This back-to-school season, WhyHunger is breaking down what our work is all about…starting with our ABCs. Join us to learn the key terms we all – even our littlest readers – need to understand as we work together to end hunger for good!

At WhyHunger, we envision a fundamental shift in the way the world eats, rooted in shared resources, respect for the earth, and dignity for all people. And we believe the best way to achieve this goal is by working towards food sovereignty.

Food Sovereignty is a term coined in 90s by La Via Campesina, an international peasant movement that represents over 200 million farmers, landless people, rural women and youth, Indigenous people, and agricultural workers around the world.

It’s the right to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through sustainable methods and equitable labor practices, and protecting the right of communities to define their own food and agriculture systems.

Simply put, it puts people’s need for food at the center of policies, making it much more than a commodity. But not just any food, food that:

• is grown in ways that work with nature, not against it,
• builds and sustains indigenous knowledge
• supports sustainable livelihoods at all points along the food chain
• places land in the hands of local food providers
• resists dependence on the industrial food system

Welcome to WhyHunger’s Kids’ Corner, where we break down big concepts for our littlest readers. We believe that engaging in justice-centered discussions and activities at home can help kids (and adults!) develop their critical thinking, advocacy, compassion and learning. 

Food Sovereignty is more than a goal, it’s a movement.

Food Sovereignty is another big term, but it’s easy to understand.

It means that people can always decide what they eat and when they eat it. It’s so important that each and every one of us has this right.

But many people can’t get enough food to eat. So many people can’t afford food that’s healthy, or they don’t have a say in the kinds of foods that grow in their neighborhoods or fill their grocery store shelves – that means they don’t have food sovereignty.

Everyone should have food sovereignty.

That’s why at WhyHunger, we’re working with farmers and people like you all over the world, to make sure everyone has a say in what they eat. We need good, fresh food to live and grow healthy, and to connect us with Mother Earth and the people around us.