54M in Asia-Pacific face hunger due to Covid | The Manila Times

PHUKET: In 2020, Covid-19 exacerbated hunger for around 54 million people living in the vast Asia-Pacific region, according to a joint United Nations agency report. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) 2021 Asia and the Pacific Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition pointed out that as hunger increased, so too did access to sufficiently nutritious food. In total, more than 375 million people faced hunger in the region in 2020, up from around 321 million in 2019. The two agencies reported that poverty continued to prevent 1.8 billion people from eating a healthy diet,…