Service. There are also bio-indicators — some farmers will tell you that you if see some birds at the very top of a tree, it means that the rainy season will be above normal. But if you see the bird that is flying at the bottom part of the tree it means that the rainy season will be below normal. So these are some indicators that the farmers are still using in combination with the modern forecasts.

Some farmers used to plant their crops without preparing the soil. What we call in our jargon, “direct sowing.” But now with climate information, they have time to decide about preparing the soil before sowing the different crops. Farmers also used to burn the biomass, the crop residues from the previous rainy season in the field to clear the soil surface for sowing. But with our climate-smart intervention, they realized this biomass can be decomposed to improve the soil fertility. So instead of burning it, they now plow to incorporate these residues into the soil, which helps the soil get the nutrients from the beginning for crop growth

Listen to Robert talk about how he works with farmers on the ground to exchange information during workshops on how a changing climate is affecting their communities:

Q: Can you tell us about the “One Woman, One Fruit Tree” project in Senegal and the purpose of that project?

Robert: It’s part of what we call the “Farms of the Future” approach. We provide to the community a sense of what their future climate might be. We allow the community to go and visit what would be their [future] community according to climate scenarios. And we organize an exchange visit between these two communities so they can learn from the opportunities in the future community and then try to prevent their community from reaching this future scenario.

When the community went to visit the future community, they [were] welcomed with baobab fruit juice. And when they came back, they said, “Wow, we have to take action to protect all the baobab trees in our community.” Because it would help us to produce some baobab fruit and then to produce juice and sell it to generate income. They saw how the community landscape was so degraded there and there were less baobab trees than they expected. So they decided, we have to start by protecting first the baobab trees, and even more, we have to plant more baobab trees, as well as protect all the trees in the community so that we can recover what we lost in terms of vegetation cover.

Q: How have these climate-smart villages changed the way that farmers not only work on their farms, but also how their families eat and earn income?

Robert: For the baobab fruit tree, tree fruit farmers will tell you that since they started collecting the baobab fruit — processing it, packaging it, and selling it — they realized that it is a source of nutrition for their children. It’s a complement in terms of vitamins for the children. So improved food security is one important result. Another example is the case of farmers who have benefited from all these activities we have been conducting in the villages since 2012. They secured the seasonal production of crops and livestock, and so they secured more food and sometimes they don’t need to even complement what they are producing now, which was not the case before.

That is one beneficial impact of providing these seasonal forecasts to farmers. Most farmers will have to plant and plant at least two times because of crop failures at the beginning of the rainy season. But now with the info on the probable onset of the rainy season, which is based on the probability of getting enough moisture in the soil to plant and to succeed in getting the crop [to] come up, this has allowed them to avoid sowing two times in the village, which saves significant seeds.

— Ash Kosiewicz, World Food Program USA

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Walking along a dirt road near the community of Panchgachi in rural Bangladesh last August, we arrived at an intersection. One path led to the rice paddies and fields and another led to the rest of the village.

At the center of this intersection sat a group of people under a plastic tarp held aloft by bamboo sticks. Here, both men and women took out hand-drawn maps of the village, pinpointing homes, schools, the local mosque, the river and the fields. The purpose of these maps? To locate the most at-risk areas in the community.

The families here live in one of the most disaster-prone countries on earth — one that faces typhoons and floods every single year. In fact, scientists warn that Bangladesh could literally disappear at the turn of the century because of rising sea levels and climate change.

Across the globe, climate change disproportionately impacts vulnerable communities like this one, especially small-scale farmers who rely on their own harvests for food. It’s a huge problem when erratic weather patterns and historic storms ruin farms and wash away entire villages. The ever-rising sea level, meanwhile, threatens to disrupt these livelihoods indefinitely.

That’s why humanitarian organizations like the World Food Programme (WFP) work with communities to plan and prepare for natural disaster through a variety of projects, from tree-planting to rainwater-harvesting to infrastructure-building.

By mapping out risky areas, the villagers of Panchgachi are able to locate areas prone to flooding, where they then work to raise roads. One such embankment is 5 kilometers—or 3.1 miles—long.

