Bees play an crucial role in food production -- and, thus, in preventing hunger.  Here's information about a UNFAO initiative to praise bees through poetry!

The following resources FAO were prepared for World Bee Day, especially the #Bee-inspired poetry!
 
·         Bee Day Video to celebrate our unsung #FoodHeroes – bees and beekeepers!
 
o   English: https://twitter.com/FAO/status/1263007945224343552
 
·         #BEE-inspired - To mark this special Day, we asked some well-known figures to record poems related to bees or beekeeping, or poems that recall how the behaviour of bees so often mirrors that of human beings across our planet. Here are the links to the posts/poems!
 
o   French actress Juliette Binoche reading Louise-Victorine Ackerman’s poem “L’Abeille” (in French - Twitter)
o   French actor Lambert Wilson reading Khalil Gibran's “The Prophet” (in English – Twitter, Instagram, Facebook) and Pierre de Ronsard’s poem “L’Amour pique par une Abeille” (in French – Twitter)
o   Chinese singer TAN Weiwei reading Qianqi's “To the bee with honey spleen” (in Chinese - Weibo)
o   Russian actor Sergey Chonishvili reading XVIII-XX century Russian poetry dedicated to bees (in Russian - Twitter)
o   Italian actor Leo Gullotta reading Giovanni Meli's “Dimmi, dimmi, apuzza nica” (in Italian - Twitter)
o   Lebanese media professional Darine El-Khatib reading Ahmad Shawqi’s poem "Bee Kingdom" (in Arabic – Twitter, Facebook target post)
o   Mexican chef Alfredo Oropeza reading Antonio Machado's “Anoche cuando dormia” (in Spanish - YouTube)
o   Brazilian chef and TV host Bela Gil reading Renata Magliano Marins' “Homage to Bees” (in Portuguese - Facebook target post)

Here is the Congressional webinar briefing recording on The Coming Crisis: Preventing a Hunger Catastrophe amid COVID-19.
We hope you enjoyed the session, which was cohosted by FAO North America and the Alliance to End Hunger, in conjunction with the House and Senate Hunger Caucuses. Please find a link to the event recording below, and the presentations attached.
 
Webinar Recording: https://bit.ly/2LKdK02
 
Learn more about the 2020 Global Report on Food Crises: http://www.fightfoodcrises.net/
 
Visit our website to learn more about our upcoming webinar sessions: fao.org/north-america

Here's notice of an important online meeting about the pandemic and its expected impacts on worldwide hunger.

The Coming Crisis: Preventing a Hunger Catastrophe amid the COVID-19 Pandemic 
Featuring 
FAO Director-General QU Dongyu
and IFPRI Director-General Johan Swinnen
Register here: ​https://fao.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0vf-qgqT0vHtClV6f2VJkXFgNv7axFsEfk

Check out this upcoming virtual event: https://sites.google.com/view/alison-bixby-stone-school-wfp
 
Aaron R., the Winner of 2018 World Food Day Poetry Competition by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and a PoetryXHunger Initiative is going to be among the speakers! 

For over 25 years Fotokids (https://fotokidsoriginal.org/about/), originally called Out of the Dump, has worked in Guatemala as a non-profit organization breaking the cycle of poverty through training in visual arts and technology. Over the years, the project has grown to provide services to children from poverty- and violence-stricken communities around the country. Today, Fotokids provides services to more than 215 children, aged nine to 23, located in six communities in Guatemala, and more recently in the Central Valley of California working with children of farmworkers.  

Here is a "white flag" note from a recent Fotokids fundraising e-newsletter about hunger that may move poets to pick up the pen...

Hunger Issues-
Many families in Guatemala are hanging white flags on their doors to ask for food. In a country where 59% live in poverty and most make less than $5 a day we [Fotokids] are using some of our resources to provide food baskets for our neediest families. 

​You can find out how to help on the organization's webpage: https://fotokidsoriginal.org/

You can also use this story as a prompt if you would like to respond to our Call to Action: https://www.poetryxhunger.com/now-more-than-ever.html

Here's a late-March 2020 article by the folks at Feeding America with projected levels of increased food insecurity caused by the pandemic:   
https://hungerandhealth.feedingamerica.org/2020/03/impact-coronavirus-food-insecurity/
 
Three scenarios are described that, depending on the level of job losses, could mean that 4 - 17 million more Americans will be food insecure compared to pre-pandemic levels of 37 million -- it all depends on the extent of job/income losses.   

Hiram LarewWed, Apr 22, 11:17 AM (1 day ago)


to me








https://hungerandhealth.feedingamerica.org/2020/03/impact-coronavirus-food-insecurity/