Food Insecurity in Haiti

Unfortunately, the words “hunger” and “Haiti” have become synonymous, and Haiti continues to experience one of the highest levels of food insecurity in the Western Hemisphere. For the citizens of Haiti, many necessities are scarce, and prices for goods and food items have risen exponentially. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic also made things worse due to lockdowns, travel restrictions, food shortages, social distancing, and health mandates.

Hunger in Haiti

Over the past 20 years, Haiti has made very little progress in regards to food security due to a host of factors. Some are beyond human control, and some aren’t. Earthquakes, hurricanes, political demonstrations, fuel shortages, flooding, the lack of rainfall, government corruption and instability, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the lack of access to healthy food choices are just a few factors that most countries in the Western Hemisphere don’t need to worry about. Haiti does need to worry about those things.

Haiti has suffered from political instability and natural disasters, and every few years another hurricane or earthquake destroys parts of the island. However, the pandemic caused a whole new set of problems. The virus was contained in Haiti, for the most part, but the impact of the world-wide economic slowdown and trade devastated the island country that depends heavily on imports. 

With political and economic issues, it is a perfect storm for food insecurity. As of 2021, there were 4 million Haitians experiencing food insecurity, and that number is expected to rise even though COVID-19 numbers have gone down. With new variants of COVID-19 and the potential for lockdowns and health mandates, Haiti is bracing for even more hungry citizens. 

Selling Off Livestock and Land

When things are bad, some Haitians have resorted to selling their livestock and land in order to buy food. During droughts, farmers often sell their livestock because they don’t have access to water or fodder for the animals. Some planting seasons end early because seeds aren’t readily available, and some farmers resort to eating the seeds for some nutritional value.

Haiti needs all of the help they can get, and Against Global Hunger is on a mission to eradicate hunger through packaging and distributing healthy food to those in need.  

Volunteer With Against Global Hunger

Against Global Hunger has established partnerships with schools, organizations, and church groups, and together we intend to make global hunger a thing of the past. Volunteers and organizations help AGH package highly nutritious food that gets distributed locally and globally. These partnerships are crucial to the AGH process, and it couldn’t be done without our caring missionaries, volunteers, organizations, and donors.

Here are just a few examples of how you can help Against Global Hunger:

• Filling food boxes
• Cleaning
• Filing
• Moving boxes
• Labeling bags
• Answering the phone
• Helping set up for an event