Under the supervision of WFP’s Enhancing Resilience program, some 700 villagers — 72 percent of whom are female — worked for about three months to construct the embankment. This raised road not only allows children to walk to school, villagers to transport their crops to market and families to safely make their way home, it also serves as a refuge for cattle and protects nearby fields and homes during flash floods. This is especially crucial during Bangladesh’s monsoon season between June and November.

Walking back and forth, the villagers — women clad in bright saris, men in plaid lungis at the waist — gathered clay from the nearby fields. Their feet caked in mud and dirt, they carried this earth in baskets on their heads and built it up in piles to raise the embankment higher. They walked so easily, freely, as though this were a normal part of life.

“I love working with the earth. It’s a better opportunity for me.”

“If God wills it, then I love working with the earth,” said Hamida Begum, the leader of a group of 300 participants. “Look around, this is a very poor village. In a poor village, what resources can I get? If I can work with the earth and receive some money, it’s a better opportunity for me.”

These participants receive a minimum wage of 145 taka per day — the equivalent of $1.86 here in the U.S. — for moving about 53 cubic feet of earth. For most people in this ultra-poor farming community, this embankment project serves as a much-needed source of income that they would not otherwise have.

At day’s end, participants collected their earned taka and headed back to their homes spread out across Panchgachi, returning to their families and children after several hours of hard labor.

These children will face a vastly different and more difficult landscape than the one their parents see today. The effects of climate change are evident along the paths they walk, both literally and figuratively.

But with the right tools, knowledge and support from organizations like WFP and supporters like you, the people of Bangladesh — and indeed vulnerable communities across the globe — will be able to weather whatever storms may lie ahead.

— Aliya Karim, World Food Program USA

Our future begins with food. With the support of people like you, we can do good better.

How Ending Post-Harvest Food Loss Could Help Solve Hunger

In villages worldwide, smallholder farmers drive seeds into soil every planting season with hopes for a successful harvest.

Tilling their fields, many pray for rain to reap the fruits of a bumper crop: Paying for their kids to go to school; buying livestock to increase their income; and filling their tables with nutritious food.

For Jane Bayitanunga, a mother of six in Uganda, her crops faced a different challenge three years ago.

The rains came. But after the harvest, so did the weevils and the rats.

“We took a lot of caution, harvesting our grain using baskets and tarps to maintain the quality,” she said. “But it was all a waste of time. When we got home, we had no good place to store it.”

Like other farmers in her village, Jane lost a good portion of her corn and beans. For every five bags she stored, one or two were ruined within a month — either damaged or eaten. In just months, some farmers lost up to 60 percent of their harvests, plagued by insects and mold.

This food loss is a cruel irony when more than 50 percent of the world’s hungry are smallholder farmers. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated in 2011 that annual post-harvest losses in Sub-Saharan Africa exceeded 30 percent of total food production. The cost came to $4 billion a year, surpassing what the region was receiving in foreign aid.

Since then, a large-scale effort to curb food loss and waste has been thrust on the global stage in the fight to end hunger.

Eat or Be Eaten

Approximately $1 trillion of food is lost or wasted every year — accounting for roughly one-third of the world’s food. According to FAO, reversing this trend would preserve enough food to feed 2 billion people — more than twice the number of undernourished people across the globe.

This potential has put the issue high on the global development agenda. At a time when 1 in 9 people go to bed hungry every day, the United Nations has challenged the world to cut global food waste in half by 2030 as part of its 17 sustainable development goals.

As one of the planet’s largest food producers and consumers, America’s overflowing landfills and fridges have become a powerful backdrop in the food waste debate. From what Americans buy in stores to what they dispose of in garbage bins, there is growing public consciousness about the global repercussions of what happens to our food once it reaches shelves and consumers.

But the world’s conception of food waste has expanded to include what happens to food long before it reaches our local grocers.

And Jane’s tale and others like hers have inspired another global plan of action: Reducing food loss along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses.

Food loss can happen at every stage of the journey from farm to market. When food is handled, processed, stored and transported, there exists some risk of damage, spoilage or loss. Reducing food loss and waste has even inspired the adoption of a new Food Loss and Waste Standard to help businesses, governments and other groups measure what falls through the cracks.

