World Food Day is an annual reminder that food insecurity and malnourishment remain widespread issues. Based on the U.N. World Food Program (WFP), as many as 828 million people – about 10 percent of the world’s population – go to bed hungry every night.

Observed annually on October 16, World Food Day is supposed to lift awareness and encourage motion on behalf of those affected by hunger. This yr’s commemoration is marked by multiple global challenges, including the ongoing pandemic, geopolitical conflict, climate change, rising prices and international tensions. These ongoing issues are why advocates say the day is more necessary than ever.

“The number of individuals affected by hunger has greater than doubled previously three years and    that “almost one million individuals are living in famine conditions, with starvation and death a each day reality,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres in a message highlighting the dire situation. 

“Together, we must move from despair to hope and motion. On World Food Day and day by day, I call on you to be a part of the change,” he added. 

The annual October 16 date commemorates the establishment of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 1945. Tons of of events and outreach activities happen worldwide, bringing together governments, businesses, most of the people and the media to lift awareness and motion for individuals who are food insecure.

The theme for this yr is ‘Leave No One Behind.’ Based on the FAO, current global challenges limit access to and availability of nutritious food. The problem is particularly acute for the 80 percent of individuals classified as “extremely poor” who live in rural areas. They’re probably the most severely affected by each man-made and natural disasters. Some individuals are also marginalized due to their gender or ethnicity.

Within the face of the growing hunger crisis, the top of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization stressed on Friday, ahead of World Food Day, the necessity to “harness the ability of solidarity and collective motion” to construct a sustainable world with enough to eat for everybody.

The FAO also says projections suggest that 670 million people will still be facing hunger in 2030 despite the U.N.’s own Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of ‘zero hunger’ by the tip of this decade.