The scale of the current food crisis is staggering.

Conflicts, climate change, economic shocks, and natural disasters, supply issues, and a spike in food and fuel prices have created a hunger catastrophe around the world. This increase in global food insecurity disproportionately affects poor families in almost every country. Proper nutrition is vital. Children and families cannot thrive while suffering from food deprivation.

• As many as 783 million people are facing chronic hunger, according to the World Food Programme.
• 99% of the world’s undernourished people live in mid- and low-income countries.
• Hundreds of millions of children are malnourished or undernourished, harming their ability to survive, thrive, and reach their full potential.

Our friars worldwide work daily to alleviate hunger and slow this heartbreaking trend, but they need your help. Would you prayerfully consider giving sacrificially to families facing unprecedented hunger?

Requests for food and water to help feed the needy are coming in from across the globe.

In Brazil

We have received three requests for feeding the needy programs. They are…

• The Custody of the Sacred Heart, has a feeding program for five community kitchens. The Franciscan friars have established a unique cooperative with the community kitchens and small local farmers to feed 2,500 poor families daily.
• The Custody of São Benedito da Amazônia, serving the native population in the Amazon, need assistance to feed the poor in the northern region of Brazil.
• The Province of the Immaculate Conception, in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, requested support to sustain a feeding program for the homeless and poor families with 400 meals a day.

In Peru

The Province of Doce Apostoles has asked for funding of a feeding program to sustain poor families in Huaycan near Lima.

In India

The Province of St. Thomas the Apostle needs assistance to supply food, water, and medical materials to combat the effects of the second wave of Covid-19 for families in Franciscan Parishes.

Additionally, ATS pro Terra Sancta has requested continued financial aid for food and supplies to help needy families in Beirut, Lebanon.

In Mozambique

The Custody of Santa Clara, requested funding for a feeding program, during a severe outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic for poor families in Manica.

Franciscan Bishop, Michael Lenihan, serving the Diocese of La Ceiba, in Honduras, has requested financial aid to facilitate a food program that will feed displaced families, in rural villages, that are suffering the after-effects of two hurricanes last year and the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Mexico

The Province of Franciscana del Santo Evangelio has requested aid to “reactivate the family economy” through the community food stores at Nuestra Senora de San Juan de los Lagos Parish.