Hunger stalks globe as aid groups forced to cut

By Missy Ryan -Analysis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Strained aid groups are already cutting food assistance to hundreds of thousands of people the world over, raising fears they will be powerless to stem rising hunger in the most vulnerable countries.

The reduction in food aid is a consequence of the dramatic surge in global food and fuel prices, a trend that makes food more dear for the world's poor while eating into aid budgets.

Atlanta-based CARE has cut the size of its rations to the 660,000 people it feeds in Somalia, and warns that it needs an extra $25 million worth of food to feed more than 800,000 people through early August.

"Food stocks will run out mid to end of May ... Numbers of displaced people needing food grow daily and the cost of food keeps going up," said Alina Labrada, a CARE spokeswoman.

Mercy Corps, which distributes baskets of sugar, rice and other food to Iraqi refugees in Syria, is agonizing over whether it will reduce ration sizes or cut needy families.

In southern Sudan, World Vision now expects to feed 59,000 fewer people this year than it had originally planned.

"The reductions are not just confined to one region," said Robert Zachritz, a senior World Vision official.

Overall, global food prices jumped 43 percent in the year through March. That hurts the most in the developing world, where people typically spend over half their income on food.

On Friday, southeast Asian trade officials met in Indonesia for talks on how to respond to soaring prices of rice, which have almost trebled this year in Asia.

DONORS RESPOND

The food crisis has donor countries scrambling to help the United Nations' World Food Program fill a funding gap of $755 million and keep aid donations on track this year.

The Bush administration has already released aid from a crop trust, and this week announced $770 million in new food aid and farm development funds for next year.

But the situation on the ground remains a grim one, especially as Africa's pre-harvest hungry season approaches, and many aid groups are already making difficult choices.

"This is an unprecedented crisis for us, because it's global," said Lisa Kuennen-Asfaw, of Catholic Relief Services -- a crisis felt in most of the 100 places CRS works.

The crisis is an extra strain on the 850 million people considered "chronically hungry" even before the current crisis -- and officials say that number is sure to grow.