World Food Day Highlights Urgent Hunger Crisis

On Thursday, Rome became the global stage for World Food Day 2025, as the Food and Agriculture Organization celebrated its eightieth anniversary under the powerful theme: ‘Hand in hand for better foods and a better future.’ It was a call to action. Leaders, partners, and young voices from around the world came together with a shared commitment: we need stronger solidarity to build food systems that are resilient, inclusive, and sustainable. This year’s event couldn’t be timelier. Extreme weather, climate shocks, economic turbulence, and widening inequality are hitting hard, pushing hundreds of millions into hunger and leaving billions unable to afford a healthy meal.

 

Pope Leo XIV

“I want to bring to the attention of this international forum the multitudes who lack access to drinking water, food, essential medical care, decent housing, basic education, or dignified work, so that we can share in the pain of those who are nourished by despair, tears, and misery alone. How can we fail to remember all of those who are condemned to death and hardship in Ukraine, Gaza, Haiti, Afghanistan, Mali, the Central African Republic, Yemen, and South Sudan, to name just a few places on the planet where poverty has become the daily bread of so many of our brothers and sisters? The international community cannot look the other way. We must make their suffering our own.”

 

The stakes are high, and the world is being urged to act now to secure a better future for all.