Larry Jones, the President of Feed The Children, today endorsed
President Obama’s pledge made at the G-20 Summit in London for $448
million for immediate food assistance for hungry people in poor nations
and an additional $1 billion for global food security investments
through additional technical assistance in agriculture and development.
“I have witnessed firsthand the incredible suffering of hungry children
in Africa, Latin America and Asia. I applaud President Obama’s proposal
to make real investments in international food assistance and the new
initiatives that will help developing nations increase their own
agricultural production to reduce hunger in the long term,” said Larry
Jones, President of Feed The Children. “While Feed The Children
continues its work to care for those in need here in the United States
through our ‘Americans Feeding Americans’ program and other efforts, we
can’t forget that the current economic crisis is also affecting the very
poorest of the poor in African nations and other developing regions. Far
too often it is the children that suffer the most while we debate
policies."
President Obama’s call for increased aid to developing nations comes on
the heels of his pledge to end childhood hunger in the United States by
2015. The issue of international food insecurity has received prominent
attention recently with a recent World Food Program report that finds
that nearly one billion people around the world are now hungry,
reversing a thirty year trend of reducing the proportion of hungry
people in poorer nations. Feed The Children, in collaboration with more
than 40 other leading humanitarian relief organizations, recently
supported The Roadmap to End Hunger, which contains many of the policies
announced by the President.
Earlier this week, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed through
committee the “Global Food Security Act”, S.384, legislation endorsed by
Feed The Children that focuses on alleviating global hunger through
investments in long-term solutions and greater coordination of efforts
across the government and with non-profit organizations. The Global Food
Security Act, introduced by Senators Richard Lugar (R-IN) and Bob Casey
(D-PA) creates a Special Coordinator for Global Food Security at the
White House, increases emergency assistance for people living in extreme
poverty through the establishment of a new Emergency Food Assistance
Fund, and creates a new program for the development of farming in famine
prone areas by tapping into agricultural science and research
collaborations with U.S. universities and colleges.
Despite economic certainties here at home, American voters have signaled
their willingness to make additional investments in global food security
and hunger relief. According to recent polling conducted for the
Alliance to End Hunger, a coalition of leading nonprofit, religious,
corporate and academic institutions that includes Feed The Children, a
strong majority (69 percent) of voters polled said they support
dedicating an additional one percent of the U.S. budget to foreign aid
to combat hunger in the developing world.
“It is critical that the Congress takes action to pass the Global Food
Security Act and implement the President’s plan," said Larry Jones.
“Time is of the essence and every day that we delay more hungry children
will suffer.”
About Feed The Children
Founded in 1979 by Larry and Frances Jones, Feed The Children is
consistently ranked as one of the 10 largest international charities in
the U.S., based on private, non-government support. Feed The Children is
a Christian, international, nonprofit relief organization with
headquarters in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, that delivers food, medicine,
clothing and other necessities to individuals, children and families who
lack these essentials due to famine, war, poverty or natural disasters.
In FY 2008, Feed The Children distributed more than 100 million pounds
of food and other essentials to children and their families in all 50
states and internationally, supplementing almost 900,000 meals each day.
For more information, please visit