On food security: “You can either feed them now or fight them later. People are migrating because of food, which means they’re not going to be there to work. The impacts that food-related systems have to the struggling world are exponential, from keeping a child in school to changing communities and livelihoods. WFP also helps the American farmer. We buy a large portion of our food from the U.S. farmer. I try to explain what I call WPF 101 to a lot of our private-sector guys to make sure they understand the impact; that this isn’t just that we’re great humanitarians. The impact goes beyond food.”
On the United Nations: “When I came to WFP, it was very clear to me that we would have to slim down because the money was not going to be the same. We had grown too fat. We’re too big. We need to streamline. I worry about the American taxpayer all the time. Taking food from the hungry to give to the starving because we don’t have enough money: those things weigh on me a great deal.”
On the private sector: “It wasn’t just the U.S. that cut funding. It was the EU. It was across the board in Asia. It was Central and South America. Nobody had that kind of money. And all this was happening as we began to see more conflict and climate change. We can no longer rely on government for this, and the needs are only growing. We need the private sector to not only understand why we do this, not just because people are starving, although that’s the main focus, but it’s also about what’s going to affect you, your supply chain, your work, your people.
