The generation to end hunger

How many of us remember our parents telling us to ‘finish your dinner, there are children starving in Africa’ when we refused to eat our greens?

Hunger in the developing world is almost a cliché. It is as if we’ve become resigned to the fact that there will always be starving people around the world.

Today seemed to signal the start of a new chapter; the realisation that we could be the generation which ensures no child is ever born to die for lack of food.

Please support our campaign — name a day you’ll do one thing to help end hunger

New report

Save the Children’s report A life free from hunger revealed that hunger is the underlying cause of one third of child deaths.

To put this into perspective, this means that every hour of every day, 300 children die simply because they don’t have enough food to eat.

However, what the report has also exposed is the hidden curse of hunger: malnutrition. Many more children are deprived of essential minerals and vitamins, preventing them from fully developing both physically and mentally.

It was this fact that hit me hardest.  Millions of children (in fact 450 million in the next 15 years) will be prevented from reaching their full potential because they were malnourished in the crucial first 1,000 days of their life.

That’s millions of potential World leaders, scientists or Olympic athletes with their futures irreversibly damaged by the age of three.

Campaign launch

I was privileged to be able to attend the launch of this landmark report. Stepping into a studio in Camden, filled with the camera flashes of the media, I certainly felt a world away from my normal Wednesday morning.

We heard from Natasha Kaplinsky and Myleene Klass, who had  recently returned from trips to Mozambique and Bangladesh.

The footage from their visits showed the silent pain of hunger faced by millions of children. A child of two years old, weighing just 6lb, the size of a young baby. A father, distraught, as his children cry for food he hasn’t got. For so many families this is an everyday reality.

Commitment in Rwanda

By the powers of Skype we heard from writer and presenter Jay Rayner in Rwanda.

Jay was joined by Dr Agnes, Minister of Health for Rwanda. It was a great moment when Dr Agnes made a live commitment: ‘In one year come back to me and you will see what we will do as a result of this campaign’.

There was a real sense that  our campaign was starting to bring the hidden crisis of hunger and malnutrition into the spotlight not just in the UK but around the world.

Play your part

The launch was only the beginning, the rumbles continued to spread and get louder as the day went on.

Hunger was in the headlines all over the UK, on our television screens and filling up Twitter feeds.

It must not stop here. You can play your part too. Whether you share our campaign video, lobby your MP or hold an event to act against hunger, you too could be part of the generation which ends hunger, for good.

Please support our campaign — name a day you’ll do one thing to help end hunger