“Hunger Knows No Borders, Boundaries or Limits” ––Today is World Food Day (16 October)! By Nuzhat Shahzadi

The above title-line used by Save the Children captured my attention. The imageries that invaded my brain in a flash were the heart-breaking pictures of starving children during the Ethiopian famine of 1983-1985/1989-1990. . . It's so hard to erase such tragic depictions of suffering.

. . . I was a school-girl when Bangladesh was liberated. Post war, it faced a catastrophic governing- crisis. In Dhaka, frictions broke out among freedom fighters and several political groups. It was safer to hunker down at our grandparents' village-homestead till everything stabilized. My dad was a POW in Pakistan.

. . . I didn't notice hunger around the village that much. My grandfather was extremely wealthy . . . I remember Bhani––my grandma's domestic help (left working with her years ago). Bhani used to drop by for a chit-chat, to hang around grandma's wall-less-backyard- kitchen and wait to take the rice-water after it was cooked. She would tilt the lid of the cooking- pan to push out some extra rice to flow out along with the rice-water into her bowl (this process is hard to explain to non-native rice eaters or electric rice-cooker users). My grandma was aware but pretended not to see. I saw it––saw Bhani's hunger. It remained with me, forever.

While in UNICEF Herat, we regularly distributed fortified biscuits (HEB) to hungry-malnourished children through the government/partners. We were informed that HEB wasn't popular with children. I can't remember the entire story––somehow NYHQ/Geneva-procurement team sent us two kinds of biscuits based on the information we forwarded. We decided to taste both varieties before selecting the best-tasty brand. Fatima, our office-cleaner cum on-the-spot-kitchen-assistant made tea . . . several staff joined me in my office for the tea-biscuit tasting occasion . . . and we made the right selection (hopefully!).

I used to buy cookies, muffins, raisin-buns from local bakeries to distribute to street children in Herat. They were so thin . . . mostly boys between the ages of 7-10 years . . . hardly ever saw any girls . . . They would flock around my car . . . gleefully . . . whenever they spotted my land-cruiser in town, they would run after it. I could distribute the goodies only for a short while . . . our Land Cruisers were replaced by armored vehicles which didn't allow me to roll down the windows to hand out the confectioneries. Opening a car-door was against safety protocols. By then I received an abduction threat followed by a death threat . . .

I witnessed hunger . . .

"Khim's brother died of starvation . . ." Dr Andre told me. He was the head of WHO in Kiribati. His Cambodian wife Khim and I were friends. This kind woman grew vegetables and regularly shared them with me. In her broken English Khim added to the narration.

. . . I bought a house in New York (2009) and rented it out. Enna Zhang, my real estate agent, managed the property. Over the years we became good friends. When Enna helped me sell the house in 2016, I stayed overnight at her mom's in ChinaTown, Flushing. We reached her mom's after dinner and a relaxing open-air rooftop hot-tub spa in mid-December. Snowflakes kept falling while we glided in the warm water.

The old lady didn't speak English. She welcomed me and led us to the dining table. It held a lavish spread––fried rice, chow mein, fish dumplings, tofu, vegetables, soup. . .

"She cooked especially for you," Enna remarked. I was touched––wasn't hungry . . .

"You've to eat. This is mom's way of showing care . . . in her childhood in China, she and her family had very little to eat . . . offering food is like love to her," Enna added.

On a full stomach I tried every dish to honor mom.

Hunger is such an extreme hardship. During Covid outbreak, I watched how hungry Americans lined up for hours in cars for free food packages. I wrote a personal letter to our Democrat-Senator urging him to do more. Trump had no decency . . . The Senator responded outlining what his office was doing to help . . .

Free school lunches for many children are the only meals they eat in a day in America. 17 million American children at present are struggling with hunger.

As of today, about half a million Gazans face acute food insecurity. At least 50,000 children require treatment for severe malnutrition. Irreversible brain development happens within the first five years of life . . 

Enna's Mom––wearing the jewelry I made for her. The paintings on the wall are done by her.

Over 20 million Africans are facing starvation.

The world produces enough food to feed its entire population (8 billion). However, 733 million (1 in 11) go hungry every day. Each year, 9 million die from hunger-related causes–many are children under the age of 5.

And how much food is wasted globally, every year? It's about 2.5 billion tons. America discards nearly 60 million tons–– almost 40 percent of the entire US food supply, nearly 325 pounds of waste per person.

Tonight 1 in 11 people (733 million) will go to bed hungry!