WFP is the UN’s front-line agency in the fight against global hunger. It is the world’s largest international food aid organization. Every year, WFP feeds some 90 million people in more than 80 countries, irrespective of race, religion or political sympathies, distributing between 4 and 5 million metric tons of food. All contributions to WFP are voluntary and come for the most part from donor countries.
Activities
WFP works principally to save people from dying of hunger and malnutrition. WFP is also a big investor in environmental protection. It invests in forest and pasture land renewal, soil conservation and sustainable agricultural production. WFP has planted more than 5 billion trees in 56 countries around the world. WFP also takes steps to counter degradation to the environment caused by displacements of refugees and internal populations. The Food-for-Work programmes consist in paying a salary in the form of food for employment in an array of land management projects: planting trees, developing pasture land, repairing coastal embankments, etc. In addition, WFP recycles the packaging from its food aid whenever possible, avoids using potentially hazardous chemicals (particularly ozone-damaging substances), substitutes soya-fortified foods for beans in its food baskets to reduce the need for cooking, and promotes cooking technologies based on the minimal use of vegetation as fuel and on community kitchens as another fuel-conservation method.
