Photo: Pixabay

Top 7 Ways to Make Better New Year’s Resolutions and Help Fight Hunger

World Food Program USA
Published January 1, 2022

This month, many of us will make New Year’s resolutions to kick off 2022. From breaking bad habits to developing good ones, resolutions often focus on ways to improve our lives.

Now imagine if each of your resolutions also helped improve other people’s lives in the process – like the millions of people worldwide who go to bed hungry each night. It’s easy to do, so we’ve compiled seven ways to make your New Year’s resolutions better by supporting the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).

1) Get Involved

a person holds a phone in the air
Photo: Unsplash/Jakob Owens

2021 was another year of global activism, and many of us are looking for ways to deepen our civic and social engagement. Here’s are some easy ones: Raise awareness. Host a fundraiser. Become a social media advocate…any step you take brings us one meal closer to solving hunger for good. Click here to explore all the ways you can personally help us fight hunger.

2) Help Others

A woman in a UN volunteer vest smiles and poses for a photo with a young child.
Photo: UNV

Marriane Enow Tabi served as a U.N. Volunteer Monitoring Assistant with the U.N. World Food Programme in Meiganga, Cameroon.

Every year, over 8,000 people of more than 160 different nationalities dedicate anywhere from six months to four years of their lives to the United Nations Volunteers program. Hundreds of them have served with the U.N. World Food Programme in 70 countries in the past decade, helping us feed people, respond to disasters and empower communities. If your resolution is to dedicate more time to others in 2021, look no further.

3) Make Better Investments

Three girls in school uniforms eat from plates of food in their laps, smiling.
Photo: WFP/ Seetashma Thapa

Children enjoy their midday meal made of fresh organic produce.

Want to make smarter investments this year? Donate to hunger relief – it’s one of the best, most affordable ways to invest in our collective future. Just 25 cents provides a nourishing school meal to a hungry child. The return is immense. Each dollar spent on children’s nutrition generates as much as $138 in saved healthcare costs and increased productivity. And some of the world’s leading business analysts argue that improving access to food has the biggest impact on a nation’s well-being. Learn more about how you can invest in kids’ lives worldwide here.

4) Spend Wisely

Shop smart in the new year by adding deeper meaning to your purchases. These companies have partnered with WFP USA to feed hungry people around the world via their products.

cuddle + kind | For every handmade doll they sell, cuddle+kind provides at least 10 meals to children in need. The company’s adorable dolls aren’t just helping feed children; they’re also providing a fair-trade income to communities in Peru, where artisans craft each doll using locally sourced materials.

stuffed animals tucked into bed

By offering a fair income and supporting our mission, cuddle+kind is empowering families to overcome poverty and hunger.

Rose’s Luxury | Washington, DC-based Chef Aaron Silverman knows hunger is a solvable problem and that everyone can play a part. That’s why for every meal eaten at his award-winning restaurant, Rose’s Luxury, 25 cents is donated to World Food Program USA to help feed hungry children around the world. Rose’s Luxury has been a loyal partner since 2015, providing over 220,000 meals so far.

Falafel Inc. | This isn’t just another fast-casual restaurant. Falafel Inc. serves authentic falafel and hummus recipes passed down through generations sourced from fresh and local ingredients. For every $10.00 spent, Falafel Inc. donates a portion to World Food Program USA to help feed families, raise awareness, create jobs and restore dignity to refugees around the world. As a loyal partner since 2017, Falafel Inc. has donated over 131,000 meals.

Scarborough & Tweed | If your employees are still working from home, now might be a good time to send them some swag to show your appreciation. Scarborough & Tweed is a leading provider of corporate gifts, logo merchandise and personalized presents. Even better: For every bag purchased from their custom bag catalog, one lifesaving meal comes back to us to send to a child in need.

5) Take a Stand

Photo: Unsplash: Kelly Sikkema

If money is tight, here’s an easy, non-monetary way to get involved: Your signature. Be a hero for hungry families by writing to your member of Congress or signing a ZeroHunger pledge, and asking others to do the same. Take action today by sharing it with your social networks. This simple act can help raise awareness about the urgency of global hunger. Together, we can ensure that families in crisis have the food they need to survive.

6) Learn Something New

Pick a category, set your difficulty level, then use Freerice to brush up on your vocabulary, human anatomy, famous quotations or world landmarks.

Whether it’s geography, chemistry or math, Freerice is easy (and free!) – all you have to do is play. Collect badges, save your totals, create groups, invite your friends to play, share your wins and challenge others to a trivia contest. Every correct answer triggers a donation worth 5 grains of rice that can help us feed a hungry family. Five grains might not seem like much, but so far, Freerice has raised more than 201 billion grains of rice for people in need!

7) Cook More (and Share Your Meal)

the share the meal interface

WFP’s Share the Meal app has generated over 100 million meals.

Lots of us are already spending more time in the kitchen because of the pandemic, so why not share your meal with a child in need – at least symbolically. Download our ShareTheMeal app, scroll through stories of kids across the world who need help, and send a meal right then and there. You can also send a meal on behalf of someone you know by clicking the heart icon in the donate section, and they’ll receive a personalized card from ShareTheMeal.

Donations from the app support a wide range of the U.N. World Food Programme’s operations, including some of the largest food crises in the world like Yemen, Syria and Nigeria.


There are so many ways your resolutions can support our work around the world and help deliver food to the hungriest among us. Visit our Get Involved page to learn more.