Last fall, UPS’ humanitarian supply chain director Esther Ndichu argued that hunger isn’t actually a food issue — it’s a logistics problem that fails to effectively connect food with the people who need it most.

“Some of it rots in warehouses awaiting transport to the market, while some of it rots at ports and border crossings awaiting customs clearance,” Ndichu said. “And then some of it just rots in the fields because farmers do not think it’s economically worth it for them to harvest it.”

Post-harvest losses, which make up most of the food loss in the world, are so devastating because many farmers already struggle to put food on the table. Losing 20 to 40 percent of one harvest like Jane did exacerbates food insecurity, and when families eat damaged crops, that can negatively impact their nutrition and health. Women understand this issue intimately because they often are in charge of drying, cleaning, and storing food.

These dynamics have put food loss front and center on the agenda of the World Food Programme (WFP) as it works toward a future without hunger — a future in which farmers like Jane have the tools they need to protect the food they grow.

3 Innovations in Food Loss Reduction

Earlier this summer, WFP launched its first-ever Innovation Accelerator. Its goal is to speed up progress in the fight to end hunger — and scaling advancements in food loss reduction is one of its many promising projects.

The Zero Post-Harvest Losses project sells low-cost, locally produced grain silos to farmers and provides them with training on post-harvest crop management. To date, the project has sold 65,000 metallic storage silos in Uganda alone, and smallholder farmers have learned up-to-date handling techniques from WFP and local farming organizations in five key areas: Harvesting, drying, threshing, solarization, and on-farm storage.

The decision to scale the project was made after pilot initiatives in Uganda and Burkina Faso showed remarkable results. According to a 2014 WFP report, these interventions among 400 farmers resulted in a 98 percent decrease in food loss over a 9-month period. The project, supported by private sector partner UPS, was expanded to include more than 16,000 families later that year.

The complementary benefits were significant. Farmers could effectively store their crops and sell them when market prices were higher; families experienced increased nutrition and reduced exposure to food contamination; and women’s workloads were reduced as the long process of daily cleaning and shelling of cereals was eliminated.

“The near eradication of post-harvest food losses at the farm level was a very significant outcome,” the report said.

Across the globe, a second innovation is empowering farmers with a new way to test and promote the quality of their crops.

Created in Guatemala in response to poisonous aflatoxins found on local harvests, the “Blue Box” serves as a testing kit for on-the-spot screening of food quality in the field. When used in tandem with trainings on post-harvest crop management with smallholder farmers, these joint efforts reduce the likelihood of food contamination and loss in farming villages around the world.

The Blue Box also supports two other important goals: By helping farmers improve crop quality, it’s less likely that families will suffer the negative nutritional consequences of eating low-quality food. It also helps crops meet quality standards for bulk purchase through WFP’s Purchase for Progress initiative, which buys high-quality crops from smallholder farmers to supply the agency’s food assistance programs, such as school meals.

A third innovation highlights why connecting rural farmers to viable markets remains a top priority. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, WFP has provided cargo bikes to mostly female farmers to increase their access to markets.

In the past, many women carried heavy sacks weighing over 100 pounds to deliver their produce to market. Now, they use cargo bikes to transport more of their surplus crops to sell in local markets. Sales of staple crops enable these women to buy the additional food they need to meet their dietary needs, including tomatoes, carrots, and fruits.

“By focusing on solutions, we can get food to the people who need it,” said UPS’ Ndichu. “Success depends on public and private partnerships bringing together governments, nongovernmental organizations and the private sector to invest in supply chains. If that happens, we can conquer hunger in our lifetime.”

One More Line of Defense

Back in Uganda, Jane’s fortunes have turned. Today, vermin and pests are no longer pilfering her corn and beans.

As one of 16,000 families to participate in WFP’s post-harvest loss expansion program in August 2014, she gained access to storage silos and information about the best time to harvest her crops, how to avoid pest attacks, and how to ensure they are free of insects before storage.

