The credit crunch has resulted in an increase in the num­ber of peo­ple who are going hun­gry every day. Plus, NGOs are receiv­ing less money to give aid. The Chris­t­ian Post reports the num­ber of peo­ple effected has hit an his­toric high of over a bil­lion. (Reported by Ethan Cole.)

The num­ber of peo­ple going hun­gry every day has hit a his­toric high of 1 bil­lion, or more pre­cisely 1.02 bil­lion, accord­ing to the U.N. World Food Program.

Mil­lions of peo­ple who were on the brink of hunger have now been thrown into this cat­e­gory by the global eco­nomic cri­sis that resulted in lower incomes and job losses.

Accord­ing to the U.N. Food and Agri­cul­ture Orga­ni­za­tion, about an addi­tional 100 mil­lion peo­ple are in chronic hunger and poverty this year com­pared to last year.

And while the num­ber of peo­ple with urgent food needs has increased, aid agen­cies are report­ing lower dona­tions and bud­get cuts.

WFP exec­u­tive direc­tor Josette Sheeran said Wednes­day the agency is fac­ing “dan­ger­ous and unprece­dented” fund­ing short­falls this year.

“Our bud­get for this year of assessed and approved needs is $6.7 bil­lion and we expect from our pro­jec­tions and work­ing with gov­ern­ment to come in at $3.7 bil­lion,” Sheeran said at a press brief­ing ahead of meet­ings at the White House.

Sheeran said the agency is work­ing to cut $3 bil­lion from its pro­gram by reduc­ing rations and pro­grams through­out the world.

Its goal is to feed 108 mil­lion peo­ple in 74 coun­tries this year.

In addi­tion to bud­get cuts, aid groups are also strug­gling with the impact of high food prices.

The U.N. Food and Agri­cul­ture Orga­ni­za­tion reports food prices are higher today than a year ago in more than 80 per­cent of devel­op­ing countries.

Sheeran sug­gested that the food cri­sis is “not as dra­matic at home” as in devel­oped coun­tries, result­ing in less of a sense of urgency to help the world’s hungry.

But “one out of every six [peo­ple] today is on the offi­cial list of the urgently-hungry,” she said, accord­ing to RTTNews.com. “One-third of the world’s chil­dren in the devel­op­ing world is stunted.”

Since 1971, Food for the Hun­gry has responded to phys­i­cal and spir­i­tual hunger in more than 26 coun­tries worldwide.

In response to the cur­rent food and eco­nomic cri­sis, the min­istry calls on Chris­tians to pray for the world’s poor and hun­gry and for long-term solu­tions to fam­i­lies at risk or on the brink of sal­va­tion, give finan­cially to help the min­istry respond to world hunger, and spon­sor a child that will help to not only trans­form the child but also his/her fam­ily and community.

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