Tapestry of Faith: Building Bridges: A World Religions Program for 8th-9th Grades

Handout 3: Child Starvation

Statistics from: Reference.com, UNICEF, Bread For the World, Child Trends Data Bank, Online Encyclopedia, Hunger Notes, and We Are Austin.

Child Starvation

  • Every 3.6 seconds a person dies of starvation
  • Conservative figures show that five million children under age five die from hunger-related causes
  • One in eight children in the United States goes to bed hungry every night
  • Hunger is twice as prevalent in minority households as white households in the U.S.
  • Worldwide agricultural production is greater than 2,700 calories daily for every human being on earth
  • Malnutrition causes pain, joint deterioration, dental decay, compromised immunity, impaired thought processes and muscle control, and slow growth
  • In the United States, 27% of edible food is thrown away each year. Half of the wasted food could feed 40 million people, half the number of people who die of starvation on earth every year.