Cargill Inc. has matched the Nobel Peace Prize award with a donation of $1 million to the United Nations, World Food Program. This donation matches the amount that accompanies the Prize and recognizes the recipient's efforts to combat hunger, help build a world free of conflict and to prevent the use of food as a weapon of war.
Michelle Grogg, Vice President of Corporate Responsibility at Cargill stated, "this one million dollar contribution builds on our twenty-year partnership to address food insecurity and advance farmer livelihoods around the world. We encourage others to join in and support the World Food Program as it will take all of us working together to end systemic hunger and ensure a safe sustainable and affordable food system for all".
Randy Russell, the U.S. Board Chair of the World Food Program stated, "we are grateful to our long-standing partner Cargill for their significant commitment to the support of our program".
Although the generosity and commitment of Cargill Inc. is recognized and lauded, we should also take into account that there are almost fifteen million children in the U.S. currently deprived of adequate nutrition as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and accompanying job losses. Hunger does not only occur in overpopulated regions in underdeveloped far-off nations beset with strife and severe weather—it is on our own doorstep.