The first time I understood hunger, I was trapped in my room in Shanghai. It was the spring of 2022, and I was 12 years old.
The world was in total panic as a strange disease wreaked havoc, travelling across national borders and creeping past government mandates and lockdowns. Yet all I knew at the time was that my tummy rumbled, and the helpless face of my mother couldn’t assuage it.
At first, food didn’t even cross my mind as a concern; I was even happy I didn't have to go to school. I assumed food would keep coming because, well, it always had.
You see, for twelve-year-old me, Shanghai seemed endless, filled with stores, malls, and restaurants that were always full of food. Back then, the term “food insecurity” was a foreign phrase to me. But I would learn it much sooner than I expected.
I kept asking Mom for food and eyeing the fridge for the snacks that had always been there. For the first time in my life, I began noticing how much food was in the kitchen, or rather, how little there was.
My meals changed too. My parents, whom I’d always known to be incredible cooks, began making the same dishes for days on end. As the variety and scale of ingredients dwindled, the usual invention and comfort of mealtimes turned into a constant struggle. My initial protests about simpler, smaller portions soon faded under the monotonous apathy of plain, watery rice porridge. Soon I couldn’t even muster the energy to complain about how sick I had grown of the taste. After that, I couldn't even notice. But what I couldn’t ignore were the pangs of hunger and the weakness in my body.
Every few days, as our entire family spent hours baking under the scorching sun, waiting for mandatory COVID testing, I’d feel myself growing increasingly faint. My mom’s side felt like the only thing keeping me upright, but I began noticing her frailty as well. I was too young to realize she was skipping meals to give us more.
What confused me most was that food felt all around us, but never in our fridge or on our table.
It wasn’t until much later that I learned that Shanghai’s lockdown had fundamentally overloaded the city’s food supply and distribution network. Entire loads of groceries sat at risk of rotting away in trucks and warehouses because they couldn’t be delivered due to government restrictions (Patton). At the same time, we were forced to rely on rationed food deliveries in order to ensure there would be enough for everyone. As a kid, the paradox was lost on me, but I’d hear my parents argue long into the night.
One thought was clear to me, though: “How can I be so hungry when the grocery store is only a few kilometres away?”
This question and experience were only a small, relatively privileged version of a much larger global contradiction.
Looking back now as a more educated self, I’ve come to understand that hunger is also a matter of responsibility. To be sure, my family has some responsibility for how we use the foods that reach us. But we can only control so much. We could stretch a bag of rice, but we couldn’t decide whether a delivery would reach our neighbourhood or miss us entirely.
The precarity of this reality, which doesn’t care about relative wealth or the total food supply, hits me like those trucks that periodically skipped us for 65 days (Han et al.). Responsibility, I argue, should follow power; the government has far more of it than anyone else. Because they control the system, they should bear the lion’s share of the responsibility – and the blame – that comes with that power. This doesn’t absolve the public, but reinforces the need for collaboration and accountability for those making decisions at the logistical and infrastructural levels.
The world already produces enough food to nourish everyone. Yet the Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that about 645 million people faced hunger in 2025, while roughly 2.69 billion people could not afford a healthy diet (Food and Agriculture Organization et al.).
If humanity can produce enough food, why does hunger still persist? The answer lies in recognizing that hunger today is rarely caused by a food shortage. Instead, the problem is that existing food can't reach those who need it. Poverty makes food unaffordable, while insufficient transportation infrastructure prevents it from reaching markets, even resulting in food being thrown away while people struggle to eat.
This means that the burden of responsibility does not fall equally. Individuals have some responsibility: Household waste remains a major problem, especially in developed countries, and reducing that waste can preserve both food and money (United Nations Environment Programme). Individuals can also donate to food banks, support community programs, and learn to use food more efficiently.
However, Shanghai showed me the limitations of individual responsibility. My parents can ration rice and use everything in our fridge, but they can’t reopen grocery stores or change delivery priorities.
Business possesses more power. The world runs on capitalism; even China, nominally communist, follows market capitalism, meaning that companies’ decisions determine how food is produced, transported, sold, and discarded. This power comes with responsibility, but profit incentives make voluntary action unreliable. A company may want to help its community, but it still has to consider revenue, operating costs, customer demand, and shareholder value. Consequently, businesses often discard edible food because disposal is easier and cheaper than donation (United Nations Environment Programme; Food and Agriculture Organization, “Food Waste Reduction”). Whenever voluntary action becomes unreliable, governments have a responsibility to set rules and fund programs that help people access food.
