Foundation Launches Food Bank, Skill Acquisition Centre in Nasarawa to  End Poverty in Nigeria

Mary Nnah

To achieve no poverty and zero hunger in Nigeria, Inspire World International Foundation has launched what it terms, “The Zero Project’, which aims to address the issues of poverty and hunger in Nigeria.

Sharing the project’s vision, which aims to address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 1 and 2, the Foundation’s Co-Founder, Chris Chukwunyere, said, “We are glad to be addressing poverty and hunger issues in Nigeria. We are implementing this project using four strategic approaches.”

He went further to list these approaches, which include, Soup Kitchen, Food Bank, Farming, and Economic Empowerment Programmes.

He explained that the Soup Kitchen provides nutritious meals for individuals and their families to walk in and eat for free, adding, “Our soup kitchen is like a restaurant where anyone can walk in and eat at least one healthy meal a day.”

He revealed further that part of the foundation’s community outreaches will also involve going to primary schools to provide nutrient-rich meals to pupils, adding that this outreach is particularly important for children’s growth, brain development, and concentration in the classroom, which aids effective learning.

The Food Bank, Chukwunyere said, is set up to store raw, canned, or packed foods where individuals and their families can come to pick up food items to cook at home.

“We set up this food bank in response to our resolve to improve food security and address under-nutrition in Nigeria”, he added.

He said further that farming, one of the Foundation’s sustainability approaches, is to ensure food is available all year round for its target population.

“We plant and harvest food crops to be used at the soup kitchens and stored at our food bank. This approach will also involve empowering farmers in rural communities with funding, healthy seeds, and agricultural and business expertise to help build their capacity to feed their families and profit from farming”, he added.

The fourth approach, Economic Empowerment Programme, primarily focuses on addressing poverty, believing that addressing poverty is a more permanent way of solving hunger issues in Nigeria.

“When households are empowered with the proper knowledge, skills, and resources to set up earn for themselves, they will have the capacity to deal with hunger permanently. These skill acquisition programmes will empower people with the ability to be employable or set up businesses, he added.

Hinting that the foundation is open to partnerships, he said, “Achieving these and ultimately helping to reduce hunger and poverty in Nigeria require partnership and collaboration from individuals, organisations, and the government. More partnerships mean more people across Nigeria will benefit from such initiatives.”