How far does your reach extend for the Kingdom of God? When you come to a Packathon, do you know where in the world the food you physically touch will end up? What about the impact of the special projects we ask you to help us fund? While assembling some facts and statistics about our partner countries, I was somewhat shocked at what I found.
For example, the six countries that routinely receive FtH food (including the United States) are home to over 500 million people, about 7.7% of the world’s population. In just these countries alone, nearly 62 million people face chronic food insecurity, malnutrition, or undernourishment. That doesn’t count short-term hunger, and the number is only an estimate. The true number is likely higher.
Expanding this further, last year Feed the Hunger partnered with or supported Christian workers in 16 countries (click here to see our 2016 Annual Report). Without going outside the borders of those countries (in red on the map below), over 2.3 billion people could conceivably meet, receive help from, or otherwise interact with one of our partners. That’s nearly a third of the world’s population! Now, our food doesn’t feed anywhere close to that number, of course, but the point is that there is so much opportunity just in the places we already serve.
Individual countries have their own interesting population stats as well. Most people know that India is one of the most populous countries on earth (its 1.27 billion people put it in the number two spot, just slightly behind China). But did you know that India’s neighbor to the east, Bangladesh, is home to more than 156 million people? That’s equivalent to nearly half the population of the US living in an area smaller than the state of Iowa. The capital, Dhaka, contains 17 million people, making it the fourth largest city in the world. It is also the third most densely populated city on earth.
Of those living in Bangladesh, approximately 89% are Muslim and 10% are Hindu. That means Christians make up less than 1% of the population and that 99%—nearly 155 million people—remain lost. And that’s just in one country where Feed the Hunger works.
Facing numbers like these, it is easy to become overwhelmed at the sheer size of the need. Why don’t we just give up trying to reach people for Christ and meeting their physical needs? The numbers are indeed great, but our God is incomprehensibly greater. God “wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4), and what God desires, He will give us the means to carry out.
That’s the reason I believe God blessed us with more than 24,000 volunteers who packed over 3.5 million meals in 2016—so we could send that food, along with the message of the Gospel, to Christian partners who are meeting physical and spiritual needs in the Name of Jesus. We also want all people to hear and respond to the message of eternal life in Christ. Will you join us this year and pack, pray, or even go with us as we carry out the mission God has given to Feed the Hunger?
Matthew Byrd | Editor