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Food ration cuts create severe & life-threatening consequences for global youth · Kvetch & Release

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  G seven Leaders Summit just took place and tomorrow is World Refugee Day and World
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  Vision has released a new report that shows that refugees and other vulnerable families globally
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  are receiving just a fraction of their monthly required food intake or are being cut
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  from aid distributions altogether. This is leading to a big increase in child marriage,
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  child trafficking, child labor and mental health risks. Joining me right now
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  to discuss is the President and CEO of World Vision Canada, Michael Messenger.
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  How are you doing today? I'm fine, John, Thanks for the chance
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  to be with you. Thank you for joining me. So as we talk
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  about here this reduction and food intake as a result of these food ration cuts,
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  what are you looking at globally, Well, you know, we've done
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  some deep dive research with many of the communities that we work with who are
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  relying every day on food to survive. In this last year alone, we
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  provided twenty million people in forty six countries with food and cash assistance and a
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  number of them along with the World Food Program. And I can remember a
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  few years ago traveling to the Central African Republic and there was a temporary shortfall
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  on the food available to community, and so our aid workers had to make
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  the decision do we feed half the people with the amount that they need completely
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  or do we just say we're going to give you half these calories for this
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  team. And I thought, boy, what a terrible situation. I hope
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  it's rare, but what we're seeing right now is that in parts of the
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  world increasingly food rations are being cut and that food aid. This is a
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  situation that's happening again and again. It's really tough. I mean, we're
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  looking globally right now at nationalistic forces taking hold. There's geopolitical instability popping up
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  quite frankly all over the planet right now. It must make your I mean,
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  your job on a regular basis has to be difficult on a day to
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  day, but when things get unstable and far more instable, it's just I
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  can't imagine the complexity and the compoundingness it must have. Well, you know,
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  we've talked about recently a couple of things. First of all, the
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  number of people who are displaced because of conflict and other reasons is greater than
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  ever before in history. So like the number of people who have had to
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  flee their homes because of the lack of food, lack of economic opportunity,
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  or war has just skyrocketed, and so the needs are growing. Sometimes we
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  talk about the four seas that are driving this conflict, climate change, uneven
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  impacts from COVID recovery, and then of cost of living, and these four
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  seeds are all coming together. It's like a perfect storm. And right in
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  the middle of it are vulnerable families, particularly children who rely on food aids
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  not only to survive every day, but you know, food is a fundamental
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  foundational piece for children thriving and living up to their full potential. Absolutely,
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  I mean, and when we look at the impacts that it can have on
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  children, it's devastating. I want to go back to what you were just
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  talking about there, that triaging, just in case anybody didn't fully grasp what
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  you were talking about a few years ago in Africa. So you're talking about
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  do we take the food that we have and just give it to only fifty
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  percent of the population, knowing that that's enough for them, or do we
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  make the choice that we just give the entire population fifty percent less than what
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  they should be getting so they'll be in clorc deficit but it's equitable, that's
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  what you're discussing. Well, that's the kind of situation that our teams are
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  being put in every single day. You know. The head of the World
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  Food Program said that because of ration cuts right now, we're actually having to
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  take food from the hungry to feed the starving. So this prioritization is triage,
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  as you said, is happening every single day, and it's putting our
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  aid workers and of course, most importantly the communities in an impossible situation.
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  You know, So there's not enough food. We know that first of all,
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  so families are going into drastic coping mechanisms to try to find food.
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  But we also know that, as you mentioned at the outset, that hunger
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  and economic necessity drives families even think about things like child marriage. We see
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  child labor, child trafficking. Is desperate to find ways to feed kids,
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  they're under children and adults, parents and families are under increased stress with mental
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  health issues. And so for all of those reasons, it's a really you
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  know, it's a comprehensive, holistic responses needed. But at the cor of
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  it, more aid is needed, more food is needed now for families who
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  are desperate for it. So when you talk about more aid and more food,
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  is that something that the average person who's listening to this program right now
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  can have an impact and donate or is it more that someone should be picking
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  up their phone, calling their member of parliament and saying, we need to
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  increase the amount of aid that we send as a country. What would you
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  what do you want to see? Well, frankly, it's all of the
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  above. So first of all, you know, Canadians who want to reach
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  out can support organizations like World Vision, world Vision dot Ca where we accept
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  funding for emergency settings all the time and do what we can to rush that
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  aid as quickly as we can. But it's also coming back to governments.
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  You know that you mentioned the G seven, a big meeting that just happened.
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  Canada was at the table. They pledged to look at food security.
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  But the problem is that we can make great promises and they're aspirational. It's
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  great to have them important, but if there's not money behind it, then
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  those empty promises lead to empty plates and we have to then we do need
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  to advocate on behalf of children and families. So yeah, picking up the
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  phone speaking to our elected officials, as well as donating and engaging with others
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  to learn more about this really critical issue, which is what we're trying to
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  do right now. All of those things are really important action steps that people
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  can take today. And of course I mean on the most selfish level as
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  well. If these issues are taken care of on the macro global level,
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  we start to deal with them on the micro level, with increased migration,
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  increased asylum seekers. And that's not to say we don't have, you know,
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  open hearts and compassion and want to be able to help people like that.
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  But if there are people who are more on the side of you know,
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  not wanting to see things directly domestically, there's ways to impact that as
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  well. It's just we do live in an interconnected global world. Yeah,
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  you know, I often say that we as Canadians give to two people in
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  need around the world, including our own backyard. First of all, because
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  it's the right thing to do. It's the expression of values that we hold
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  as Canadians to care for others. But it also is self service in the
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  sense that a more stable world where there's more equitable distribution of opportunity means it's
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  a more stable world, means there's less likelihood of conflict and all of these
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  things that drive things. We all benefit from economic opportunities where there's there's freer
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  trade, there's supply chains that let Canadian goods get to market around the world,
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  buying the things that we do, and as you said, you know,
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  less pressure on immigration and other needs. So it really is we are
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  I've said before, as we think about the issue of food, it's like
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  inviting neighbors to our family, to our table. To keep this time around,
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  we have to recognize that our neighbors may be on the other side of
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  the world, and that means that we really need to extend our table as
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  far as we can to invite them to be with us. And it's just
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  an extension of our hospitality. But it's also the right thing to do,
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  and it helps us in the long run, both as Canadians and for a
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  more stable world, longer tables, shorter fences. Michael, I want to
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  thank you for joining me to talk about such an important issue today. Thank
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  you, John, great to be with you. Michael Messenger is the president
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  and CEO of World Vision in Canada, talking about how food ration cuts create
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  severe and life threatening consequences for youth globally don't go in