“We are extremely happy that these silos have been introduced to us,” Jane said. “They reduce infestation and contamination, they help us keep everything that we grow and allow us to store it for as long as we want. Besides the silos themselves, we have acquired a useful new skill as we now know how to dry our grain before it can be stored well in the silos.”

For smallholder farmers like Jane, these tools and knowledge serve as one more line of defense against hunger in an unpredictable farming environment.

As above-average temperatures and erratic rains spark droughts from Central America to southern Africa, and as conflict worsens food crises from Nigeria to South Sudan, the effort to curb food loss and waste may bring not just short-term prosperity for farmers like Jane, but long-term prosperity for the world.

— Ash Kosiewicz, World Food Program USA

Click here to learn more about the U.N. World Food Programme’s work with small-scale farmers like Jane.

Our future begins with food. With the support of people like you, we can do good better.

How WFP’s Head of Nutrition in El Salvador, Elia Martinez, is Helping Build Healthy Families and Communities

Elia Martinez still remembers the milk she received at school as a child growing up in Chinameca, a small town of 22,000 people in El Salvador that sits in the shadow of a volcano. The milk came from an organization that would shape her life’s work — and that of her family. Her mother worked on nutrition projects with the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) for several of Elia’s most formative years. Jokingly, she tells me that she even helped her mother as “the youngest volunteer WFP never knew about.”

Today, Elia continues that family tradition as Head of Nutrition at WFP’s El Salvador country office. Her job involves overseeing the organization’s programs fighting malnutrition and enhancing maternal and child health — making sure that families across the country are receiving nourishing food during the most crucial periods of life.

Supporting Nutrition in Vulnerable Communities

Being responsible for the agency’s nutrition program means Elia faces a monumental task. According to the U.N. Development Programme, almost a third of the country’s population suffers from multidimensional poverty — a concept that measures broad aspects of poverty, including proportion and intensity of deprivation to health, education and living standards in each household.

Stunting is one of the main physical manifestations of poverty and food insecurity — and has lifelong implications for those affected by it. According to WFP’s El Salvador Country Office, nearly one in four El Salvadorans can’t afford to buy the food required for a healthy diet. When households lack access to a diverse and nutritious diet, the health consequences can be substantial — especially for mothers and children. For children under two years old, physical and mental development is disrupted and immune systems are impaired, often irrevocably.

Children affected by stunting are weaker, smaller and more likely to get sick than their healthy peers. As adults, those who have been stunted by childhood malnutrition typically earn less than their counterparts and lead less productive lives. Roughly one-fifth of children under five years old in rural areas of the country suffer from moderate to severe stunting. But in rural, disaster-prone areas, this rate can reach as high as 30 to 40 percent.

To get a better picture of El Salvador’s malnutrition crisis, Elia sends me to the village of Juayua, 50 miles from her office, to meet Adilia, a mother of three children who is struggling to overcome the kind of chronic hunger and poverty that WFP is working to eradicate.

The journey to reach this young family takes two hours through a dense jungle that spans the country’s western region. The highway eventually gives way to two-lane streets and then single unpaved, dirt roads, winding over hills and valleys. The rainforest canopy keeps the brutal rays of equatorial mid-day sun at bay, though stepping out of a car you are immediately greeted by intense humidity, like a wall falling on you.

Since the beginning of this year, Adilia Perez of Juayua has received food assistance from WFP under the agency’s Nutrimos El Salvador (Nourishing El Salvador) project . Through the program, Adilia received an e-card, which looks like a normal debit card, that is refilled with funds every month that she can spend on fresh food at a local grocery store.

“Rural families don’t have the same access to food, either economic or physical. This,” says Elia, “combined with a general lack of knowledge around nutrition” is what makes rural families more vulnerable to food insecurity.

Adilia is among 23,000 women and children nationwide served by WFP’s El Salvador Nutrimos project, which is dedicated to increasing the Salvadoran government’s ability to provide critical nutrition for pregnant and breastfeeding women and young children.

The only problem? Adilia lives roughly 20 minutes by car from the nearest store. Transportation is expensive and the journey by foot is long and arduous, one that requires trekking across unpaved roads that snake through the mountainous terrain that dominates country’s west.

