Chicago, IL – April 3, 2018 – Today The Global FoodBanking Network (GFN) announced a goal to combat childhood hunger by increasing the number of children served by food banks in its network by 10 percent to total 3.4 million.
The effort marks the second phase of GFN’s ‘8 Million by 2018‘ Challenge, a worldwide initiative to provide meals to eight million people facing hunger by the end of 2018. GFN launched the Challenge in March 2017, and, thanks to the effective work of food banks across the world and the generous support of partners, the GFN Network has expanded its service to more than 300,000 people since last year.
“One in four children globally face stunting due to inadequate nutrition, and millions of these girls and boys can be reached through food banking,” said Lisa Moon, GFN President and Chief Executive Officer. “The goal of the second phase of this Challenge is to support food banks in working with other organizations in their communities to improve childhood nutrition, which can lead to better health, improved cognitive development, higher performance in school, and increased productivity later in life.”
To accomplish this goal, GFN will support food banks in their efforts to serve children facing hunger in their communities. This will include expanding effective programs, designing new outreach efforts, investing in food bank capacity, and offering educational resources and technical assistance to food bank leaders. GFN will also increase support for emerging food banks that are poised to scale operations and reach more people when given the right resources.
“In a world that produces enough food to feed the entire global population, the unfortunate reality is that one-third of that food goes to waste, while 815 million people go to bed hungry every day,” Ms. Moon said. “Food banks are in a unique position to address these issues by capturing food that is typically lost at different points in the supply chain and delivering it to the hungry.”
GFN is raising $1 million to help meet its goal to serve more than 3.4 million children around the world by the end of the calendar year. Thanks to a generous anonymous donor, each new and increased gift received by June 30, 2018, will be matched dollar-for-dollar, up to $500,000. This will ultimately allow every contribution towards the campaign to provide double the impact.
Learn more about the Challenge here.
About The Global FoodBanking Network
