Indigent Lagosians get free packs to mark world food day

As part of efforts to alleviate hunger among poor communities in Lagos State, hundreds of indigent people yesterday received food packs to mark the world food day.

The day celebrated on October 16 every year is aimed at ending hunger, achieve food security and improve nutrition by 2030, as one in nine persons worldwide still do not have enough to eat. Also, food and food-related assistance are at the heart of the struggle to break the cycle of hunger and poverty, according to the World Food Programme (WFP), a humanitarian organisation. 

Residents in urban slum communities in Agege, Ikorodu, Yaba, Bariga, and Ikotun came out en masse as food packs were given to them, including students who were on the way back from school through the Terra Food Drive Initiative.

A resident of Pen Cinema, Agege, Bose Akinola, who received the food pack said it was like an answered prayer as her daughter was crying of hunger without her being able to provide food. Another beneficiary, Isa Wasiu, lamented that hunger was causing more deaths among the poor with food prices rising daily. 

The Baale, Pen Cinema, Agege, Wakimu Abayomi, commended the initiative, saying some cannot afford a meal per day. The Marketing Manager, TGI District Limited, Govind Agarwal, who distributed the food along with his team, said the target of the initiative was to ensure poor children have access to quality food. 

He said the firm, through its corporate responsibility and sustainability initiative, which involves food security, will reach out to over 10,000 people in vulnerable communities in Lagos in the remaining months of 2019.