TACOMA, Washington — On October 9, 2020, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to the United Nations World Food Programme for its efforts in reducing hunger and for consequently promoting peace in war-torn areas of the world.
The World Food Programme
The World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization that works to fight hunger and foster food security. The program worked in 88 countries, providing food to 100 million people in just 2019 alone. In 2015, the United Nations established a goal to cut global hunger to zero by 2030—a goal achievable with $246 billion spent globally for the effort every year. This figure is less than a third of the United States’ 2020 military spendings, and the U.N. hopes to achieve this goal through the World Food Programme. In 2019, the number of people that were victims of acute hunger was 135 million, a figure that is higher than those of recent years, and it is believed that violent conflicts in the most afflicted regions caused it.
The World Food Programme played an important role in the passing of Resolution 2417 by the U.N.’s Security Council in 2018, and more recently, has assisted countries facing a rise in hunger due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic, combined with already existing conflicts and war, has left countries such as Yemen, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, South Sudan and Burkina Faso in a desperate state of starvation. The World Food Programme has strengthened its efforts in those countries, fighting hunger as well as the virus by providing food and sanitation and promoting peace.
Michael Kors and World Food Day
October 16 is World Food Day. Michael Kors is among the many celebrities pushing philanthropic efforts to fight world hunger on this day.
Michael Kors’ Watch Hunger Stop is an initiative started in 2013 in collaboration with the World Food Programme. The brand has a Watch Hunger Stop timepiece collection that helps the World Food Programme deliver meals to impoverished children.
Last year, Kors enlisted Academy Award-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o to speak with him at the United Nations about the initiative as well as world hunger. Other celebrities involved in the campaign in the past include Kate Hudson and Halle Berry.
“Food is Love—Share Your Heart”
For this year’s campaign named “Food is Love—Share Your Heart,” Kors decided to mobilize workers at his company. He decided to feature his employees in social media posts, sharing their faces and thoughts in support of the philanthropic effort to end world hunger, and making the project much more personal to the company. Employees became models, wearing the LOVE T-Shirt posted on Instagram. Kors will donate all profits from selling the t-shirt as well as the tote in this collection to the World Food Programme.
Now in its eighth year, Kors’ Watch Hunger Stop celebrates 20 million meals donated to the World Food Programme. They are specifically focused on providing children in countries with food insecurity with school meals. This summer, Michael Kors released a special-edition shirt called the “Watch Hunger Stop LOVE T-Shirt” in hopes of raising money to support the cause.
Micheal Kors’ Watch Hunger Stop initiative is about engagement and spreading awareness, an important step in fighting food insecurity and global hunger. To encourage the fight on social media, the company pledges to donate 50 meals to the World Food Programme for every selfie, video or Reel posted on a public Instagram account with the campaign products and hashtagged with #WatchHungerStop.
—Mizuki Kai
Photo: Flickr