What Is World Food Day?
WFD is a worldwide event designed to increase awareness, understanding and informed, year-around, long-term action on the complex issues of food security for all.

When Is World Food Day?
WFD is observed each October 16th in recognition of the founding — in 1945 — of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), the lead agency of the UN system for technical assistance, research and policy- making in world agriculture, fishing, forestry and rural development. The first World Food Day was in 1981.

Why Should I Be Involved?
Each person who cares — and becomes involved — helps build a more food-secure world. A society that guarantees the basis of life — food — is offering hope, to all, that other blessings of peace and justice are attainable as well.

Who Else Is Involved?
WFD is observed in 150 nations.  In the United States it has the support of 450 national sponsoring organizations, and WFD planning groups can be found in almost every local community.

How Can World Food Day Make A Difference?
WFD combines all those who care — wherever they are. It is a "tripartite" effort by private voluntary organizations, governments and the international system, carrying out myriad programs and projects, and working in hundreds of different ways to build public will — the element so often named as the "missing ingredient" in the struggle for hunger alleviation and world food security.

Where Can I Get Help?  How Do I Find Others That Are Involved?
Use the list of  WFD USA National Sponsors as a "community organizing guide" for discovering committed, interested persons working with hunger issues in your community.  You can find also ideas, resources and materials on this website, or contact the national office for additional resources.

You can be sure that others near you — in schools, offices, faith groups and civic organizations to which you may already belong — will share your hunger concerns and will want to work with you.  Remember, "Two and two and fifty make a million..."

What Do People Do On World Food Day?
WFD is observed in hundreds of ways around the world. There is no one way. Each nation, each community, each person is free to choose and plan the most USEFUL/EFFECTIVE ways to increase informed action. Here are just a few:

• Increase Awareness — arrange media coverage or concentrate on increasing the understanding of persons in the media.
• Increase Understanding — plan education efforts from nursery schools to colleges and universities to senior citizen centers.
• Increase Information — conduct surveys and publicize findings on local situations through use of documentaries, graduate school projects, public meetings and government task forces (all levels).
• Increase Services — establish or strengthen services, from emergency food pantries to community food security programs and job training.
• Increase Support — make WFD a common fund-raising opportunity for domestic as well as international programs and projects.
• Increase Advocacy — launch campaigns to demonstrate a CARING , INFORMED CONSTITUENCY for policies (from local to international) that place food security issues on the "front burner"...seeking commitments from candidates and/or public officials...from the town council to the "leader of the free world."
• Increase Networking — use WFD to find ways to make the thousands of local-global links among people and between issues. Use WFD to discover almost infinite combinations of people, ideas and resources.
• Increase Impact — design an annual "assessment" regarding your WFD work so you will have a benchmark to measure the difference you are making.

How Do We Determine What Is The Best Way To Observe The Day In Our Community?
Form a committee or coalition... develop a consensus about what to do...divide the responsibilities and go to work! The national office can often put you in touch with others who have tried what you want to do and thus help you skip some trials and errors.