The right to food, as one specific aspect of the right to life and a worthy standard of living, is a fundamental human right. Most of the 800 million food insecure remain poor or 'ultra poor'. They live in rudimentary shelters and rarely have secure land tenancy or access to affordable quality healthcare, education or other social services. People having physical and economic access to sufficient food to meet their dietary needs for a productive and healthy life today, without sacrificing investments in consumption and livelihood security tomorrow. Food security programming at CRS sometimes uses food aid, especially U.S. Government PL480 or European Union food as a resource to feed people such as malnourished children, internally displaced persons, or hungry students.
Some food is purely to decrease their hunger.
We can also use food to pay them a 'food wage incentive' to rebuild roads and hillsides, or attend health clinics. CRS also uses cash from donations or grants to purchase seeds and tools to improve their crops, pay health trainers, purchase deworming pills for schoolchildren, etc. While there are a myriad of ways to improve people's ability to have sufficient food for a happy and healthy life, working through local partners to improve people's longer term prospects for food and livelihood security is key. Goal of CRS' Food Security Programming CRS works to enhance local food security through emergency and development food security projects in over 30 countries around the world. We strive to build their ability to maintain proper food consumption without having to sacrifice the assets, savings, skills and rights on which sustained food and livelihood security depend.