So WFP enables Adilia and other parents like her in the country’s most remote areas to buy two months’ worth of groceries at once, so they are not forced to make the trek more than they have to. Households that do not live within reasonable traveling distance of a grocery store can receive healthy food items during the agency’s periodic distributions, ensuring that every family that participates in the program has access to nutritious food.

Despite living in a rural community, the gang violence that has plagued El Salvador’s larger cities has found its way to Adilia’s hometown. The government’s latest crackdown on the gangs has pushed many of them out into far-flung, rural communities, where they can hide safely amid the vast expanses of mountainous jungle.

Heading back to Adilia’s house one evening, my WFP colleagues and I pass a group of officers from the national police force in front of a community center. About 15 minutes later, a young man on a bike stops our convoy and asks what our business is there. As soon as we drive off, he starts texting. My colleagues tell me that he’s probably a sentry for a gang, working as an undercover lookout in spite of the police presence nearby. I suddenly realize we are very alone and anything can happen — this is the reality that Adilia and her community live with everyday.

Help Towards a Healthy Diet

We decide to accompany Adilia on one of her bi-monthly treks to the nearest grocery store to see how the Nutrimos El Salvador program works firsthand at a Super Selectos grocery store. Super Selectos is one of the largest supermarket chains in the country and resembles a U.S.-style chain grocery store like Safeway or Aldi. Fluorescent overhead lighting and well-stocked aisle after aisle meet you when you walk in the store.

Adilia buys a product called “Super Cereal Plus,” a fortified, blended food that contains all the micronutrients her children need to stay healthy and strong. Think Flintstones Vitamins meets Cream of Wheat. Before she started receiving assistance from WFP, both of her twin boys, just 18 months old, were already showing signs of malnutrition. In fact, because Adilia herself suffered from malnutrition during her pregnancy, the boys were born malnourished.

“When my twins were born prematurely, they were underweight, at only three pounds each,” Adilia tells me in the lobby of Juayua’s community health center, where she is attending a regular check up to track the progress of her children, ensuring that they are growing and gaining weight.

“They’ve gained weight, and their temperament and alertness has improved, also.” We sit on the plastic yellow chairs under a ceiling fan, trying to keep cool indoors as we wait for the camera crew from a local TV station, which was doing a short piece on WFP’s nutrition programs and Adilia’s experience.

Deeply grateful for the assistance she received, Adilia made it a point to tell me that she thanked God, WFP and its donors for their help. The most important part, she said, is that the e-card allowed her to save money that she would normally spend feeding her family. For families like Adilia’s, every day can be a struggle, and any little bit of money saved can allow them to buy school books or medicine, which would normally go instead to buy food. Being able to build this degree of resilience is extremely important, especially when raising a family amid crushing poverty and violence.

“Nutrition is the foundation for future success.” said Elia. “By investing in the health of pregnant mothers and young children, we are helping families build stronger communities and communities build a stronger country.”

Families like Adilia’s that live in rural areas are largely subsistence farmers, which means their livelihoods depend on weather patterns that are out of their control. The past four years have been full of hardship for those working in El Salvador’s agriculture sector. The most recent El Nino weather pattern was the strongest the region has seen in years, further aggravating a drought that has decimated the eastern part of the country. With each failed harvest, poor families are forced to grapple with how to put food on the table and, often, a child’s future hangs in the balance.

A Small Investment with a Large Reward

Though El Salvador has made important strides over the last 10 years, including decreasing the national poverty rate, acute malnutrition — which is measured by micronutrient deficiencies and body measurement — has doubled from 2008 to 2014. Anemia, partially caused by iron deficiency, affects nearly one-third of all children under five and 57 percent of children under age one.

“To provide necessary nutrition for a child at that age costs eight dollars a month,” said WFP Country Director Nils Gerde, “A small investment over a relatively short period of time. After the 3rd birthday, a child who has had access to adequate nutrition during its first 1,000 days will grow normally.”

