Thoughts, reminiscences and more..: Hunger Action Month at Nielsen

Thursday, April 9, 2015

Hunger Action Month at Nielsen - Fighting food Insecurity

This post is written as the eighth in the series of A-to-Z challenge and a part of #1000speak.

My series theme is "Compassion" and today's thought is based on "Hunger"

Statistics show that 805 million people in the world do not have enough food to lead a healthy life. The vast majority of the world's hungry people live in developing countries. Asia is the continent with the most hungry people - two thirds of the total. Poor nutrition causes nearly half (45%) of deaths in children under five - 3.1 million children each year. 66 million primary school-age children attend classes hungry across the developing world, with 23 million in Africa alone.

Source: www.wfp.org

Hunger Action Month (HAM Nielsen) at Nielsen

Nielsen is global information and Measurement Company providing fact based strategic insights to business world. Nielsen measures and monitors what consumers watch (media ratings) and what consumers buy (categories, brands, products) on a global and local basis.

Nielsen Cares is the global corporate social responsibility program. It aims towards a commitment to an uncommon impact on the various causes and initiatives. I am fortunate to be the country leader for Swedish Nielsen Cares team. We have four main focus areas –

Education,
Technology,
Diversity & inclusion and
Hunger and nutrition.

Here we focus on talking about Hunger and nutrition. Nielsen associates around the world take action against hunger and create an impact during our annual Hunger Action Month (HAM) every September. Nielsen knows more about what people eat than anyone else, and we use our skills and capabilities to help end hunger and improve nourishment, globally. Nielsen is a collaborative partner with “Feeding America” and “World Food Program”, providing data and strategic information. Associates take part in fundrainsing activities for these organizations as well. (Read more at http://www.nielsen.com/eu/en/about-us/social-responsibility.html)

This year, Nielsen Sweden partnered with Stadmissionen (www.stadsmissionen.se) as a beneficiary. Stadsmissionen does important work to help the Stockholm homeless and needy, children and adults. We collected money and food cards, and donated them to Stadmissionen to be distributed to the families in need. The families in focus were the immigrant community, trying to establish themselves in this new country. Associates across the world participates in various activities like distributing food packets, feeding the poor children, cleaning up food kitchens, collecting food cans and distributing them to the needy etcetra.

Hunger cannot be understood till it is not felt. It is difficult to be in their shoes, to know how it feels when you are hungry for days, or famished and undernourished due to lack of food. By being empathetic towards the state of the hunger and malnutrition, we can create awareness, raise funds or volunteer by deeds and kinds.

The very moving video by Mary’s Meals below depicts how a large mass of population longs for morsel of food. How children have lost their childhood, and trying in vain to eat something, anything.