Did you know that as much as 40 percent of the food supply in America goes to waste each year?

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that more than 130 billion pounds of food is wasted in this country alone every year – an average of more than 200 pounds of food per person! It’s a staggering number, and combined with the approximately 17 percent of food going to waste in the rest of the world, it has real consequences for people everywhere:

• Wasted food goes into landfills instead of feeding hungry people. Tens of millions of people in America, and hundreds of millions of people around the world, do not have enough food to eat each year. But as we can see by the amount of food wasted, it’s not a supply problem. We have more than enough food for all people. 
• But it’s not just the food that goes to waste. Producing food requires numerous resources: land, water, technology, labor, transportation, and much more. When we waste large quantities of food, we’re wasting all of those resources, too.
• Food waste also has a negative impact with regards to climate change. The production and supply chains for our food involve the release of some greenhouse gases, of course. And as the wasted food decomposes in landfills, it gives off methane, a greenhouse gas 86 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. 

True, a large portion of wasted food is on the production and supply end. (Think about a refrigerator malfunction spoiling dairy products, or fruits and vegetables spoiling before they get to your grocery store.) But there are still many ways in which regular people can reduce food waste in measurable, impactful ways. So how can you do your part? Here are five simple tips:

       1.Have a plan and buy what you need. Buying in bulk can be a money- and time-saver, reducing the amount of grocery store trips you’ll need to make. But it’s also often a good way to end up with wasted food. Developing a weekly meal plan, and only buying the ingredients you need to stick to it, is a good way of ensuring that all the food you buy will go to good use.

       2.Don’t be afraid of “ugly” fruits and vegetables. One big source of food waste on the retail/consumer side is produce that may look visually unappealing – because of an odd shape, bruises, or other cosmetic reasons – but that are actually exactly as safe, nutritious and tasty as “normal-looking” fruit. Because of their appearance, “ugly” fruits and veggies are often dumped before they go bad. By buying “ugly” produce, you’ll get the same great taste and reduce waste.

       3.Save your leftovers. Sometimes you just get full and can’t finish all the delicious food you cooked. Rather than dumping it, save it for another day! Store your leftovers in an airtight container and refrigerate or freeze as necessary. You’ve got a simple, easy-to-prepare meal for another time, or maybe an ingredient you can reuse for tomorrow’s dinner.

       4.Donate what you can’t use. Local food banks are always in need of non-perishable food items (canned goods, dried fruits and vegetables, etc.). But your unspoiled perishable goods could also be acceptable, depending on the food bank and the quality of your food. Sharing your excess food with your community is doubly effective: less waste, and fewer people going hungry.

      5.Compost your food waste. Sometimes food waste is just unavoidable. If you have fruits or vegetables that go bad (or used eggshells, nut shells, or coffee grounds), try composting them. Burying this organic material in your backyard provides nutrients to the soil, reduces your carbon footprint, and turns food waste into something much more productive. Just remember, you can’t compost meat, bones, fats and oils, or dairy products.

Help feed people in need with Embrace Relief

It’s important to be mindful of food waste, because so many millions of people in America and around the world don’t have the luxury to waste any food. Hunger can be found everywhere, and we all have a responsibility to reduce suffering where we can. At Embrace Relief, we’re doing our part by directly providing food to people in need.

During our International Hunger Relief Campaign: Ramadan 2021, Embrace Relief delivered food packages to more than 30,000 people across 12 countries, including more than 1,300 in Greece, more than 1,100 in Yemen, and hundreds more families in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. We also helped out locally, delivering food to 900 neighboring families in New Jersey.

For our International Hunger Relief Campaign 2022, we want to do so much more, and your support can make that possible. Donating any amount of money will make a difference – the amounts below represent the cost of one food package that will feed a family for one week:

• $50 for refugees in Greece
• $50 for families in the U.S.
• $65 for Yemeni families
• $25 for African children

So please, donate today. Every contribution you make helps one more family go to bed on a full stomach, and brings us one small step closer to ending world hunger.

More than one-fourth of all people in Africa are food insecure. Hunger, even extreme hunger, in Africa has escalated in recent years after a long period of increasing food supply for the continent’s growing population.

Thanks to disruptions caused by structural poverty, conflict, climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic, hunger in Africa has reached a crisis point. An estimated 346 million Africans lived with “severe” food insecurity in 2020, by far the highest percentage of hungry people (26.6% of the total population) of any continent.

The crisis is widespread particularly in the central part of Africa, south of the Sahara Desert and north of the Congo River. More than 9 out of every 10 hungry people on the continent are located in this area.

• In Central Africa – including countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Congo Republic, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad and Angola – estimates are that nearly 1 in 3 people (31%) are undernourished. 
• The situation is particularly dire in countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where 45 million people do not have enough food to eat in April 2022, according to the UN World Food Programme’s Hunger Map. More than half of the country’s children under the age of 5 are chronically undernourished as well.
• Heavily populated East Africa – which includes countries such as Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, and Tanzania – is home to more than 129 million people who suffered undernourishment in 2020, roughly 28 percent of the population.
• According to the Hunger Map, there are currently nearly 29 million hungry people in Ethiopia alone. Approximately 36 percent of Ethiopian children are chronically undernourished.

A lack of food has devastating consequences especially for all, but especially children. One study concluded that as many as 260,000 children died of starvation in East Africa in 2021. Meanwhile, children going hungry are at severe risk for wasting (low weight for one’s height) and stunting (low height for one’s age), which can cause lifelong health issues and prevent children from reaching their physical and mental potential.

