One human family, food for all, is a confederation-wide campaign by the global Catholic confederation Caritas Internationalis aimed at ending hunger by 2025.
Pope Francis’s campaign messageFood is not just a basic need but it is also a right. It is a right which is trampled on every day for the 842 million children, women and men who are hungry in the world.
“We are in front of a global scandal of around one billion – one billion people who still suffer from hunger today. We cannot look the other way and pretend this does not exist. The food available in the world is enough to feed everyone.”
All 164 Caritas member organisations are invited to take part in the campaign. This includes national members and the diocesan Caritas which belong to them. Caritas Internationalis will coordinate the campaign.
The foundation for any real change comes from within ourselves first and foremost and our ability to see the face of Christ in those who are suffering from hunger. When we start to look deep within ourselves regarding the issues around hunger at home and abroad we realise that it is only by working as one human family in a spirit of compassion and unity that we can finally bring an end to a grave injustice: that there is enough food in the world, and yet people still suffer from hunger.
Caritas asks all of its member organisations to pursue national goals which address hunger issues in their country. This could be, for example, on food waste, the promotion of market gardening, advocating to their government.
Caritas believes that the implementation of the right to food in countries where it doesn’t exist is a fundamental step to eliminating global hunger. Caritas will produce a draft framework law on the right to food which national member organisations can encourage their governments to adopt. Caritas will also advocate at the United Nations for a session on the right to food at the 2015 UN general assembly.
Caritas works in 200 countries. However, caritas is also the Christian love for humankind and exists wherever people reach out to perform an act of charity.
Food is essential to living a dignified life, it is also central to the Christian faith since bread is transformed into the body of Christ and shared with the faithful during the celebration of the Eucharist.
The first Millennium Development Goal is to eliminate hunger and poverty. As the MDGs are coming to an end in 2015, the Caritas confederation wants to put its collective power and good will, and join with many other organisations to contribute to the post-2015 Development Process and bring an end to the suffering of millions of hungry people around the world.
