Student and faculty volunteers packaged meals Saturday for Stop Hunger Now, a non-profit, international relief organization committed to ending hunger worldwide. The following are the goals of the organization:
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger: Hunger perpetuates poverty by reducing productivity. Poverty prevents individuals from producing or acquiring the food they need.
2. Achieve universal primary education: Hunger reduces school attendance and impairs learning capacity. Lack of education reduces earning capacity and increases the risk of hunger.
3. Promote gender equality and empower women: Hunger reduces school attendance more for girls than for boys. Gender inequality perpetuates the cycle in which undernourished women give birth to low-birth-weight children.
4. Reduce child mortality: More than half of all child deaths are caused directly or indirectly by hunger and malnutrition.
5. Improve maternal health: Undernourishment and micronutrient deficiencies greatly increase the risk of maternal death.
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases: Hunger spurs risky behavior that accelerates the spread of HIV/AIDS. Undernourished children are more than twice as likely to die of malaria.
7. Ensure environmental sustainability: Hunger leads to unsustainable use of resources. Restoring and improving ecosystem functions are key to reducing hunger among the rural poor.
8. Develop a global partnership for development: Subsidies and tariffs in developed countries hamper hunger-reducing rural and agricultural development. SOURCE: http://stophungernow.org