Help feed people in need with Embrace Relief

We have the ability to feed every single person on this planet, and more importantly, we all have a responsibility to ensure that we all have enough to eat. At Embrace Relief, we’ve made providing food to people in need a cornerstone of our mission. During our International Hunger Relief Campaign: Ramadan 2021, Embrace Relief delivered food packages to more than 30,000 people across 12 countries, including more than 1,300 in Greece, more than 1,100 in Yemen, and hundreds more families in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. We also helped out locally, delivering food to 900 neighboring families in New Jersey.

For our International Hunger Relief Campaign 2022, we want to do so much more, and your support can make that possible. Donating any amount of money will make a difference – the amounts below represent the cost of one food package that will feed a family for one week:

• $50 for refugees in Greece
• $50 for families in the U.S.
• $65 for Yemeni families
• $25 for African children

So please, donate today. Every contribution you make helps one more family go to bed on a full stomach, and brings us one small step closer to ending world hunger.

Nearly 14 million people In the United States lived with food insecurity in 2020.

In the wealthiest country in the world, a full 10.5 percent of households – approximately 38 million people – in America were unsure of where their next meal came from at some point in 2020, because they lacked the money or resources. Many of these people were forced to alter their diets, reduce their food intake, or seek assistance from local governments and charities to survive.

Even worse, American households with children were statistically more likely to not have enough food to eat, according to the USDA:

• An estimated 14.8 percent of households with children suffered from some level of food insecurity in 2020.
• Food-insecure households were split just about evenly between those in which only adults were food-insecure and those in which both adults and children were hungry. There were approximately 2.9 million households in the latter category, adding up to about 6.1 million children, in 2020.
• Rates of food insecurity were even higher among households with children under the age of 6 (15.3 percent), as well as those households headed by a single woman (27.7 percent) or single man (16.3 percent).
• And unsurprisingly, poverty was a leading indicator of households with children dealing with food insecurity: almost one in three households with an income level 185 percent below the poverty line was food insecure in 2020.
• After a long period of decline, hunger in the US has been increasing in recent years, and the COVID-19 pandemic made the situation worse, as millions lost their jobs and income, resulting in more people relying on government programs and local organizations

It goes without saying that food is an important part of a healthy life and a human right. When families can’t afford the proper amount of nutritious food, they suffer physically and emotionally.

There simply is no reason why anyone in the United States should ever go hungry. But until poverty and hunger are solved for good, there are neighbors who need our help right now.

Help feed people in need with Embrace Relief

That’s where the Embrace Relief Foundation comes in. While we provide food and aid to needy people all around the world, Embrace Relief has made it part of our mission to help those closest to us. During our International Hunger Relief Campaign: Ramadan 2021, Embrace Relief delivered food to 900 families in New Jersey, in addition to the food packages we sent to more than 30,000 people across 12 countries, including more than 1,300 in Greece, more than 1,100 in Yemen, and hundreds more families in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

For our International Hunger Relief Campaign 2022, we want to do so much more, and your support can make that possible. Donating any amount of money will make a difference – the amounts below represent the cost of one food package that will feed a family for one week:

• $50 for refugees in Greece
• $50 for families in the U.S.
• $65 for Yemeni families
• $25 for African children

So please, donate today. Every contribution you make helps one more family go to bed on a full stomach, and brings us one small step closer to ending world hunger.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative effect on food security around the globe.

After a long period of worldwide decline, the number of people suffering from hunger began to rise again in 2019 due primarily to conflicts, climate change, and natural disasters. Then the world was overcome by the coronavirus pandemic in February and March 2020. The economic damage caused by COVID was widespread: millions of people lost their jobs or parts of their income, supply chains were disrupted as national borders were closed, and food prices rose dramatically as demand rose, among other impacts.

In low-income countries, these factors made a dire hunger situation worse. In areas of the world like sub-Saharan Africa, people typically spend a high proportion of their income just on food. So when the price of staples like eggs, fruits, vegetables and wheat rises quickly, as has happened because of COVID, suddenly millions of people are unable to afford the life-sustaining food they need.

All of this suffering adds up quickly.

• A July 2021 report from the United Nations indicated skyrocketing levels of global hunger during 2020, with more than 2.3 billion people – more than a one-fourth of the world’s population – not having enough food to eat year-round.
• Additionally, estimates say that as many as 660 million people will still be hungry in 2030, the year the world was supposed to reach “Zero Hunger” according to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, with much of the shortfall attributable to the pandemic.
• Increased hunger is a major issue in the United States, too: The pandemic saw the number of households with children suffering from food insecurity spike, up to 15 percent. 
• The widespread closure of businesses and schools during the height of the pandemic led to unemployment, increased poverty, and no free or subsidized lunches for children in need. 
• An estimated 38 million people in the U.S., about one in every nine Americans, was food insecure in 2020. 

Food security and COVID-19 are inextricably linked. And so while the pandemic continues, we must do all we can to get food to the people who need it.

Help feed people in need with Embrace Relief

That’s where the Embrace Relief Foundation comes in. Embrace Relief has made it part of our mission to provide food to people in need. During our International Hunger Relief Campaign: Ramadan 2021, Embrace Relief delivered food packages to more than 30,000 people across 12 countries, including more than 1,300 in Greece, more than 1,100 in Yemen, and hundreds more families in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. We also helped out locally, delivering food to 900 neighboring families in New Jersey.

For our International Hunger Relief Campaign 2022, we want to do so much more, and your support can make that possible. Donating any amount of money will make a difference – the amounts below represent the cost of one food package that will feed a family for one week:

• $50 for refugees in Greece
• $50 for families in the U.S.
• $65 for Yemeni families
• $25 for African children

So please, donate today. Every contribution you make helps one more family go to bed on a full stomach, and brings us one small step closer to ending world hunger.