World Food Congress, Washington, D.C. USA - “Food for Peace” and “Freedom from Hunger.” 4.6.1963

The stamp on this US FDC of 1963 showcases the issue of world hunger, with the themes “Food for Peace” and “Freedom from Hunger.” It was issued on the first day of the inaugural “World Food Congress,” held in Washington, D.C. U.S. President John F. Kennedy addressed the conference, saying, “We have the means, we have the capacity, to wipe hunger and poverty from the face of the Earth in our lifetime. We need only the will.”

During his address at the opening ceremony of the 1963 World Food Congress held at the Departmental Auditorium in Washington, D.C. President Kennedy in his speech stressed the "Food for Peace" program, and explained that any concerted effort to eliminate world hunger must be comprehensive, international in scope, and based on the premise that nations facing food crises are capable of solving these problems with foreign assistance.

The Congress was a product of a meeting of scientists and politicians held earlier in the year in Rome, Italy. They issued a report called, “Man’s Right to Freedom from Hunger.” Over 1,300 participants from more than 100 countries were in attendance. They issued a declaration that said, “the persistence of hunger and malnutrition is unacceptable morally and socially, is incompatible with the dignity of human beings and the equality of opportunity to which they are entitled, and is a threat to social and international peace.”