The grant will provide urgent food assistance
and fund high-impact innovations to achieve zero
hunger.
MOLINE, Ill. ,
May 18,
2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the John Deere Foundation
announced a $1 million donation to
World Food Program USA to combat
global food insecurity and address the staggering rise of acute
hunger exacerbated by the crisis in Ukraine.
Half of the grant will support the global humanitarian work of
the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), with the other half
going to the organization's Innovation Accelerator, which sources,
supports, and scales high-impact innovations to achieve zero
hunger.
"At John Deere, we are committed to helping feed the world and
understand the important role of innovative technologies and
business models in achieving that goal," said John C. May, chairman and CEO of
Deere & Company and chairman of the
John Deere Foundation. "This investment in the World Food
Program, and in its Innovation Accelerator, holds the promise of
helping end hunger today and in the future."
"We are grateful to the John Deere Foundation for their generous
support at a time when the world faces a hunger catastrophe on an
unprecedented scale," said Barron
Segar, president and CEO of World Food Program USA. "Private sector partners are vital to
helping us feed families in need today and advancing innovation
that can save lives in the future."
This award builds on recent grants from the John Deere
Foundation to World Food Program USA, including a $250,000 gift earlier in 2022 to support
humanitarian relief in Ukraine and
the surrounding region, and a $500,000 investment in 2021 to support the WFP
Innovation Accelerator.
"Together with John Deere's support, the WFP Innovation
Accelerator positively impacted the lives of 9 million people —
including 2.2 million smallholder farmers — in 2021," said
Hila Cohen, Head of Business
Development and Chief of Staff at the UN World Food Programme
Innovation Accelerator. "We will continue to build this unique,
SDG-focused partnership by investing in innovations aimed at
disrupting hunger and bringing projects to scale for maximum
impact."
John Deere employees have also supported WFP through its
"ShareTheMeal" crowdfunding app. With the support of the John Deere
Foundation's employee giving programs, John Deere employees have
helped donate more than 88,600 meals to fight global hunger in
2022.
About Deere & Company (NYSE: DE)
Deere &
Company (www.JohnDeere.com) is a world leader in providing advanced
products, technology and services for customers whose work is
revolutionizing agriculture and construction — those who cultivate,
harvest, transform, enrich and build upon the land to meet the
world's increasing need for food, fuel, shelter and infrastructure.
For more information on Deere & Company, visit us at
www.deere.com/en/news
About the John Deere Foundation
The
John Deere Foundation helps bring to life
John Deere's higher purpose – we run so life
can leap forward – through investments that allow the
people we serve to overcome the challenges they face today and
create for themselves paths to a more prosperous tomorrow. The
Foundation has committed at least $200
million from 2021 to 2030 to unlock economic, social, and
environmental value for smallholder and resource-constrained
farmers, marginalized families and youth in John Deere home
communities, and our workforce. Learn more at
https://www.deere.com/en/our-company/sustainability/citizenship/
About World Food Program USA
World Food Program USA, a
501(c)(3) organization based in Washington, DC, proudly supports
the mission of the United Nations World Food Programme by
mobilizing American policymakers, businesses and individuals to
advance the global movement to end hunger. Our leadership and
support help to bolster an enduring American legacy of feeding
families in need around the world. To learn more about World Food
Program USA's mission, please visit wfpusa.org/mission-history
About the World Food Programme Innovation Accelerator
The WFP Innovation Accelerator was launched in 2015 to source new
ideas, sprint pilot projects, and scale high-impact innovations by
connecting them with WFP's global network of 20,600 staff and field
operations in 88 countries. From its base in Munich, Germany, the
Accelerator has supported over 100 projects, with 16 innovations
scaling-up globally to achieve significant impact. In 2021 alone,
these projects reached more than 9 million people across 67
countries through WFP's humanitarian field operations. Innovations
supported by the Accelerator have raised more than US $180 million
in co-funding. To learn more, please
visit https://innovation.wfp.org/media
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