FOOD SECURITY

Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their needs for an active and healthy life. In the light of integral ecology, food security is not only a matter of producing more food, but of justice: who produces food, who controls land, water and seeds, who can afford to eat well, and whether the way we produce and consume respects the earth. Food is a gift of creation, a sign of communion, and a human right: “the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” is heard first of all at the table.

WHAT IT MEANS

• Understanding that hunger today is not mainly due to lack of food, but to poverty, inequality, conflict, climate disruption and unjust food systems: there is enough food in the world, but not everyone can access it.

• Looking beyond calories: food security includes access to healthy, nutritious and culturally appropriate diets, and not only to enough food to survive.
• Recognizing the right to food as a basic human right, which States and societies are bound to respect, protect and fulfil, and which cannot be left only to charity or to the market.
• Valuing small-scale farmers, fishers, pastoralists, indigenous peoples and women, who feed much of the world, and supporting food sovereignty: the right of peoples and communities to define their own food and agricultural systems, with access to land, water, seeds and fair markets.
• Promoting agroecological and sustainable ways of producing and distributing food that care for soil, water and biodiversity, reduce waste and shorten the distance between producers and consumers.
• Seeing food as a commons and not simply as a commodity for speculation and profit.

WHY THIS MATTERS

• According to the UN report The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2026 (SOFI), about 645 million people (7.8% of humanity) faced hunger in 2025, and around 2.1 billion experienced moderate or severe food insecurity. Hunger has declined for three consecutive years, but progress is fragile, uneven and insufficient to meet the Zero Hunger goal by 2030.
• Africa has become the region with the largest number of people suffering hunger, about 309 million, and the report projects that a large share of the hungry in 2030 will live there. Nearly one-third of the world’s population, some 2.7 billion people, cannot afford a healthy diet: the high cost of healthy food is the central theme of the 2026 report.
• The main drivers are interconnected: conflicts that destroy farms, roads and markets (as in Gaza, Sudan or Ukraine); climate change, with droughts, floods and heat that reduce harvests; economic shocks, debt and rising prices; inequality and concentration of land and agribusiness; and cuts in public funding for development and humanitarian aid.
• Food systems are themselves a major cause of the ecological crisis: they contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, loss of biodiversity and water pollution. At the same time, about one-third of the food produced is lost or wasted, which Pope Francis has compared to stealing from the table of the poor (LS 50).
• Hunger is not only a problem of the Global South: in Europe and other wealthy regions, food poverty is also increasing, with rising prices and growing numbers of families who rely on food banks and charitable meals.

WHY IT CONCERNS RELIGIOUS LIFE

• Feeding the hungry is at the heart of the Gospel (Mt 25:35; Mt 14:16 “Give them something to eat yourselves”) and of the origins of many Religious Institutes, which were founded to feed, shelter and educate the poor. Soup kitchens, food pantries, missions, schools and hospitals continue this tradition today.
• The Eucharist, bread and wine, “fruit of the earth and work of human hands”, joins creation, labour and communion (LS 236). A community that celebrates the Eucharist cannot be indifferent to those who lack daily bread.
• The counsels illuminate our relationship with food: poverty and sobriety teach us to take what is needed and share the rest; fraternal life, centred on the common table, is a sign of the Kingdom; obedience to the Gospel makes us attentive to those who are hungry.
• We are producers and consumers on a significant scale: farms and gardens, refectories, kitchens, schools and hospitals, retreat houses. Our decisions about what to buy, from whom, and what to do with surplus and waste have an ethical and ecological impact.
• We are present in the places where hunger is felt, from rural villages and refugee camps to urban peripheries and wealthy cities. This enables us to listen to people, to serve them, and to bring their voice to decision-makers.

