Enough food for everyone IF...

A field of 250,000 flowers planted in Hyde Park. 

Each petal represents a child that died last year due to malnutrition

The world produces enough food for everyone, but not everyone has enough food.

On Saturday we had the privilege of joining 48,000 people in Hyde Park to support the IF campaign. The purpose was simple – raise awareness of the human tragedy of global hunger, and demand that world leaders take steps to fix the broken structures of the global food system.

Events like this really put life into perspective. Our worldviews can shrink so quickly.

Gosh, I hope we can find some cheap tickets for our next holiday...

What new restaurant are we going to try this weekend?

I’m so sick of my Blackberry.

Our online groceries haven’t been delivered in time so we can’t have pudding tonight.

An event like the IF Campaign rips our blinkers off and forces us to confront the reality that last year 3.1 million children died from malnutrition, and that 870 million people go to bed hungry every night. We’ve all heard the stats before, and they can almost wash over us like a bad cliché.

The IF campaign gave us an opportunity to pause and reflect on the scale of this injustice by planting a field of 250,000 thousand flowers, with each petal representing a child that dies unnecessarily because of hunger.

Perhaps the greatest scandal of global hunger is that there is more than enough food to go around. In the UK alone over seven million tonnes of food is thrown away every year. Much of the food that ends up in First World bins is grown and exported by countries that have the highest rates of malnutrition.

It doesn’t matter what filter you choose to apply – religious, moral, ethical, social, or human rights – they all end up at the same place... this is grossly unfair and unjust.

While the food system is badly broken, it is not beyond repair. The G8 will be meeting in June to discuss some of the structural barriers that prevent people from having enough to eat, such as land-grabbing, tax evasion and a lack of transparency. This is such a key moment and gives us a real opportunity to make genuine progress towards eradicating the root causes of hunger.  

It would be easy to feel far removed from a meeting of world leaders in London, but the reality is that we are not passive bystanders. Our choices, decisions and actions count.

Sign up on the IF website to make your voice heard at the G8.

Take the time to learn about how the food we put in our shopping baskets can impact both the world’s poorest people, and make a powerful statement to the world’s leaders. Equip yourself with the knowledge to make good decisions. Here is a good place to start.  

Stop for a moment and reflect on 3.1 million children who died last year because they didn’t have enough food.

There is enough food for everyone IF...