This is the VOA SpecialEnglish Development Report.
The United Nations World Food Program is forty years old thisyear.
It began as an experiment to provide food aid to nations affectedby natural disasters. The United Nations established the World FoodProgram in nineteen-sixty-three. Since then, the program has spentmore than twenty-seven-thousand-million dollars on food assistance.More than eighty countries receive aid from the W-F-P.
The World Food Program says that around the world, more thaneight-hundred-million people go to bed hungry. That is one out ofseven people. Yet it says there is enough food for every man, womanand child to live healthy and productive lives.
The World Food Program specializes in food aid. It often workswith other U-N groups. One is the Food and Agriculture Organization.This agency provides expert technical assistance to farmers andother producers. Another agency is the International Fund forAgricultural Development, which provides financial assistance.
All three U-N agencies are based in Rome. They combine theirknowledge to fight world hunger. The World Food Program depends onmoney, food and other assistance provided mostly by governments butalso companies and individuals. It also works with international aidgroups and non-governmental organizations to carry out its programs.
A committee of thirty-six member states governs the World FoodProgram. The U-N secretary general and the leader of the Food andAgriculture Organization appoint the head of this committee everyfive years.
The World Food Program aims to meet emergency needs after eventslike floods, earthquakes or deadly storms. It provides food tonations that face severe shortages. The agency also supports socialand economic development in poor countries. It works with women inan effort to make sure they get enough food assistance. And theW-F-P provides poor children with meals so they can attend school.
The W-F-P is the world’s largest international food aidorganization. Agency officials say that in two-thousand-one,seventy-seven-million people ate food from the United Nations WorldFood Program.
This VOA Special English Development Report was written by JillMoss.