Governments have the greatest ability to influence the food system. Even in Canada, a country with one of the world's largest economies and an enormous food supply, the government still has to intervene to ensure people can eat. Canada created the National School Food Program with $1 billion in federal funding over five years, aiming to provide meals to as many as 400,000 additional children each year (Employment and Social Development Canada). In 2026, the program became permanent, with long-term federal funding planned (Employment and Social Development Canada). The United States provides an even larger example. Its Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provided food benefits to an average of 42.1 million people each month during the 2025 fiscal year, costing the U.S. federal government about $101.7 billion (U.S. Department of Agriculture).
These successful programs reveal something important. If governments stopped participating in food security and simply left the problem to charities, businesses, and individuals, millions of people would immediately become vulnerable. Governments already recognize this through the enormous scale of programs such as SNAP and Canada's school food system. The problem is that government responsibility should begin before people become hungry; not as a band-aid after the fact.
One solution is making it easier for businesses to give away food before it's wasted. Businesses sometimes hesitate because of legal liability if someone becomes sick. Yet in Canada, provinces and territories already have legislation protecting food donors from civil liability under certain conditions. British Columbia's Food Donor Encouragement Act, for example, generally protects people and organizations donating food unless the food is unfit for consumption and the donor intentionally causes harm or acts with reckless disregard for safety (Province of British Columbia). The United States has similar protections through the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act. U.S. federal protections were expanded in 2023 to cover additional forms of direct food donation (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Food Donation Basics”). Businesses such as restaurants, grocery stores, wholesalers, schools, and agricultural producers can receive liability protection when donating food in good faith. Unfortunately, legal protection does not necessarily mean businesses know that protection exists. An EPA advisory committee found that many farms and food businesses still reported avoiding donations because they feared liability (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, FRRCC). The committee specifically recommended that federal agencies do more to publicize existing protections.
Making existing policies work is part of the government's responsibility, but only part of the challenge. Governments also need to address which solutions tackle the root causes of hunger.
Increasing food production is tempting, and it does help with some problems: it increases local food supply and affordability, with knock-on benefits for regional and national economies (World Bank, “Agriculture”). However, this doesn’t solve disparities related to food accessibility. Rather, it presents the same problem I faced in Shanghai. More food sitting in a warehouse won’t help if it never enters your neighbourhood.
Direct food aid is another viable option with real merits. During wars, displacement, and sudden disasters, people need food immediately. During these times, governments and international organizations should and do use emergency food assistance to help (World Food Programme). However, imported food aid risks reducing incentives for local food production. Gelan’s economic model of Ethiopia found that replacing imported food aid with equivalent cash assistance could stimulate domestic production while supporting recipients’ purchasing power (Gelan).
While both approaches play a role, neither solves the underlying problem of food inaccessibility. Rather, we must identify the specific barriers causing inaccessibility and assign not only responsibility to the institutions with the power to remove them, but accountability as well.
If hunger is caused by poverty, governments must expand school meals, food vouchers, income assistance, and targeted subsidies. These social protection programs, including cash transfers, directly improve access to food (Devereux et al.).
If hunger is caused by weak distribution systems, governments should invest in roads, warehouses, storage facilities, and emergency supply networks. Better transport and storage can reduce food loss, lower costs, and connect communities with markets more reliably (World Bank, “Road”).
If normal markets collapse, governments and international organizations should temporarily expand direct food aid, protect humanitarian access, and adequately fund the organizations responsible for delivery (World Food Programme).
If companies are wasting large amounts of edible food, governments should create policies and incentives that make redistribution easier than disposal. FAO guidance supports food recovery, redistribution, and stronger cooperation between governments, businesses, food banks, and community organizations (Food and Agriculture Organization, “Food Waste Reduction”).
Beyond those, businesses should carry responsibility for the parts of the food system they control. Producers, distributors, restaurants, and supermarkets can reduce waste, strengthen supply chains, improve storage and transportation, and cooperate with food banks and redistribution programs (Food and Agriculture Organization, “Food Waste Reduction”; Food and Agriculture Organization, “Food Loss Reduction”). Individuals should also reduce household waste and support community programs, but they shouldn’t carry the same responsibility as institutions that control entire food systems.
