On Tuesday afternoon, September 23, Food Tank hosted a “Food Security Solutions in a World of Climate Extremes” Summit during Climate Week NYC, in partnership with World Food Program USA.
The invitation-only event explored how climate extremes—from floods to droughts to conflict-induced hunger—are impacting food systems worldwide, and how bold solutions in science, policy, innovation, and community action are responding.
Watch the full livestreamed event on Food Tank’s YouTube channel.
Throughout the afternoon, speakers emphasized the scale of the humanitarian crisis unfolding right now. In July, United Nations experts reported that close to 100 people were dying every hour since President Donald Trump suspended U.S. foreign aid. And recent reports project that ongoing U.S. funding cuts could result in more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030, including 4.5 million deaths among children younger than five years.
“It’s a very troubling period of time right now. I wish those who don’t understand the need for food aid could talk to the 300 million people around the world who are suffering from acute food insecurity. These are human lives, and I believe we have a moral and ethical responsibility to help those who are hungry,” says Barron Segar, President and CEO of World Food Program USA.
Chase Sova, Vice President of Advocacy & Engagement at World Food Program USA, says food insecurity further drives instability globally, leading to social unrest, political instability, and increased conflict.
“For the longest time, we’ve known that conflict produced hunger, and that’s true for every manmade crisis in human history. What we’ve been less interested in is how food insecurity itself can be a driver of instability,” says Sova.
“Hunger doesn’t just weaken bodies, it weakens states, it feeds unrest, and it fuels conflict,” says Cynthia Yue, Advocacy & Engagement Manager at World Food Program USA. “There is no better way to create disruption and to radicalize populations than exploiting people’s desperation.”
Yue pointed to the youth initiative of World Food Program USA, called Zero Hunger Generation, as a testament to the power of community-building in creating change.
“Young people everywhere are pitching in what they can to make a zero-hunger tomorrow a reality starting today. They are proving that food is more than just fuel or politics,” says Yue. “Food is a movement.”
Content creators also joined the stage to discuss the power of storytelling, particularly its ability to amplify the on-the-ground efforts already underway globally.
“They’re doing the hard part, I just get to help amplify the incredible work and teach people why it’s important and interesting,” says Maddy DeVita, celebrated private chef and recipe developer, who serves on the Zero Hunger Activist Council for World Food Program USA. “I’m sharing sourdough bread and also talking about donating to this cause. It’s very integrated and helps put a face behind the people who care about this.”
DeVita and Detroit-based chef and cookbook author Jon Kung agree that positivity is critical at a time when the new cycle feels bleak to many young people.
“A kind of nihilism has permeated through the young internet. But it’s OK to care. We have to try to make that cool,” says Kung. “As content creators, we can lead by example. Positivity can be the protest.”
Panel conversations covered a wide range of solutions, from AI to school meals, and emphasized the need for cross-sector collaboration to tackle these complex, multifaceted issues. Organizations cannot afford to work separately.
“The opportunity cost of siloed work is unacceptably high,” says Nick Cain, Vice President of Strategy & Innovation at the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation. “We as a sector need to reframe how we think about the opportunity in front of us to use the tools.”
But speakers agree that all solutions—including those developed through cross-sector collaboration—must be created alongside those working on the ground.
“If you’re going to design a solution, integrate into what farmers are already using, rather than trying to create something new that just would not get used,” says Alex Diaz, Head of AI for Social Good at Google.org.
And investing in communities through collaboration is not just the right thing to do, panelists say—it’s good business: “This isn’t philanthropic, this is an investment from a corporation to strengthen the supply chain,” says Kelly Goodejohn, Chief Social Impact Officer at Starbucks Coffee Company, which partners with World Food Program USA to improve food security and nutrition for Indigenous women and children in Guatemalan coffee-growing communities.
Andrew Zimmern, renowned American chef, restaurateur, and TV and radio personality, emphasizes that solutions to global hunger already exist—now is the time for action.
“Hope is not abstract. Hope is operational,” says Zimmern. “The task that we have in front of us is scale and speed. And that’s not an easy task…but we already have programs that are working, we’ve already figured out how to solve the problem, and now we have to figure out how to scale it and speed the plow.”
However, Zimmern adds, there is no time to waste: “The window is narrow, but it’s open…Every season we waste is a season where someone is going hungry.”
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Photo by Ryan Rose for Food Tank.
