More than 1,000 children regularly receive food through ZOC’s feeding programmes in schools, orphanages and children’s homes. Much of this food has been shipped from the UK on containers and is then distributed where the need the need is worst. More recently there is food available again in Zimbabwe so we are able to buy it locally with donations and distribute it more regularly.

Can you sponsor the ZOC feeding programme? – Just $15 (£10) per month can make a massive difference.

To give you an idea of how bad this situation is, here is a recent new report from msnbc:

Food Poverty In Zimbabwe

A recent report from the International Red Cross said that an estimated 2.17 million Zimbabweans — perhaps a fourth of the country’s population — are in need of food aid.

In a statement, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies pleaded for international funds for urgent food aid to Zimbabwe. U.N. organizations also have appealed for more donor funds.

"In some parts of the country, the food situation is as bad as many of our volunteers and staff have ever seen it," said Emma Kundishora, secretary general of the Zimbabwe Red Cross Society.

Erratic rain — too much in some areas and too little in others — has damaged crops of corn, the staple food across the southern African nation. The former regional breadbasket also has been hit by acute shortages of seed and fertilizer.

At least 4 million Zimbabweans are estimated to have fled the nation’s economic meltdown in recent years to find work in neighboring countries and further afield, leaving the population at about 8 million, according to official estimates from the finance ministry.

The Red Cross expressed particular concern about the possible impact of existing and looming food shortages on people living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

"Hunger is an especially brutal experience for these people," Kundishora said, describing people interrupting AIDS medication because the drugs are too toxic without food.

"Once people do this, their situation deteriorates incredibly quickly," she said.

Shortfall
In December 2009, the Red Cross extended emergency food operation in Zimbabwe until October 2010, calling on donors for $33.2 million in extra funding. The agency faces a shortfall in funding of about $23.9 million, Thursday’s statement said.

"Right now, the situation is already critical — more than 2 million people need direct humanitarian support," said Dr. Stephen Omollo, the IFRC representative in Zimbabwe. "And we know that this will get worse as the upcoming harvest already appears to have failed."