In an effort to acknowledge the World Hunger Day on Thursday, May 30, Hellofood, the leading online food delivery service firm in Nigeria, organised an awareness programme in Lagos State. The programme which involved bloggers and media practitioners was used to raise awareness on the terrible hunger issue in the country.
The event which took place at Jevinik restaurant, Victoria Island, Lagos, was tagged “How can we all do our part to scare hunger away from Nigeria?” Oluwaseyi Adepoju, Hellofood’s Head of Business Development, said the situation of hunger in the country is at an alarming state where millions of people go to bed hungry on the daily. He stressed that serious actions should be taken to re-establish the dignity of the Nigerian particularly, children. He also highlighted that when people are not well-fed, the economy cannot develop. “The nation is the way it is because the people are not well fed. Poverty is looming in the land and the people will soon begin to steal to survive. So what do you call that?,” he asked.
Mannie Dynamic, a presenter in Cool FM and one of the resource persons, expressed his support for the programme. “Some of you don’t know what this is all about, but if you have been to the villages and seen how children suffer from kwashiorkor and how they groan in pain, you would understand. I think we should all thank our parents for ensuring that we had food to eat while growing up. There are many children right now who desperately need to be helped from the shackles of starvation,” he said.
Mannie urged every Nigerian to do his/her little best to reduce hunger in the country. According to him, so many people contribute to the hunger in the land consciously or unconsciously. He cited an example of a situation where a guardian denies his or her wards food as be as punishment and such a child goes to bed hungry. “Such parent/guardian has contributed to the hunger situation in the country because under their watch, somebody has gone to bed hungry,” he said.
Ogochukwu Mainasara, a director in National Food and Drug Administration and Control, (NAFDAC), described the hunger situation in the country as one that needs crucial attention. She emphasised that not only providing food to those in need, consideration should be paid to the nutritional aspect of what is given to the people. “It is not enough to just give a hungry child food, what matters is what kind of food you are giving him. In the end you may be harming the child if you give him food that does not contribute to nourishing him nutritionally,” she said.
Hellofood recognises that more than 800 million people in the world are currently suffering from hunger and poverty. Also, Sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the highest prevalence of hunger. One person in four is undernourished, according to the World Food Programme. Hunger affects everyone, from individuals to businesses in the food industry.
Over the past couple of weeks, Hellofood has challenged its community and has held campaigns to help raise awareness and #ScareHunger away by going around areas in Lagos that have a high level of poor helpless children where people are not assured of their next meal.
By Pita Ochai
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