Afghanistan faces tremendous recovery needs after decades marked by conflict and misery. While improvements are being made, the stark reality is that hunger still persists in the war-torn country: millions of Afghans cannot meet their basic food needs. High food prices and drought have aggravated the plight of the vulnerable and created new needs for food aid.

Food aid is often a necessary option to manage food crises. The United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP) provides food rations in order to sustain populations that are suffering from acute shortages of food.

How is the food distributed?

For acute food shortages experienced by displaced persons or drought-affected communities, monthly food packages target the most vulnerable people – female-headed households, children and the elderly.

Monthly food packages can be provided to internally displaced families as they are returning to their homes and are able to work on community improvement projects, which are selected according to needs (as expressed by the communities) and assets available.

Roughly 16 percent of adults (five percent of women) in Kandahar can read and/or write. In partnership with UNICEF and WFP, Food for Education provides opportunities for adults, mostly women, to address their families' monthly food needs while gaining literacy skills.