Saving lives through SAFE cooking
WFP’s work goes beyond delivering food assistance. Making sure that the food we provide can be consumed as safely and nutritiously as possible is a sustainable way towards eradicating global hunger. Cooking seems a safe activity, yet in humanitarian settings it poses serious health, safety and environmental risks.
A 2010 survey conducted by WFP in 17 countries found that women and children often resort to negative coping mechanisms in an effort to cook their food. Families skip meals, under-cook food to save on cooking fuel or sell part of their rations to buy firewood or charcoal.
Women and girls spend hours travelling long distances to collect firewood in dangerous environments, exposing themselves to sexual and other forms of violence;
Women often feel forced to skip meals, undercook or sell food just to buy or save on firewood, jeopardizing their nutrition;
One-third of the world’s population depends on biomass to cook and heat their homes. Every year 4.3 million people die from health problems related to inhaling smoke from burning solid fuels. Women and children in humanitarian settings inhale this smoke while cooking on open fires or inefficient cookstoves;
Deforesting their already fragile ecosystems to cook meals with firewood can cause environmental degradation as well as tensions between assisted populations and host communities.