World Food Program Asks Congress to Increase Aid Funds

Josette Sheeran, executive director of the World Food Program, in Rome, told American legislators that the United States should donate more money — about $1-billion more — for emergency food aid than it currently spends, reports Reuters.

Congress has passed a food-aid bill, and the Senate is currently working on its own version. At a subcommittee hearing at the U.S. House of Representatives, Ms. Sheeran said she hoped Congress would increase its allocations for food aid to at least $2.5-billion, up from $1.2-billion for fiscal 2008.

She also argued against a measure in the bill that would reserve some of the aid to support long-term development — like efforts to improve nutrition and farming methods — which some see as diverting much-needed emergency aid. Her organization said it would be better to include such long-term aid in addition to, not in place of, emergency aid.

“With a growing population, the absolute number of hungry people just keeps rising,” and is now about 850 million worldwide, said Ms. Sheeran, a former high-ranking State Department official, speaking to an appropriations subcommittee on agriculture.