But without intervention, stunting during those first 1,000 days is irreversible. For young Salvadorans affected by malnutrition and stunting, the repercussions have limited the full potential of the entire country, even impacting its economic growth. Annual economic losses due to stunting are estimated to be 7.4 percent of the country’s GDP, mostly due to losses in productivity.

According to the World Health Organization, recent studies have associated children’s stunting with a reduction in schooling, showing that later in life, adults who suffered from stunting as children completed nearly one year less school than non-stunted individuals.

WFP is also helping communities plant home and community gardens to supplement the food they purchase through e-cards. These gardens can not only be a source of healthy vegetables for families, but excess produce can also be sold at markets or in the community.

Forging a Life-Mission

Rural communities like Juayua can be more vulnerable to the hardships of poverty, often lacking the infrastructure or access to services that cities and towns may offer. Elia knows the reality of these struggles firsthand. While studying for her undergraduate degree in nutrition at the University of El Salvador, she volunteered with the French NGO Médecins du Monde (MDM) and helped run a nutrition project for undernourished children in the community of Cacaopera, located in the far northeastern corner of the country. Elia’s weekends were spent working, traveling to the field to work with malnourished families.

Cacaopera is a rural community and, according to UNESCO, it is home to the sole surviving members of an otherwise vanished indigenous ethnic group, variously referred to as Ulua, Matagalpa, or Cacaopera.

Since roads hadn’t been built yet, the community was largely inaccessible at that point. “It took four hours by car from San Salvador to the Cacaopera municipality, and then four more hours walking from there with packs on our backs to the actual community,” Elia recalled. They’d leave on a Friday and return the following Sunday. “We slept in hammocks in the school. After arriving in the afternoon, you are so tired, you have dinner, have a bath in the river and then go to sleep.”

Like her childhood helping her mother, the work in Cacaopera had a huge influence on the trajectory of Elia’s career and life’s work. “This was the experience that really marked my life,” she tells me as we retrace her path to WFP while sitting in a conference room at the agency’s office in San Salvador.

“Even back then, when I was working in Cacaopera, I would see WFP colleagues coming to the community as well, and I would think, ‘That’s what I want to do.’” Years later, she would return to Cacaopera, this time working for WFP.

“After I came back to that community, this time as a staff member of WFP, I knew I was doing what I really loved,” said Elia, with a radiant smile. “It was a dream. It’s a true gift.”

The community members would often tease her, saying the reason she always returned had nothing to do with a professional or personal mission, but instead with the nearby river, Rio Torola. “The people in Cacaopera have a saying that if you swim in the river, you will come back, and they would always tell me this is why I came back,” said Elia.

From Beneficiary to Volunteer to Staff Member

During the turbulent years of the civil war, food was sometimes not readily available in Elia’s community and her family, like many others in El Salvador, struggled with hunger. “It’s important that my children have a humanitarian perspective on life,” she tells me — one that echoes the lessons she learned as a girl volunteering for her mother’s WFP projects and receiving milk in the classroom. Now, as a mother herself, Elia is trying to impart these same experiences to her kids.

Because she now oversees WFP’s nutrition-related projects, Elia brings this perspective of once being a beneficiary into her work. “Watching the country develop and evolve over the decades, and watching how humanitarian assistance has also evolved — not only for myself, being a beneficiary in the 80s, a volunteer in the 90s and now as a staff member since the 2000s — has been valuable in my work.”

The most important aspect of her mission, in her opinion, is trying to ensure that the organization “is able to implement its global mission in the specific local context of El Salvador.”

“Many people make the mistake of thinking hunger is just an African problem,” she says of those who believe the work of WFP isn’t as relevant here. “National staff hold the key to this, they know the context better than most and already have an existing developed capacity.” More than just her profession, Elia is very clear that “helping my country through my job is my mission.”

Though there are many challenges and complications involved in her job, some of which can be frustrating and time-consuming, like navigating political considerations. “Sometimes I think, Why do I wake up every day? and the answer is always the same: [To serve] the child who needs help.”

— Story by Charles Fromm, WFP USA

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The First 1,000 Days: Solving Malnutrition in El Salvador was originally published in Age of Awareness on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.