About the Author: Judith Fergin serves as U.S. Ambassador to Timor-Leste.

“I was the third-best cook in the Timorese armed resistance!” President Taur Matan Ruak declared to a multinational crowd assembled at the official residence of Timor-Leste’s head of state on March 14. 

At the event, the President and First Lady Isabel Ferreira presented traditional Timorese cuisine, including a nutritious stew made of ingredients found in the country’s mountainous jungles from which the resistance had operated for 24 years, along with tales of how to locate and prepare some occasionally lethal (but delicious) plants. My husband Greg and I had the privilege of introducing guests to the culinary delights of Thanksgiving, with a turkey and all the trimmings and a pumpkin crumble cake. After watching a spirited demonstration of how to make traditional American stuffing and receiving do-it-yourself-stuffing kits, guests loaded their plates with… more »

About the Author: Tjada McKenna serves as the Deputy Coordinator for Development for Feed the Future, and Jonathan Shrier serves as the Acting Special Representative for Global Food Security and as the Deputy Coordinator for Diplomacy for Feed the Future.

In May 2012, we answered a few of the most common questions about the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition in the blog post Five Questions about the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition. This blog post follows with additional answers to other common questions about the New Alliance and progress.

1. What has happened with the New Alliance since the G8 announced it at the Camp David Summit in May 2012?

While it has only been a few months, we’re excited about the progress and momentum of the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, which is a unique partnership…more »

About the Author: Joan Lewa serves with USAID/Kenya.

In Kenya, a group of young women are working collaboratively to put to use their knowledge of food and nutrition. The group is turning a profit while feeding themselves and their children by cultivating a shared urban farm in Mombasa.

The young mothers who make up the group knew from the staff at the local health clinic that consuming vegetables and legumes would improve their health and that of their infants. These foods, along with fruits, nuts, fish, dairy products, and whole grains are all excellent sources of key nutrients for breastfeeding mothers.

“You must eat nutritious foods if you want your child to have enough milk, the doctor would always say,” says Mary Were.

However, like so many young urban Kenyans, Mary and these mothers lacked both the money to purchase such nutritious foods and the land to grow it themselves.

… more »

Remarks
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Benjamin Franklin Room
Washington, DC
May 17, 2012

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, this is a very exciting time for all of us, which includes everyone in this room who has been working together in order to realize the dream of an effective, functioning partnership around food and nutrition security. And to those of you who have traveled from afar to be here in Washington, we welcome you. And in particular, we are honored to have the heads of state and government who have been introduced. These gentlemen are here because they understand the opportunity that is being presented to have a true partnership, a global partnership around the ending of food insecurity, hunger, and malnutrition. And we are very impressed that you have taken this leadership position and the time to be with us.

Also in this room are representatives of the G-8 nations. This G-8 effort began in Italy, and I see friends of mine from the Government of Italy who began this process in L’Aquila. And at Camp David this weekend, in partnership with our African partners, we take it to the next level. MORE

Remarks by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton with Tanzanian Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda and Irish Deputy Prime Minister Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore at the High-Level Meeting on Nutrition and the 1,000 Days Initiative.

About the Author: Cindy Huang serves as Senior Advisor to the Office of Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative.

Sunday was a big day for the Administration’s flagship global hunger and food security initiative, Feed the Future. Secretary Clinton was here in Tanzania and broke new ground…literally! In a visit to Mlandizi Town, Secretary Clinton and Prime Minister Pinda launched Feed the Future in Tanzania and commemorated the event by planting sweet pepper seedlings in the fields of the Upendo Women’s Group. USAID supports group members to raise incomes and improve nutrition by providing training and technologies, such as high quality seeds and simple irrigation systems, resulting in the increased sale and consumption of vegetables. Upendo’s chairwoman told me that the biggest benefit of the group’s shared greenhouse and land is that the women now exchange ideas and solve problems together that lead to… more »

About the Author: Paul Weisenfeld serves as the Assistant to the Administrator in the Bureau for Food Security at USAID.

Every day, two billion people in the world do not consume enough nutrients to live healthy, productive lives. As the head of the Bureau for Food Security at USAID, the magnitude of this number — two billion — is why I am so serious about my work. As a father, another number resonates with me: 200 million. That is the number of kids who suffer from chronic undernutrition worldwide. This is a serious issue that contributes to chronic hunger, poverty, and susceptibility to disease.

That’s where my work — and that of my colleagues from across the U.S. government, private sector, civil society, and host-country governments — comes in. Building on decades of support for development programs, the United States is strengthening partnerships and integrating its global… more »