Giving Compass' Take:
- Danielle Nierenberg spotlights World Food Day on Thursday, October 16, 2025 and how we can work to bring about a future of universal access to nutritious food.
- What actions can you take as a donor this World Food Day to help ensure all members of your community have access to healthy food?
- Learn more about key issues in food and nutrition and how you can help.
- Search our Guide to Good for nonprofits focused on food justice in your area.
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World Food Day—Thursday, October 16—celebrates the founding of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which is marking its 80th anniversary this year. Over the past eight decades, FAO’s research, advocacy, and lifesaving on-the-ground work have brought food security to millions of people.
But global hunger is far from solved—2.6 billion people worldwide, or 1 in every 3 of us, cannot afford healthy diets. That means we have to work together, more strongly than ever before, to scale up these proven solutions and nourish the world.
Next week, we’re hosting the official North American World Food Day 2025 celebration alongside FAO, Arizona State University’s Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems, and the Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation. If you’re in Arizona, I hope you’ll join us at the Walton Center for Planetary Health in Tempe, with more info HERE.
Expert speakers and moderators from across food and health systems will help drive conversations: Selena Ahmed, American Heart Association/Periodic Table of Food Initiative; Arnott Duncan, Duncan Family Farms; Nick Konat, Sprouts; Crystal FitzSimons, Food Research & Action Center, Denisa Livingston, Community Health Advocate, Heirloom Food Grower; Kathleen Merrigan, Arizona State University; Michel Nischan, Wholesome Wave; Thomas Pesek, FAO; Pierre Thiam, Yolélé Foods; and Lyndsey Waugh, Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation; Jenna Lea Rosen, Broadway actress; Debra Utacia Krol, The Arizona Republic; Clara Migoya, The Arizona Republic; and more.
Discussions at this Summit, including interactive breakout sessions with participants, will inform a future white paper to drive future policy and civil society outcomes surrounding food is medicine.
“Food is not just about nourishment—it is medicine, and it holds the power to shape our health, communities, and planet,” Kathleen Merrigan, Executive Director of the Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems at Arizona State University, reminds us.
This year’s World Food Day theme—“Hand in Hand for Better Foods and a Better Future”— underscores the conversations we’ve been having about the urgent need to break down silos, to work across industries, and to prioritize productive dialogue and collaboration.
Read the full article about World Food Day by Danielle Nierenberg at Food Tank.