Action Against Hunger UK hosted its first Conflict Café earlier this week, inviting notable names from the public eye to a breakfast designed to highlight the issue between conflict and hunger.
The event, which coincided with the fifth anniversary of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2417, saw high-profile guests being served a three-course meal where each dish was absent as a reminder of the impact conflict has on world hunger.
Greeted with a room full of empty plates and cutlery made of bullets from countries where conflict is the biggest driver of hunger, the range of dishes that were ‘off menu’ included a summer salad, where the ingredients could not be procured after suppliers had their fields seized by local militia for planting mines.
Other statement dishes from the Action Against Hunger event included a missing homemade lentil soup and okra, impacted by market bombing and the subsequent low supplies and increased pricing, as well as locally-made sorbets which could not be produced after water towers were destroyed by shelling.
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Held on 25 May, in Westminster’s The Cinnamon Club, attendees included the Evening Standard’s restaurant critic, Jimi Famurewa, Great British Bake Off star, Antony Amordoux and a range of MPs and foreign office staff.
The event, designed to support Action Against Hunger’s campaign to break the cycle between conflict and hunger, was followed by the charity’s new report, ‘No Matter Who’s Fighting, Hunger Always Wins’, conflict and violence threaten food security for 85% of 258 million people in 58 countries, including places such as Afghanistan, Burkina Faso and Nigeria.
Action Against Hunger UK head of advocacy, Kate Munro, said: “Conflict remains the leading cause of acute hunger worldwide and continues to rise.
“Our fight against hunger is also a fight for peace. Of the 45 million people globally who are on the brink of famine, around 70% of them have been driven there by conflict. We cannot achieve a sustainable peace when millions face the injustice of starvation.”
