O World Food Day is celebrated on the day October 16th in different parts of the world.
The date was implemented to raise awareness of the importance of healthy, affordable and quality food, called “Food and Nutritional Security”.
It also focuses on social problems associated with it, for example, hunger, malnutrition, poverty, among others.
According to the Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, all human beings have the right to food.
However, we know that many are still hungry and suffer from nutritional deficiencies. This problem has had a great impact on the health of thousands of people.
IBGE data estimate that in Brazil about 7 million people live with “severe food insecurity”. In the world, there would be 805 million people in a state of malnutrition.
Date Origin
The date was created to mark the founding of the “United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization” (FAO-foodandagricultureorganization), founded in 1945.
Its main objective is to raise the world's nutrition levels. Established by the UN in 1979, World Food Day has taken place in over 150 countries around the world since 1981.
Themes
Each year, a theme is chosen to address its importance. See below all the themes since its implementation:
- 1981: Food comes first.
- 1982: Food comes first.
- 1983: Food security.
- 1984: Women in agriculture.
- 1985: Rural poverty.
- 1986: Fishermen and fishing communities.
- 1987: Small agricultural producers.
- 1988: Rural youth.
- 1989: Food and environment.
- 1990: Food and the future.
- 1991: trees for life.
- 1992: Food and nutrition.
- 1993: Harvesting natural diversity.
- 1994: Water for life.
- 1995: Food for everyone.
- 1996: Fighting hunger and malnutrition.
- 1997: Investing in food security.
- 1998: Women feed the world.
- 1999: Youth against hunger.
- 2000: A millennium without hunger.
- 2001: Fighting Hunger to Reduce Poverty.
- 2002: Water: source of food security.
- 2003: Working together for an international alliance against hunger.
- 2004: Biodiversity for Food Security.
- 2005: Agriculture and intercultural dialogue.
- 2006: Investing in agriculture for food security.
- 2007: The right to food.
- 2008: World food security: the challenges of climate change and biofuels.
- 2009: Achieve food security in times of crisis.
- 2010: United against hunger.
- 2011: Food prices - from crisis to stability.
- 2012: Agricultural cooperatives – the key to feeding the world.
- 2013: Sustainable agricultural systems for food and nutrition security.
- 2014: Family Farms: Feed the World, Care for the Earth.
- 2015: Social protection and agriculture: breaking the cycle of rural poverty.
- 2016: The climate is changing: food and agriculture must change too.
- 2017: Change the future of migration. Investing in food security and rural development.
- 2018: Our actions are our future. A world with zero hunger for 2030 is possible.
- 2019: Our actions represent our future: healthy diets for a zero hunger world.
- 2020: Grow, feed, sustain. Together.
Meet the food origin.
Meatless Monday
One of the projects that promote healthy eating in Brazil is "Segunda Sem Carne", created in 2009.
campaign logo Meatless Monday
The main objective of the campaign is to make people aware of the environmental impacts caused by products of animal origin.
The proposal is that people remove meat from their diet at least once a week.
In addition, it proposes a change in habits and greater knowledge about vegetables, legumes and vegetables and their health benefits.
Read too:
- World Health Day
- Food pyramid
- Organic Food
- Transgenic foods
- Eating Disorders
- Vegetable foods
Suggested Activities
On this very important date, many schools promote the healthy school meal week.
Based on the themes chosen annually, choose one of them with your colleagues. From there, make a poster, a video or a presentation at school, in order to raise awareness of its importance.
Before starting, research the topic and choose some images to better illustrate your poster. If the idea is a video, after editing, put it in the Youtube and spread it on social media.
If the choice is to make a presentation, it can be done as a seminar in the classroom or even a theater.
Let's together contribute to a better world and healthy eating for all. Good work!
Sentences
Below are some sentences for reflection on World Food Day:
- “Each day nature produces enough for our need. If everyone took what they needed, there was no poverty in the world and no one would die of hunger.” (Mahatma Gandhi)
- “Food is the most tenacious force that links the human group to the natural environment that provides them with the means of subsistence.” (Josué de Castro)
- “Nothing will benefit humanity's health more and increase life's chances of survival on Earth than a vegetarian diet.” (Albert Einstein)
- “There will come a time when human beings will be content with a vegetarian diet and will judge the killing of an innocent animal in the same way as today the murderer of a man is judged..” (Leonardo da Vinci)
- “May food be your only remedy.” (Hippocrates)
Read about other food-related topics:
- hunger in Brazil
- world hunger
- famine in africa
- malnutrition
- fruit
- Healthy eating