Responding to Worldwide Food Shortages

In Port-au-Prince, Haiti, a young father walks through the open market in the sweltering heat. It has been difficult for him to find work. His relentless efforts at day labor have earned him less than two dollars a day. As he looks down at a bag of rice in the market, he knows he cannot even begin to afford it. It was $50 a bag last year, $75 last month, and today the outrageous price tag reads $200. It will take more than three months of work to afford one bag of rice, and if this continues he will not be able to feed his wife and young children.

Some who have been affected by similar situations have become enraged, resulting in violent uprisings, protests, and rioting on the streets. Pictured above, in April 2008, UN peacekeepers were called in to control a crowd during demonstrations against the cost of living in Port-au-Prince.

Yet this crisis is not only limited to Haiti. Major news agencies and world governments report that thirty-three nations are “at risk of social unrest” because of the rising prices of food. This is truly a global crisis. Consider these current events:

• Egypt is a powder keg. Streets are filled with rioting because fathers can no longer afford a loaf of bread to feed their hungry families.
• Niger, Cameroon, Indonesia, Bolivia, Ivory Coast, Mozambique and Uzbekistan are fearful the discontent brewing within their borders will erupt into violence.
• Pakistan and Thailand have deployed their armies to keep their own people from looting farm fields and storehouses.

The Bible foresaw times like these. “Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged” (Isaiah 8:21).

As servants of Jesus Christ, we are to follow his example in the face of great hunger. He had compassion, and he calls us to have compassion. It is easy for us to place responsibility on governments and the United Nations, or to comfort ourselves knowing charitable organizations are at work addressing the need. Yet Jesus calls us to act in compassion, to show our love for the children of God in times of crisis.

These hunger crises call for response in two important ways. First, the immediate need must be addressed to bring relief from starvation by delivering basic food supplies. With your help, World Challenge has supplied truckloads of food to the needy in Uganda and Haiti. Workers have also been sent into remote villages in Cambodia, Peru, El Salvador and elsewhere, backpacking in as much food as can be carried.

Secondly, there must be work toward long-term solutions. World Challenge is seeing progress and change in areas that have suffered perpetual food shortages and massive scale hunger. Offering simple solutions, such as teaching better farming practices or helping to implement irrigation systems in Southeast Asia, East Africa and Brazil, we have seen the practical love of Christ in action.

This month, World Challenge is obtaining food for Iraqi refugees, the impoverished in Kenya’s slums, and the hungry in Haiti and other troubled areas. We trust our continued partnership with existing ministries — and with you — will provide lasting solutions in the world’s neediest areas. We thank you in Jesus’ name for your compassionate response.