Brazil is world champion in fighting hunger

Brazil is a world leader in the fight against hunger and its experience can be shared with other countries, visiting World Food Program chief Josette Sheeran said Monday. "As a world champion in the fight against hunger, Brazil has a wealth of experience that can be shared with governments eager to learn how they achieved that success and adapt it to their own countries," she noted. The UN official made the remarks in the northeastern city of Salvador while inaugurating a local branch of a newly established Center of Excellence Against Hunger based in Brasilia. Brazil, Latin America's economic powerhouse, has implemented a successful "Zero Hunger" strategy for reducing poverty and food insecurity. Its school meals program reaches about 45 million children per year. "Brazil has taken the fight against hunger and malnutrition seriously and is now among those defeating hunger faster than any nation on earth," Sheeran said. "We will partner to leverage this success to other nations seeking to end hunger and malnutrition." The center, a joint initiative between WFP and Brazil, is tasked with helping countries improve, expand, and eventually run their own national school meal programs to improve the nutrition, education and food security of schoolchildren. It will assist governments in Africa, Asia, and Latin America by drawing on the expertise of WFP and Brazil in combating hunger, while promoting sustainable school feeding models and other food and nutrition safety nets. The center has already launched partnerships between WFP, Brazil, and Mozambique, East Timor, and Haiti. While in Brazil, the WFP executive director plans to meet President Dilma Rousseff.