Hunger in Syria: WFP calls for funds to provide food and support to millions

The World Food Programme (WFP) is calling for urgent funds to scale up operations in a bid to reach 2.8 million displaced and food-insecure people across Syria.  

Recent hostilities have displaced hundreds of thousands of people across the country, worsening an already dire food-security situation. Humanitarian needs are rising as the country navigates a political transition. 

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“At this critical time for Syrians, we must ensure that the most vulnerable people receive the food and assistance they need,” said WFP’s Country Director in Syria, Kenn Crossley. “We urgently need donor support to sustain all our operations country-wide. Syrians now have a chance for a new start. We must not let their hunger stand in the way.” 

Since the start of the current crisis, WFP has responded swiftly, providing daily ready-to-eat rations, food baskets, and fresh and hot meals, to nearly 70,000 displaced people across Syria. After days of instability and unrest, food distribution and hot meal services also resumed for displaced people in Homs, Aleppo, Raqqa and Al-Hasakah. 

Nearly 14 years of war make daily life for Syrians extremely fragile. At the start of this year, 12.9 million people were food-insecure, including 3 million severely so, while humanitarian assistance had shrunk significantly due to funding shortfalls.

At present, supply routes are compromised, food prices are soaring and the Syrian currency is depreciating. Essential items like rice, sugar and oil are in short supply. Bread prices have spiked. 

With rapidly escalating needs, WFP urgently requires US$250 million in the next six months to buy and deliver food assistance without interruption to up to 2.8 million displaced and vulnerable people across all of Syria. Flexible contributions are key to allow WFP the agility to operate throughout every governorate.  

“WFP calls on all parties to protect civilians and humanitarian workers and assets so that the work of building a better future in Syria can begin,” said Crossley.

So far this year, WFP has supported more than 1 million people in Syria. In 2023, before cuts forced its General Food Assistance programme to close, the organization supported 5.5 million people.

Many families have been forced to sell their food and assets, send children to work, purchase food on credit, or beg and forage for food.

WFP believes that ongoing instability and disruptions to critical supply routes, coupled with the seasonal decline in agricultural output, will worsen food and commodity shortages, pushing prices up ever higher.

The implications for food security are deeply concerning. Even before the current crisis, 3 million people were severely food insecure inside the country, where the cost of living has tripled over the past two years. 

Today, the minimum wage buys less than a fifth of a family’s basic food needs and only a tenth of a household’s essential needs.
Meanwhile, WFP is calling for the protection of humanitarian workers, civilians and assets. Any lawlessness and looting could jeopardize stocks of humanitarian supplies that so many people desperately need.

The emergency comes as humanitarian agencies are already working together to meet the needs of more than 500,000 people who recently crossed into Syria to escape conflict in Lebanon – including 420,000 people supported by WFP. 

School meals, nutrition and early recovery interventions continue uninterrupted, though dwindling humanitarian funding limits WFP’s ability to implement these activities at scale.

WFP is calling for US$250m to assist 2.8 million people in 2025.

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