Gorta and the UN
gorta was established by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations and maintains its links with the UN as the FAO affiliate in Ireland.
Every year since 1980, gorta has hosted World Food Day events in Ireland.
World Food Day - October 16th - is an international day set aside to highlight the plight of people around the world suffering from hunger and poverty. Host organisations in every UN affiliated country mark the day with a variety of events.
The theme of this year’s observance is United against Hunger, chosen to recognize the efforts made in the fight against world hunger at national, regional and international levels.
Uniting against hunger becomes real when state and civil society organizations and the private sector work in partnership at all levels to defeat hunger, extreme poverty and malnutrition.
In 2009, the critical threshold of one billion hungry people in the world was reached in part due to soaring food prices and the financial crisis, a "catastrophic scale of hunger in the twenty first century, which is quite simply, obscene" according to gorta CEO Brian Hanratty.
The "1 billion hungry project" reaches out to people through online social media to invite them to sign the anti-hunger petition.
On this World Food Day 2010, when there have never been so many hungry people in the world, let us reflect on the future. With willpower, courage and persistence – and many players working together and helping each other – more food can be produced, more sustainably, and get into the mouths of those who need it most.
Related Websites:
Professional Football Against Hunger
