Church gives $32 million to World Food Programme

SALT LAKE CITY — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has donated $32 million to the United Nations World Food Programme. In its announcement, the Church called the donation the largest one-time contribution to a humanitarian organization that it has ever made.

The money will go toward what the WFP calls a seismic hunger crisis. The specifics bring clarity to that statement. According to the World Food Programme:

• 828 million people go to bed hungry every night,
• the number of people that face acute food insecurity has grown from 135 million to 343 million, just since 2019, and
• 50 million people in 45 countries are teetering on the edge of famine.

Additionally, the WFP said the war in Ukraine, extreme weather and fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic are behind much of the global food insecurity faced by so many people today.

On Wednesday, Bishop L. Todd Budge of the Presiding Bishopric presented the donation to WFP USA President and CEO Barron Segar, as well as WFP Deputy Executive Director of Partnerships and Advocacy, Ute Klamert.

“We are so grateful to collaborate with the World Food Programme because we know they will get food to those who need it most,” said Budge. “And we thank Latter-day Saints and friends of the faith whose financial sacrifices have made this gift possible.”

The church said that the money will be used to provide food and “other critical assistance” to 1.6 million people in nine countries: Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Kenya, northeast Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen.

Related:

• During Sickle Cell Awareness month, American Red Cross seeks donations
• Afghan refugee family has apartment furnished through donations

 

Follow @SimoneSeikaly