The Feed

Stories of Feeding God's Children Hungry in Body & Spirit

FMSC Hunger Bulletin | January 2024

January 30, 2024
Julie Smith
From the Field

Each meal you pack, fund and pray over equips FMSC partners to do transformative work around the world. Hunger relief is usually just part of what our partners do — but food is the foundation for so much more.

DEFINING HUNGER

Acute Food Insecurity

A lack of immediate access to sufficient food resulting from sudden events like conflicts, natural disasters or economic crises, leading to hunger and increased vulnerability.

Chronic Food Insecurity

Persistent, long-term insufficient access to adequate food due to structural issues such as poverty, lack of infrastructure and economic inequality, leading to prolonged hunger and malnutrition.

Famine

An extreme and prolonged scarcity of food on a widespread scale often caused by complex emergencies like conflicts, droughts or political instability. By the time famine is declared, people are already dying from a lack of food.

Peru | South America

FMSC food distribution in Peru

Prevalence of food insecurity: 51% (World Food Programme, 2023)

2022 data shows more than one of every five individuals in Peru is experiencing severe food insecurity — meaning that they’ll go days or even weeks without a meal. More than half the total population is moderately food insecure.

Recent years have brought renewed struggles to the country — rising poverty, increased climate-related emergencies and impact of the pandemic are barriers to the growth the country had been seeing.

Like in many countries, Peru’s rural populations see the highest levels of hunger, owing to a growing wealth gap between urban and rural communities.

Though Peru has halved its rate of chronic child malnutrition in recent years to 13.1% (World Food Programme, 2023) — a cause for celebration! — rural regions still see prevalence as high as 33.4%. And among indigenous communities, child stunting rates have not improved in the past decade.

FMSC food is used to support our partners’ work in Peru, including: