FOOD FOR THOUGHT: first installment

In our “Food For Thought” posts, we’ll share a new fact with you every week. We’ll follow these facts up with some extra information and also break them down for you in order to put things in perspective.

“The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there are currently 20 million young children suffering from severe acute malnutrition.”

This means that around the world, 20 million children--more than twice the population of New York City--are suffering like this child:



Severe acute malnutrition is a serious epidemic that is often confused with hunger. Hunger is a lack of calories while malnutrition is characterized by a lack of essential nutrients that the body needs to survive. Severe acute malnutrition is associated with weakened mental and physical development and leads to the death of 3.5-5 million children per year.

Severe acute malnutrition is often referred to as the “Silent Killer” in the international aid community because it doesn’t receive the attention it deserves. Fortunately, the disease is very treatable when given the proper attention. WILL WORK FOR FOOD is dedicated to bringing awareness to this matter and working to save severely malnourished children.

One hundred percent of the money we raise together will help Doctors Without Borders purchase and distribute nutritional supplements, like Plumpy’nut, to help save malnourished children. For now, the money raised will help save children in Darfur, where 1 in 7 kids are severely malnourished.

Together we can fight the Silent Killer and bring attention to the malnutrition crises. Visit the Get Involved page to learn more about how you can help.