The world, for sure, is facing an unprecedented hunger crisis.
The United Nations has warned that the global food problem is worsening and some nations in Africa and the Middle East could soon slip into famine with conflicts, economic hardships, weather extremes - and now the Covid-19 crisis - limiting access to food.
As many as 132mn more people than previously projected could go hungry in 2020, and this year’s gain may be more than triple any increase this century. 
Worse still, the pandemic is upending food supply chains, crippling economies and eroding consumer purchasing power. 
Across the world, approximately 1.2bn people live in extreme poverty, on less than one dollar per day, according to a 2018 World Health Organisation report. At least 17mn children suffer from severe acute malnutrition around the world, which is the direct cause of death for 2mn children every year. 
Here’s the disturbing other side of the lingering tragedy. 
The world loses about $400bn of food before it even gets delivered to stores, according to the UN.
Some 14% of all food produced is lost annually, with central and southern Asia, North America and Europe accounting for the biggest shares, according to a Food and Agriculture Organisation report last year.
In the Gulf, between a third and half of the food produced is estimated to go to waste. 
In fact, this year’s problematic is unmatched.
The massive hunger spike is happening at a time of enormous global food surpluses across the world.
In Queens, New York, the lines forming around a food bank are eight hours long as people wait for a box of supplies that might last them a week. At the same time, farmers in California are plowing over lettuce and fruit is rotting on trees in Washington. 
In Uganda, bananas and tomatoes are piling up in open-air markets, and even nearly give-away prices aren’t low enough for out-of-work buyers. 
Supplies of rice and meat were left floating at ports earlier this year after logistical jams in the Philippines, China and Nigeria. 
And in South America, Venezuela is teetering on the brink of famine.
By the end of the year, as many as 12,000 people could die a day from hunger linked to Covid-19, potentially more than those perishing from the virus itself, says charity Oxfam International. That’s calculated based on a more than 80% jump for those facing crisis-level hunger. 
Globally, deaths from coronavirus infections have already topped 1.2mn.
Millions of people have been thrown out of work and don’t have enough money to feed their families, despite the trillions in government stimulus that’s helped send global equities to all-time highs.
Covid-19 has exposed some of the world’s deepest inequalities. It’s also a determining force in who gets to eat and who doesn’t, as the richest keep enjoying a breakneck pace of wealth accumulation. 
Make no mistake, the great food divide is widening. An estimated 14% of global food production is wasted every year. At the same time, around 45% of all child deaths worldwide are from causes related to undernutrition, says the WHO.
Hunger is a biting reality and societies tend to unravel when people are starving.