PepsiCo and the PepsiCo Foundation, the company’s philanthropic arm, have announced an expansion of their comprehensive efforts to promote food security in response to the global hunger issue. Through its global Food for Good initiatives, the Foundation is doubling down on efforts to enhance equitable access to healthy food by increasing its investments and introducing three new methods to engage people in fighting hunger.
Globally, 345 million people suffer from severe hunger. This number is anticipated to rise as our global food system is further disrupted by factors including climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, and international conflict.
To collaborate to address the hunger challenge now and in the future, PepsiCo Food for Good has invested more than $35 million since 2021 alone to promote access to nutritious food and increase the productivity and livelihoods of farmers. This builds on more than a decade of partnership with communities to advance food security. While continuing to address current hunger needs, it is allocating expenditures to activities that have the potential to create long-term solutions this year.
- Food for Good focuses on economically empowering women via sustainable agribusiness, maximizing the efficiency and earnings of local producers with the help of international partners like World Food Program USA in support of the United Nations (U.N.) World Food Programme and CARE as well as top local groups. It is mobilizing numerous efforts in places with significant vulnerability in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia to avert the food catastrophe. Between 2022 and 2024, it hopes to assist 3.5 million farmers and their families through these initiatives.
- Increasing access to nutrient-dense food: Food for Good works to ensure that the most vulnerable people can access food in a dignified manner through malnutrition interventions in Mexico and Guatemala, as well as in the United States and South Africa through the Pioneer School Breakfast Nutrition Programme.
“We’re addressing the call to address the worsening global food insecurity and we plan to continue with our large contributions,” said C.D. Glin, vice president of the PepsiCo Foundation and PepsiCo’s global head of philanthropy. “However, to have a real impact, everyone with a role to play in our global food systems must be a part of the solution to solve the current need and work on solutions to avoid us ever finding ourselves in this position of crisis again,” the author writes.
