• Other Global Locations
  • Search
Host an Event
Donate

The Highlights from the World Food Day Hour of Impact

on  October 21, 2020

Did you tune into our World Food Day Hour of Impact live broadcast last week? We’re still buzzing from the day’s events and the overwhelming commitment to helping end world hunger from Hunger Champions like you! During the broadcast on Friday, October 16, there were messages from our founder, CEO, team members across the country and more! If you missed the broadcast or would like to relive it, we’ve put together a list of some of our favorite parts (besides the whole thing, of course!) for you to check out.Thanks to your support, we exceeded our World Food Day goal of raising $50,000.For World Food Day, we had a goal to raise $25,000 with gifts up to $25,000 being matched – a $50,000 goal overall! Hunger Champions went above and beyond to support our COVID-19 relief efforts, surpassing our $50,000 target. We raised $57,700 in honor of World Food Day!Our founder, Ray Buchanan, shared about Rise Against Hunger’s COVID-19 response efforts.The effects of COVID-19 have caused global hunger to increase, and Rise Against Hunger has been responding with our COVID-19 Relief & Resilience Plan. In this video from the Hour of Impact, Ray shared how this plan is working to meet the increased need. He also shared a recent story of food distribution efforts in Honduras, funded by our plan and procured locally by in-country partner Central American Relief Efforts.We got to see videos of meal packaging events across the country!Throughout the broadcast, we shared footage from meal packaging events in Dallas, Chicago, New York, Raleigh and California’s Bay Area. Rise Against Hunger has locations across the country, and it was fantastic to see socially-distanced volunteers in those five places addressing the global hunger crisis by packaging meals for communities affected by food insecurity. To catch footage from all five locations, watch the full broadcast above!The mayor of Raleigh, N.C. proclaimed Friday, October 16, 2020, not only World Food Day, but also Rise Against Hunger Day in the city!We were so excited for this awesome announcement and so thankful for Mayor Baldwin’s support! As she mentioned in her video, it is important for us all to drive awareness and do something to truly rise against hunger and support those facing food insecurity around the world.We got to see people across the country (and world!) who were celebrating World Food Day.At Rise Against Hunger, we know growing the movement of volunteers and advocates who build awareness and drive change is important to ending hunger! During that segment, it was great to see all of those Hunger Champions who are working to end hunger on World Food Day and throughout the year. We hope you found it as inspiring as we did.Our sponsoring partners helped make the day a success.In addition to our amazing volunteers, the day’s activities wouldn’t have been possible without some of our partners. Thank you to Pfizer, BD, American Tower, ImageFIRST and HSB for your support!Thanks to all who tuned in and participated in our World Food Day efforts! Your support impacts lives across the globe. To further support our COVID-19 response efforts, donate today. 

About the Author

Strength, Stability And Hope

The gift that filled Nelly’s table.

“We were yielding very little, and the crops could not sustain us the whole year,” Nelly remembers. As a mother of seven and a farmer with two decades of experience, the stress of inconsistent yields was all-consuming. A poor harvest not only strained her family financially, but also limited their own meals to just two a day. Their story reflects that of many in their fishing and farming village near a lake in the Karonga district of northern Malawi. Here, heavy rainfall makes conventional farming methods nearly impossible. The entire village is, quite literally, saturated in food insecurity — a reality that leaves families struggling to survive season after season without a dependable source of nourishment.

In 2019, Nelly began participating in Harvesting Prosperity and Resilience, a sustainable agriculture project implemented by Rise Against Hunger in partnership with the Foundation for Community Support Services (FOCUS). The project works with 3,100 smallholder farmers in Malawi’s Karonga and Mzimba districts to strengthen food and nutrition security by improving production methods, nutrition practices and household income.

Just one year later, Nelly was ready to expand the variety of crops on her farm. What land once only produced maize began to flourish with sesame, cowpeas, rice and groundnuts during the rainy season (summer), as well as maize and vegetables during the dry season (winter). Through climate-smart agriculture training, she learned new techniques like manure making, pit planting and mulching, crop rotation and intercropping. Equipped with these tools, Nelly’s farm began to thrive.

After the 2023–2024 growing season, she sold enough produce to purchase an ox cart. Her harvests in 2024-2025 season yielded over 500 pounds of crops, including 22 bags of groundnuts, seven bags of maize, 12 tins of sesame and three bags of rice. With this surplus, she was able to invest in a motorbike, which she now uses to transport African doughnuts (mandasi) that she cooks and sells — creating yet another source of income for her family.

The transformation reaches far beyond her finances. Nelly now has the stability to provide for her husband and children. “I am able to eat different food types, pay school fees for my children and fulfill the visions that I have made with my family,” she beams. “I am now sleeping peacefully without any fears of food or paying school fees for the children.”

Her leadership has also grown. Today, Nelly serves as a leader in the Harvesting Prosperity and Resilience project, teaching other farmers in her district to adopt climate-resilient, labor-saving practices. By sharing her knowledge, she is multiplying her impact — empowering her neighbors to experience the same transformation she has achieved.

Across Nelly’s community, food and economic security are on the rise. Lombani, a government extension officer for the region, explains, “I can see the community is being transformed in the sense that in the area, there is food, income and nutrition security. Development is also happening at the household level.”

Nelly reflects on what it means to invest in holistic programs that address the root causes of hunger: “We are now healthy people. Children are going to school after eating their breakfast, having high yields and different types of crops due to conservation agriculture practices. With the support from the project, we have food, and we can access other food items from the market after selling our produce.”

This is the gift that fills: a future full of stability, strength and hope. It fills tables with food, families with security and communities with the resources to thrive. It’s an investment in futures rooted in resilience and hope.