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April 30, 2008

Global Food Crisis Presents Mounting Challenges for Aid Groups

The sudden increase in food prices around the world is challenging aid groups, which have had to reduce the number of people they feed, reports The Seattle Times.

While donations to charities such as Mercy Corps and World Vision remain steady, higher food prices have meant fewer people can be helped. Among the causes of the higher food prices are higher fuel prices, more corn being grown for fuel, more demand for grains and meat in China and India, and droughts in Australia and Russia, the paper reports.

“What’s surprising is how severe it’s become all at once,” Penelope Anderson, director of food security for Mercy Corps, tells the Times. “The level of need and the quickness with which it’s arisen has kind of swamped us.”

Ms. Anderson says the food crisis has affected other programs as well. “You can’t talk to someone about economic-development programs when suddenly their family is hungry,” she says.

For more on how the global food crisis is affecting charities and their work, see articles in the International Herald Tribune and The Sun, in Baltimore. Also see the Chronicle’s coverage of the issue.

(Free registration is required to view the Sun article, and a paid subscription or short-term pass is required to view the Chronicle article.).

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