5 END HUNGER, ACHIEVE FOOD SECURITY AND IMPROVED NUTRITION AND PROMOTE SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE
The second Sustainable Development Goal is all about ending hunger. This goal isn’t just about making sure everyone has enough food to eat, it’s also about making sure that food is safe and nutritious. Because the food we eat has to come from somewhere, this goal also directs attention to sustainable food production, resilient agriculture and local and global cooperation when it comes to investing in agricultural productivity.
Learning Objectives
- Learners will understand and be able to communicate the difference between hunger, food security and malnutrition, and their main physical and psychological effects on human life.
- Learners will understand the drivers, causes and distribution of hunger and malnutrition locally, nationally and globally.
- Learners will understand the principles of sustainable agriculture and why it is needed to combat hunger and malnutrition.
- Learners will be able to collaborate with, encourage and empower others to combat hunger and promote sustainable agriculture.
- Learners will be able to evaluate, participate and implement actions personally and locally to combat hunger and promote sustainable agriculture.
Essential Questions
Media (Identification of Value/Biases)
How does the media present hunger and food security? Locally? Nationally? Internationally?
Consumerism
Do our consumer habits impact other’s access to quality food?
Environment
How do environmental concerns like climate change impact food security?
Poverty, wealth and power
How does access to power and wealth relate to food security?
Indigenous Peoples
In what ways do Indigenous people experience food insecurity uniquely?
Oppression and genocide
How is hunger a form of oppression?
Health and biotechnology
How is technology being used to improve food security?
Gender politics
How does gender impact a person’s experience with hunger and food security?
Social justice and human rights
How can we enforce access to healthy food as a human right? Locally? Nationally? Internationally?
Peace and conflict
How does solving food security issues affect peace and conflict?
Overview of The Goal:
Why is food security important?
Hunger is not just the feeling in your belly right before lunch; for millions of people all over the world, it is an ongoing threat to health and well-being. Everyone deserves access to enough nutritious food to keep them healthy and living good lives. According to the United Nations, about 10% of the world’s population experience chronic hunger. Hunger can result from generational poverty, national or regional instability, or it can be situational (for instance a parent losing a job).
HUNGER COMES IN DIFFERENT FORMS:
Undernourishment: Not getting enough to eat to support the body’s basic functions. This can cause stunted growth in children or even death.
Malnutrition: Not eating the right foods. Often fast foods or processed foods are a cheap solution for families who can’t afford fresh produce and proteins, but these foods are high in sugar, fat, and salt – all of which can lead to illness.
Food Insecurity: Not knowing where your next meal will come from. This type of hunger can include a family skipping meals to stretch their food budget or entire communities at the mercy of crop yields.
The good news is that there are far fewer hungry people now than there were 20 years ago. The bad news is that hunger has been on the rise since 2015.
- What aspects of hunger interest you and your students the most? What questions will you be exploring?
- Why do some people not have enough to eat?
- How does hunger impact people’s lives?
- Where does our food come from?
- How do people around the world feed their families?
- What other forces and issues are connected with hunger and food security?
- How are people trying to solve this issue?
Learning Activities
Activity: Hungry Planet: What the World Eats
American photographer Peter Menzel and writer Faith D’Aluisio have traveled the world documenting that most basic of human behaviors—what we eat. Their project, “Hungry Planet,” depicts everything that an average family consumes in a given week—and what it costs. The pair released their book “Hungry Planet: What the World Eats” in 2005, showcasing meals in 24 countries.
https://time.com/8515/what-the-world-eats-hungry-planet/
Activity: Food Articles and Photos from National Geographic
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/foodfeatures/feeding-9-billion/
Activity: Hunger and food insecurity website for research from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
FAO’s imperative is to make sure no one suffers from hunger. Yet, while many people may not be “hungry” in the sense that they are suffering physical discomfort caused by a severe lack of dietary energy, they may still be food insecure. They might have access to food to meet their energy requirements, yet are uncertain that it will last, or they may be forced to reduce the quality and/or quantity of the food they eat in order to get by. This moderate level of food insecurity can contribute to various forms of malnutrition and can have serious consequences for health and well-being.
