How can I help solve world hunger? – Deseret News

The overall message was one of hope, perhaps surprising for a forum devoted to combating world hunger.

Sharon Eubank, director of Latter-day Saint Charities and a former member of the Relief Society general presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Barron Segar, president and CEO of the World Food Program USA, addressed a packed audience on the BYU campus Thursday evening at a forum hosted by the Ballard Center for Social Impact.

Ballard Center Director Eva Witesman sat down with Eubank and Segar to talk about how the two organizations’ collaboration is helping those in need. The Church of Jesus Christ and the World Food Program have worked together for more than 10 years, in nearly 50 countries.

Segar was blunt and said the church’s support “saves hundreds of millions of lives every year.”

“The church is our most important partner,” he said, reiterating what he said earlier this year when he was in Utah.

In addition to an ambitious message, he also shared concrete data: one in three people in the world faces food insecurity, more than 300 million people suffer from hunger, and of these, 37 million face famine. Today, the leading cause of hunger is war and conflict in the world. And, “as always,” Segar said, the most vulnerable are those who are the hungriest, especially women and children.

Eubank was asked why The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints chose hunger as its top priority. After spending years researching what would make the biggest difference, Church leaders determined that focusing on the period from birth to age 5 would have the most impact. Children must survive birth, and their mothers must survive birth. They must have access to clean water and enough nutritious food so their brains can develop properly during that critical five-year period, and then they must begin school.

Local needs

Eubank and Segar also spoke about local needs. There are hungry people in Provo, just as there are in Liberia. While there are differences, there are also similarities: The people who live in each place have dreams and aspirations for themselves and their children. Liberian children dream of becoming teachers and doctors, engineers and police officers. The admonition to “love your neighbor as yourself” applies to those near and far, they said.

Eubank was even more direct. “You are more important than you think, where you live,” she said. Often, she said, people think they have to travel abroad to be effective in a humanitarian context, but at home you speak the language, you know the culture and you can get involved in issues that matter to you every day. “What excites me more than any place abroad,” she said, “is what we can do in our own communities.”

At the end of the evening, Jill Piacitelli, associate director of the Ballard Center, and Rebecca Middleton, chief advocacy and engagement officer for the World Food Program USA, took a few minutes to talk to BYU students about how to turn inspiration into action.

First, Middleton says, there are at least three paths to social impact. One is to pursue a career in the field. Two is to apply a social impact lens to any job. And three is to be a person in the community. “There’s something for everyone,” she says, and taking that first small step can be transformative.

Piacitelli and Middleton shared three ways to get started. First, students were invited to learn about and take action on global hunger by participating in a new World Food Programme initiative, currently in its “soft launch” phase: Generation Zero Hunger.

Second, students were encouraged to get involved in their local community by searching for local service opportunities on the JustServe website.

Third, students were invited to participate in the Ballard Center’s End Hunger Challenge, which had to be completed by October 16, World Food Day.

“I have a lot of hope,” Eubank said. The world is difficult and chaotic, and it is really tough, but its problems are not insoluble. “We are committed to defending the interests of our neighbor,” she said.