At Quattro Foods we believe that our position as food manufacturers places an immense responsibility on our shoulders that goes beyond sourcing, creating and distributing food products to our customers. We know that at the heart of the world of food sits a dangerous and growing problem, which affects millions of individuals and communities across the world. Those of us working in the food industry go about our daily business with a constant awareness that we and our customers are privileged to be surrounded by plentiful, healthy food and can put meals on our family’s table regularly, without thought or stress. We undertake our work against the ever-present backdrop of the stark reality that millions are hungry. Hunger is a global issue and is marked on May 28th to highlight these shocking figures:
- 820 million people do not have enough to eat
- 60% of the world’s hungry are women
- 98% of the world’s undernourished live in developing countries
- Hunger kills more than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined
We try to waste as little food as possible and donate to charities and food banks but if you, like us, are always asking what more you can do, raising awareness is a great place to start. That’s the aim of World Hunger Day, part of the global response to the changing landscape of global poverty. Hunger is impossible to prevent but there are a myriad of ways we can contribute to the cause and make a difference to people’s lives.
An initiative by The Hunger Project, World Hunger Day is not just about food. It’s about addressing the complex outlying factors that contribute to hunger from healthcare to education, employment, women’s rights, social justice and the environment. Only by tackling all of these issues can we empower people living in hunger to lift their communities above the poverty line.
This sustainable end to poverty may sound like a pipe-dream. It may not be achievable in the near future or even in our lifetime but it’s an aim we can all work towards. Vulnerable communities across the world need as many people as possible to join the conversation through social media or by discussing it amongst family and friends, going a step further and volunteering at food banks across the country or raising much-needed funds for food charities. These funds contribute to international programmes that allow people in vulnerable communities to become ‘agents of their own development’. This means that your money will do more than buy food, it will help people learn how to grow and sell food in a sustainable way, improving their long-term outlook.
The Quattro team harnessed the pitfalls of the pandemic to do our (very small) bit by distributing our surplus stock to local homeless charities. If we think creatively and altruistically, there’s something small that everyone can do. Everyone deserves to eat so let’s tackle the global hunger crisis together.