Guest post by Mark Lukowski
Editor’s Note: Yesterday was World Food Day. Mark Lukowski, CEO of Christian Children’s Fund of Canada, and a member of the ChildFund Alliance, shared a recent experience where he visited those in need in the Horn of Africa.
Children receive a meal of nutrient-enriched Unimix at ChildFund's ECCD center in Lokitaung, Turkana Region, Kenya.
For example, I met children who receive their only meal of the day at school – a single serving of protein mix for lunch. I met a beleaguered mother who said, “When my children are crying because they are hungry, all I want to do is run away.” I met children who lacked energy and were very quiet because they did not have enough to eat, and I observed babies with swollen feet due to malnutrition. I met a father who walks 40 km to get potatoes to feed his family. I met two men that had walked for more than half a day to find food in a nearby town. And those who were able to secure food were often eating the same thing every day — maize, cooked wheat, wild cabbage, or protein mix.
So this World Food Day will be different for me. I am grateful for what we have, but at the same time I am inspired to do more for all the adults and children I met in the Horn of Africa for whom access to food is a constant struggle that never seems to end.
