paul tergat, former marathon world record holder, founder of the paul tergat foundation, member of the international olympic committee, and word food program ambassador is a success story of the wfp’s school lunch program. he is working to eliminate world hunger, something we’re all aware of but may not know the facts on.

fact: approximately 925 million people in the world do not eat enough to be healthy. that means that one in every seven people on earth goes to bed hungry each night.

fact: well over half of the world’s hungry people–some 578 million people–live in asia and the pacific region. africa accounts for just over one quarter of the world’s hungry population.

fact: it costs just us $0.25 per day to provide a child with all of the vitamins and nutrients he or she needs to grow up healthy.

fact: in 2012, the united nations world food programme (wfp) provided school meals to 24.7 million children in 60 countries.

fact: school meals encourage poor households to send children to school and keep them there.

fact: wfp works with governments to allow them to continue wfp-funded program themselves and to create and run their own sustainable school meal program.

listen to paul’s story, and then sound off in the comments – have you benefited from a school lunch program? how has food impacted your life?

leor reef and matt seedorff are seniors at the george washington university majoring in journalism.