Foodbank Nigeria, a non-profit organisation that gathers and distributes food to the needy, is seeking support from those well off at home and abroad to wipe out hunger or reduce it to the barest minimum in Africa’s most populous nation.
The primary aim is to help feed the hungry and empower them, said Foodbank Nigeria Chairman, Ituah Ighodalo.
805m under-nourished worldwide
About 805 million people chronically under-nourished in the world do not have enough food to live a healthy life, some live on less than one meal a day, or one or two meals every week.
Some are bed-ridden, some have ailment in their body, some are mentally and physically retarded. Some of these people have no hope.
Ighodalo, who is also Pastor of Trinity House, said “in Nigeria, one in every two persons does not have enough quantity of food or proportion and right nutritional value to keep them healthy and fit and this does not mean that they do not eat at all.
“The fact is that they do not eat the right kind of food or they do not have enough of that food.
“Somebody who is supposed to eat three times a day is probably eating one time or half of the one time a day. Somebody expected to take bread and tea, taking only bread or tea without milk.”
93.5m Nigerians under-nourished
About 55 per cent of the Nigerian population (93.5 million) is undernourished, which Ighodalo said “is a very serious problem in a country where we have many hectares of arable farm land, some of the best water ways in the world, the best soil and the best minerals in the world.”
Hunger is defined as a form of signal the body receives from the digestive system to show that it is running out of supplies and that it needs food. Hunger is a complex phenomenon that cuts across and affects all cultures, tribes, religions, and geographical boundaries.
All over the world, about two billion people suffer from one or more micronutrient deficiencies as a result of not eating a varied diet of protein, vitamins, and minerals necessary for proper growth.
About 67 per cent of these people live in Asia and Africa.
Quest for zero hunger communities
Foodbank Nigeria, established two years ago, collects, stores, repackages, and distributes food donations to needy families through charities and foundations which feed the hungry within their communities.
Its Project Coordinator, Paul Achem, explains that the organisation works as an aid clearing house which coordinates and maximises the distribution of donations through food channels.
“We are building partnerships, developing infrastructure, and building capacity in different domains such as a network of warehouses, transportation systems, agencies, volunteers, and organisations working together to achieve zero hunger communities all across Nigeria,” he said.
Foodbank Nigeria collects rice, beans, corn flour, pastas, cooking oil, noodles, salt, sugar, powdered and tinned milk, non-alcoholic beverages, tinned tomatoes, fish, and other food stuff.
It does not collect expired food products, alcoholic beverages and items in bottles or rusty cans because of health and safety.