SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Sept. 14, 2022 (Gephardt Daily) — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has donated $32 million to the United Nations World Food Programme to fight world-wide hunger.
A church press release Wednesday said it was the faith’s largest one-time donation to a humanitarian organization ever. The funds will “fight what the WFP calls a ‘seismic hunger crisis,” it said.
During a visit Wednesday to WFP headquarters in Rome, Italy, Bishop L. Todd Budge of the church’s Presiding Bishopric presented the donation to Barron Segar, WFP USA president and CEO, and WFP Executive Director of Partnerships and Advocacy Ute Klamert, according to the release.
The WFP will use the church’s funds to provide food and other critical assistance to 1.6 million of the most vulnerable people in nine countries: Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Kenya, northeast Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, and Yemen, the church said.
“This extraordinary donation from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints could not come at a more critical time,” said WFP Executive Director David Beasley. “With millions of people starving today, WFP is working hard to deliver food, help and hope, and this life-saving contribution allows us to do just that.”
“We are so grateful to collaborate with the World Food Programme because we know they will get food to those who need it most,” Budge said. “And we thank Latter-day Saints and friends of the faith whose financial sacrifices have made this gift possible. Such giving makes God’s children a little happier and all of us a little holier.”