A GOSPEL CALL TODAY

“Give them something to eat yourselves” (Mt 14:16). Jesus does not ask the disciples to wait for a solution from elsewhere, but to share what they have, and from this sharing a multiplication happens. Today the Gospel calls the Religious both to the immediate service of the hungry and to the transformation of the structures that produce hunger. Food becomes a place of conversion: in the way we eat, buy, cultivate and waste, in the table we share with the poor, and in the voice we raise so that no one is left without daily bread.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCERNMENT

• Who is hungry or food insecure in the places where we live and serve, and what is causing it? Are we responding only to the consequences, or also to the causes?
• How do we manage food in our communities and works: what we buy, where it comes from, how it is produced, how much we waste, and what we do with surplus?
• How can our land, buildings and institutions (farms, gardens, kitchens, schools, hospitals) contribute to local, sustainable and just food systems?
• Which networks and campaigns can we join so that our voice helps make the right to food a reality in law and policy?

REMEMBER:

“Approximately a third of all food produced is discarded, and ‘whenever food is thrown out it is as if it were stolen from the table of the poor’.” (Pope Francis, Laudato Si’ 50)

KEY REFERENCES

• Francis (2015) Laudato Si’ (esp. nos. 50, 94, 129–130 and 236).

• FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO (2026) The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2026: Understanding and Addressing the High Cost of a Healthy Diet.
• FAO – Committee on World Food Security (2004) Voluntary Guidelines to support the progressive realization of the right to adequate food in the context of national food security.
• FAO – Committee on World Food Security (2021) Policy Recommendations on Agroecological and other Innovative Approaches.
• Fondazione Pistoletto Cittadellarte (2023) Manifesto for the Right to Food. (link)

KEY RESOURCES

• Good Food 4 All – European Citizens’ Initiative “Food is a Human Right for All!” (cittadellarte.it)
• FIAN International – the Right to Food and Nutrition (fian.org)
• La Via Campesina – international peasant movement for food sovereignty (viacampesina.org)
• Caritas Internationalis (caritas.org)

ORIENTATION TO ENGAGEMENT

Each community will approach food security according to its charism, resources and context. Four attitudes can help:

1. Combine service and justice. Continue direct assistance to those in need, but ask also why they are hungry and what can change the situation.

1. Start from what we already do. Kitchens, gardens, farms, schools and social ministries are natural places to begin changes in practice and awareness.
2. Respect the dignity of those we serve. Seek ways in which people can participate, choose and contribute, and not only receive.
3. Work with others. Join local food networks, Caritas, farmers’ organizations and campaigns that give collective strength to our commitments.

RECOMMENDED INITIATIVE

Good Food 4 All, the European Citizens’ Initiative “Food is a Human Right for All!” is a campaign calling on the European Union to recognize food as a fundamental human right and to guarantee healthy, just and sustainable food systems through binding legislation. It was launched by the Fondazione Mater, in collaboration with Fondazione Pistoletto Cittadellarte and FIAN Switzerland, and is backed by the Good Food For All Coalition, a network of more than 275 civil society organizations working on agriculture, environment, animal welfare and human rights. The European Commission registered the initiative on 8 July 2025, and signature collection opened on 7 January 2026 for a period of one year.

A European Citizens’ Initiative is a tool of participatory democracy: if it gathers one million signatures from citizens of at least seven EU Member States within the year, the European Commission is obliged to examine its demands, meet the organizers and give a public response. In the campaign materials promoted by Caritas Italiana, under the slogan “Hack the Food System”, the initiative lists concrete objectives, among them: enshrining the right to food in EU laws and policies; ensuring fair prices and healthy diets for all; strengthening social protection against food poverty; reducing food loss and waste; guaranteeing healthy and accessible school meals; and banning speculation on agricultural and food commodities.

For Religious communities, the initiative offers a very concrete way to join prophetic advocacy: signing, if they are EU citizens, and inviting their communities, schools, parishes and networks to sign and share it; hosting information and prayer moments on the right to food; and bringing the voice of the hungry that we accompany into this debate. Those living outside the EU can support the campaign through their European Provinces and networks, and draw inspiration for similar initiatives in their own countries. The signature collection is expected to close in early January 2027, so the time to act is now. More at cittadellarte.it/en/events/good-food-for-all.