Activity: Food Access Research Atlas from United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service
- Presents a spatial overview of food access indicators for low-income and other census tracts using different measures of supermarket accessibility;
- Provides food access data for populations within census tracts; and
- Offers census-tract-level data on food access that can be downloaded for community planning or research purposes.
What can you do with the Atlas?
- Create maps showing food access indicators by census tract using different measures and indicators of supermarket accessibility;
- Compare food access measures based on 2015 data with the previous 2010 measures;
- View indicators of food access for selected subpopulations; and
- Download census-tract-level data on food access measures.
https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-access-research-atlas
Activity: Stories of Young People acting Around the Global
Check out the stories below of young people acting to address issues of hunger in their communities and around the world:
Maryland 11-year-old grows food for her neighbors.
Teenager creates app that connects food donors with charities to distribute food to those in need.
First grader’s birthday food drive raises 1,900 meals.
Florida kid raises money to buy lunches for the homeless.
Videos
Esther Ndichu: Hunger isn’t a food issue. It’s a logistics issue
Most people presume that world hunger is caused by a lack of food. But Esther Ndichu, the humanitarian supply chain director at UPS, argues that the real issue is logistics. She points out that food often rots just miles from the neediest people and that farmers often can’t get goods to market. By fixing the “last mile,” she shows that hunger can be solved in our lifetime.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXlMn3WGHkE
Josette Sheeran: Ending hunger now
Josette Sheeran, the head of the UN’s World Food Program, talks about why, in a world with enough food for everyone, people still go hungry, still die of starvation, still use food as a weapon of war. Her vision: “Food is one issue that cannot be solved person by person. We have to stand together.”
https://www.ted.com/talks/josette_sheeran_ending_hunger_now
Further Research and Activities
Global Kitchen | ProjectExplorer.org
This collection of videos displays the Global Kitchen series from ProjectExplorer.org. If you’re looking for anything food-related then you are in the right place!
Assessment and Reflection
Reflection Journal
- Describe the learning activities (articles, videos, etc.) and your experience – What did you do/hear/see?
- Interpret and evaluate the events from your perspective – What do I think about it now? How does it relate to other things that I know?
- Explain your experience; reveal your new insights, connections with other learning, your hypotheses, and your conclusions.
- Reflect on how this information will be useful to you – What questions do I have? Have I changed how I think about the situation? Where do I go from here?
- What did you particularly value and why?
Renewable Assignment Options
Make every dollar count. Buy from sustainable, local or fair-trade sources when you can. When you buy fair trade, you are ensuring the producers of your food are receiving a fair price and fair wage for their produce. Buying local also helps cut down on the environmental impact of large-scale productions and transport.
Volunteer at a food cooperative or community garden. Give your time and talent to learning about sustainable practices in your community by getting involved in a local food cooperative or community garden that supports food security on a community level. Internationally, you can encourage programs that improve access to credit, education and gender equality. Social investment and economic empowerment with a sustainable focus mean better opportunities for income and food production for us and the future.
Volunteer at a local foodbank. Find out what your local organizations need and help them get it. Everybody loves cake icing, but tinned meat and fruit, peanut butter or baby formula will go further in addressing malnutrition. Buy some healthy food that doesn’t need to be prepared (think granola bars or bananas) and keep them in your bag or your car to hand out to people asking for food donations on your daily route.
Host an awareness day. Learn about hunger in your community, then host an awareness day. Bake muffins and hand them out to other students while you talk about Goal 2 school.
Help support a local effort to reduce hunger. School feeding programs, foodbanks, local charities and feeding programs are great ways to get involved. Find out what’s happening in your community and get on board.
Try out the 30 Hour Famine Challenge from World Vision. The 30 Hour Famine is an experiential fundraising campaign that raises awareness and funds for the world’s most vulnerable. For 30 hours, people volunteer to fast or give up something they would normally do, to stand in solidarity with those who go without every day.
Find the people in your community who are working to fight food insecurity on the front lines. Have your students interview them (face-to-face or via Skype) about who is hungry in their local community, why, how it impacts their lives, and how the issue is being addressed. These conversations can help you and your students understand how to be an agent of change in responsible and effective ways. Possible local experts include:
•People who run food pantries and soup kitchens.
•Community gardeners.
•City or county food stamps administrators.
•Nutritionists.
•Health care workers.
