Foreign Affairs

UN Food Organization Wins Nobel Peace Prize

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The United Nations World Food Program was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize Friday, according to Reuters.

The food organization received the prize for its work fighting hunger around the world seeking to improve conditions for peace in places facing conflict, Reuters reported.

“The need for international solidarity and multilateral cooperation is more conspicuous than ever,” Berit Reiss-Andersen, chairwoman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said in a news conference, according to Reuters.

Reiss-Andersen said the organization is a driving force to stop from hunger being taken advantage of as a means for war and conflict, and that the COVID-19 pandemic has increased its importance, Reuters reported. The food group said that hunger across the world could double because of the ongoing pandemic.

The U.N World Food Program said it helps around 97 million people in approximately 88 countries, and that one in nine people worldwide lack enough to eat.

“I know I’m not deserving of an award like this, but all the men and women around the world in the World Food Program and our partners who put their lives on the line every day,” David Beasley, executive director of the World Food Program, said to The Associated Press.

We are deeply humbled to receive the #NobelPeacePrize. This is an incredible recognition of the dedication of the @WFP family, working to end hunger everyday in 80+ countries.

Thank you @NobelPrize for this incredible honor! pic.twitter.com/bHcS0usWQa

— David Beasley (@WFPChief) October 9, 2020

BREAKING NEWS:
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize to the World Food Programme (WFP).#NobelPrize #NobelPeacePrize pic.twitter.com/fjnKfXjE3E

— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 9, 2020

The food organization is also in charge of a logistics service that has sent medical supplies to more than 120 countries during the coronavirus to assist governments and health partners that are combating the pandemic, Reuters reported. They also have given transportation help to humanitarian and health workers where there weren’t any commercial flights.

“At a time when we are living through a global pandemic, the need for food, humanitarian help has intensified,” Reiss-Andersen told Reuters.

The United Nations World Food Program did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.