These proposals won’t work perfectly everywhere. Corruption, greed, conflicts, and short-sightedness make universal success unrealistic. However, that doesn't make progress meaningless.
A school meal program that reaches one more child still matters.
A road that keeps one community connected to food markets still matters.
A supermarket that redirects edible food instead of discarding it still matters.
Gradual change is still change, even when the system remains imperfect. The solution should depend on what is actually preventing people from eating, and governments should identify that problem before it becomes a crisis. They have access to economists, public health experts, agricultural specialists, transportation systems, tax revenue, and national data. They should be able to design better solutions than a high school student writing an essay about world hunger. Any other outcome becomes a failure of responsibility.
When I was twelve, I wondered how I could be hungry when a grocery store was kilometres away. Now I understand that the real question was never whether food existed, but whether the people with the power to get it to us had planned well enough to do so. Governments should have better answers than I do. The fact that they often do not, or fail to act on the answers they already have, is exactly why responsibility should follow power.
Works Cited
Devereux, Stephen, et al. Social Protection for Food Security and Nutrition: A Business Case. World Food Programme, 8 Apr. 2026, https://www.wfp.org/publications/social-protection-food-security-and-nutrition-business-case. Accessed 7 Sept. 2026.
Employment and Social Development Canada. “Federal Vision for a National School Food Program.” Government of Canada, June 2026, https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/news/2026/06/backgrounder-federal-vision-for-a-national-school-food-program.html. Accessed 4 Sept. 2026.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. “Food Loss Reduction.” Technical Platform on the Measurement and Reduction of Food Loss and Waste, https://www.fao.org/platform-food-loss-waste/food-loss/food-loss-reduction/en/. Accessed 7 Sept. 2026.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. “Food Waste Reduction.” Technical Platform on the Measurement and Reduction of Food Loss and Waste, https://www.fao.org/platform-food-loss-waste/food-waste/food-waste-reduction/. Accessed 7 Sept. 2026.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, et al. The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2025: Addressing High Food Price Inflation for Food Security and Nutrition. 2025, https://www.fao.org/agrifood-economics/publications/detail/en/c/1740904/. Accessed 26 Aug. 2026.
Gelan, Ayele Ulfata. “Does Food Aid Have Disincentive Effects on Local Production? A General Equilibrium Perspective on Food Aid in Ethiopia.” Food Policy, vol. 32, no. 4, Aug. 2007, pp. 436–58, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306919206000923. Accessed 7 Sept. 2026.
Han, Shuyu, et al. “Food System under COVID-19 Lockdown in Shanghai: Problems and Countermeasures.” Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, vol. 8, 30 May 2024, https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-food-systems/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2024.1368745/full. Accessed 26 Aug. 2026.
Patton, Dominique. “Shanghai Lockdown Sends Chill Down Meat Trade.” Reuters, 2 May 2022, https://www.reuters.com/world/china/shanghai-lockdown-sends-chill-down-meat-trade-2022-05-02/. Accessed 26 Aug. 2026.
Province of British Columbia. Food Donor Encouragement Act. BC Laws, 26 May 1997, https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/00_97008_01. Accessed 4 Sept. 2026.
United Nations Environment Programme. Food Waste Index Report 2024. 27 Mar. 2024, https://www.unep.org/resources/publication/food-waste-index-report-2024. Accessed 26 Aug. 2026.
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: Key Statistics and Research.” USDA, 31 Aug. 2026, https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program-snap/key-statistics-and-research. Accessed 4 Sept. 2026.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “Food Donation Basics.” EPA, https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-management-food/food-donation-basics. Accessed 4 Sept. 2026.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Farm, Ranch, and Rural Communities Advisory Committee. Recommendations to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael S. Regan. Dec. 2021, https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPURL.cgi?Dockey=P1019V7G.txt. Accessed 4 Sept. 2026.
World Bank. “Agriculture and Poverty Reduction.” Agriculture for Development Policy Brief, 2007, https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/572571468154473501. Accessed 7 Sept. 2026.
World Bank. “The Road to Food Security: How Targeted Transport Investments Can Reduce Waste and Food Prices.” World Bank, 20 May 2025, https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2025/05/20/the-road-to-food-security-how-targeted-transport-investments-can-reduce-waste-and-food-prices. Accessed 7 Sept. 2026.
World Food Programme. “A Global Food Crisis.” World Food Programme, https://www.wfp.org/global-hunger-crisis. Accessed 7 Sept. 2026.