Preparing for the Next Major Crisis – Hunger

For months, experts have been warning against the dual crisis of COVID-19 and global hunger. Not only are we still deeply entrenched in the medical battle against COVID-19, but the blows it has wrought on our economies now threaten to increase global poverty for the first time in more than 20 years, potentially doubling the amount of people who experience acute food insecurity by the end of 2020.

Even now, we are already seeing our food system fracture around the edges. Less than a month after the virus hit the U.S., for example, 92% of food banks reported an increase in pandemic-related demand according to Feeding America. School closures as a result of COVID-19 have kept more than one billion children out of school, limiting access to the school meals that many depend on for daily nutrition. And as the crisis continues, countries like Yemen and South Sudan are now on the brink of famine.  

At COVID-19’s onset, the battle lines of the fight against food security were more clearly drawn – global supply chain disruptions and economic devastation brought to light a worldwide need for immediate hunger relief, spurring a concerted effort to provide meals for those in need. Yet with a devastating increase in food insecurity looming on the horizon and timing for our collective “return to normal” still uncertain, immediate humanitarian aid is now only part of the solve for pandemic-driven global hunger. Long-term development solutions to food insecurity are needed in lockstep with short-term aid to ensure that in future crises, we have the infrastructure in place to weather shocks to our global food systems.

As the Executive Vice President of Communications for PepsiCo and President of The PepsiCo Foundation, I am incredibly proud of how quickly our leaders, employees, and partners mobilized to provide immediate relief for those in need – since March, we’ve worked with more than 60 partners and local nonprofits to distribute more than 130 million nutritious meals to communities impacted by COVID-19. As a global food and beverage company, we recognize that PepsiCo has a responsibility to use our scale and reach to help build a more sustainable food system alongside our immediate relief efforts – one that can provide nutrition, drive economic growth and social development, and withstand both times of prosperity and times of crisis.

While our collective goal needs to be the same – ensuring that everyone has equal access to food – it is imperative that we empower communities for long-term food security. Around the world we are working with our partners to build resilient food systems that can withstand the next shock. In Uganda, for instance, The PepsiCo Foundation has partnered with CARE’s She Feeds the World program to reach small-scale farmers and their families with trainings on topics that include leadership, climate-smart agriculture practices, sanitary food preparation, health, nutrition, savings and loans, and gender equality—trainings we’ve developed based on community need. And in rural Mexico, where most people live in food poverty and child malnutrition is prevalent, our business and Foundation are partnering to provide opportunities across our supply chain for agricultural producers to build sustainable, resilient farms to support their communities. The critical nature of immediate relief efforts cannot be understated, but it is long-term programs and partnerships like these that ultimately contribute to a world without food insecurity.

Today marks World Food Day – a day to commemorate the October 16, 1945 founding of the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization. With this year's theme focused on how we grow, nourish, and sustain. Together. It offers us all a chance to take stock of the progress we have collectively made in hundreds of thousands of communities, but also more importantly, an urgent call to action to address hunger. Immediate nutrition aid alone cannot address the deep-rooted issues that contribute to food insecurity, but limiting our recognition of the global hunger crisis to a single day does not give the issue the weight that it deserves. Because of COVID-19, we have slipped even farther off our path towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal #2 – “Zero Hunger” by 2030. Yet this doesn’t mean the goal is out of reach – rather, we should use this moment to think critically about the kinds of long-term solutions we need to solve the hunger crisis, and, start taking decisive action to combat it. This year, the outpouring of immediate relief for those suffering from food insecurity in COVID-19’s wake has been awe-inspiring, powerful, and critically necessary, and it is time for us to bring that collective energy to long-term solutions – it is the only way we can end the hunger crisis for good.