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On June 17, 1963, Newsweek's cover story spotlighted world hunger and America's main tool combating it—Food for Peace. Through this noble humanitarian government program, America's surplus food was sent overseas to countries suffering from hunger. Food for Peace became vital to America's foreign policy, and offered life and hope to the needy as compared to nuclear weapons.
"The forests of grain elevators across the U.S. have been components in the American arsenal as vital as any skyward-trained ICBM complex- and, mercifully, more active," the Newsweek feature stated.
Today, Food for Peace must again be given the attention it needs, especially with famines threatening Gaza and Sudan. With millions of people at risk of starvation, the world needs Food for Peace now more than ever.
Food for Peace got its start on July 10, 1954, when former President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed Public Law 480. As Eisenhower said, Public Law 480 would enable U.S. food "surpluses to meet famine and other emergency requirements, thus enabling us to maintain our American tradition of generous help in time of need."
Public Law 480 would eventually be called Food for Peace. For millions of hungry people around the world, Food for Peace has been lifesaving. It is more than just a program. Food for Peace is a movement that came about from our experiences in both World War I and II, which plunged many nations into severe food shortages.
America could not win the peace during these wars without taking on the enemy of hunger. American food aid was critical to saving millions from starvation during and after world wars.
Food for Peace became a program for preventing hunger on a yearly basis. Helping nations finish the recovery from World War II was one of the earlier goals of Food for Peace. But it also took on hunger everywhere like fighting famine in India and Africa.
Food for Peace could feed nations while promoting stability. As former President John F. Kennedy said in 1960, "Food is strength, and food is peace, and food is freedom, and food is a helping hand to people around the world whose good will and friendship we want."
One of the major Food for Peace initiatives during the Kennedy administration was the expansion of overseas school lunches. Former Food for Peace director George McGovern led a massive plan to feed hungry children school meals. School lunches are a life-changer for kids in impoverished countries. These meals save lives and entire nations. In South Korea, Food for Peace school lunches helped a generation of kids recover from a devastating war.
It's critical today that U.S.-sponsored school lunches overseas continue combatting hunger through Food for Peace and its partner initiative, the McGovern-Dole Food for Education program.
Food for Peace led to the creation of the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) in 1961, an international humanitarian effort. Donations from Food for Peace continue to play a major role in helping WFP respond to global hunger emergencies.
Congress must ensure enough funding for Food for Peace, especially with hunger worsening in war-torn areas like Gaza, Yemen, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Severe drought in southern Africa is contributing to hunger. In Sudan, hunger continues to worsen, and famine has been declared in parts of the country.
Food for Peace is needed to respond to global hunger emergencies. In the long-term, it cannot be solely about sending U.S. food to nations suffering. Food for Peace must help farmers in developing countries build resilience to get through disasters like drought. Food for Peace must retain flexibility so it can obtain food from local sources within impoverished nations.
The best way to run Food for Peace is for Congress to coordinate its legislative decisions with relief agencies that understand the needs of impoverished countries. In this way, the right programs can be set up to alleviate hunger.
Food for Peace has saved many lives and nations from hunger in the last 70 years. Today, it is called upon again to save lives in war and drought zones. Each of us can be an advocate for Food for Peace by contacting Congress and urging them to support the program.
America needs to rally behind Food for Peace in the fight against world hunger.
William Lambers is an author who partnered with the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) on the book Ending World Hunger. His writings have been published by The Washington Post, History News Network, Cleveland's The Plain Dealer and many other news outlets. Lambers recently volunteered to write the Hunger Heroes section of WFP's online learning game Freerice.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
