The violence of hunger: The 2025 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report

The Church of the Brethren’s Global Food Initiative (GFI) is a partner organization to Bread for the World and contributes to its reporting and research on US policies and on both domestic and international food security. For 2024, the GFI helped provide funds to support Bread for the World’s Policy Research Institute that has been studying and monitoring what the World Food Program has labeled “Hunger Hot Spots” or places where access to food is severely limited and malnutrition is widespread. (Find out more about the GFI at www.brethren.org/gfi.)

The violence of hunger

A reflection by Bread for the World president and CEO Eugene Cho

This summer, the 2025 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report (www.fao.org/publications/fao-flagship-publications/the-state-of-food-security-and-nutrition-in-the-world/en) gave us the most current look at hunger across the globe. The numbers are sobering—and yet they tell a story that is both deeply troubling and cautiously hopeful.

In 2024, 673.2 million people faced hunger—meaning they didn’t have enough food to live a normal, healthy life. It’s a staggering number. And while that figure represents a slight global decrease in hunger—8.5 percent lower than the year before—it’s still far worse than it was before the pandemic. We haven’t recovered.

*Download the full report at www.fao.org/publications/fao-flagship-publications/the-state-of-food-security-and-nutrition-in-the-world/en*

Progress has been uneven. Asia has made significant strides, and Latin America has improved slightly. But in Western Asia and especially in Africa, hunger is rising. In Africa alone, more than one in five people—nearly 307 million—faced hunger this year.

The data on food insecurity—which includes those uncertain about where their next meal is coming from—is even more staggering. In 2024, 28 percent of the world’s population faced food insecurity. 828 million of them experienced severe food insecurity—going days without eating.

Even more alarming, 295 million people in 53 countries faced acute food insecurity—people who were either in crisis, emergency, or even famine conditions. That’s nearly 14 million more than the year before.

And in five regions—Gaza, Sudan, South Sudan, Haiti, and Mali—nearly 2 million people were in “Catastrophe” phase: on the edge of death from hunger. That’s the highest number ever recorded since such tracking began—and more than double from the previous year. In Sudan, famine is no longer a threat, it’s a present reality. In the Zamzam camp in North Darfur, famine was confirmed, and it has been detected or projected in multiple other regions.

What’s driving this? One word: conflict.

Conflict destroys harvests, markets, supply chains, and homes. It displaces people and prevents humanitarian aid from reaching those who need it most. It turns food into a weapon and hunger into a tool of war.

The violence of armed conflict begets the violence of hunger.

Violence not only threatens lives and dignity—it erodes institutions, trust, and the social cohesion necessary for justice. Violence erodes the fabric of our society and prevents human flourishing. Peace is essential for human dignity.

At Bread for the World, we believe that every human being—created in the image of God—has inherent dignity. That dignity includes the opportunity to live in right relationship with God, self, neighbor, and the environment. It includes the right to have enough nutritious food for good health. It includes the right to flourish.

That’s why we must feed souls as we work to feed people.

Today, I’m asking you to pray and to work for peace.

Because without peace, there is no food.

Without peace, there is no flourishing.

But with peace—true, just, lasting peace—we can rebuild what has been broken. We can reject violence. We can end hunger.

And we can honor the dignity of every single human being.
Amen.

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