Doctors at a local health clinic in Brazil learned the reason their patients who regularly came in with health problems related to poverty stopped coming was due to a national anti-hunger program that gave children three meals a day.

"It was simply that these children were starting to eat better," says Nélia Maria Cruz, the clinic's chief.

The children were among thousands who have benefited from Fome Zero ("Zero Hunger"), a national effort to eliminate hunger in Brazil.

The program's formula is simple: Give each Brazilian the opportunity to have at least three meals a day. It might not seem like such a bold challenge but approximately one quarter of Brazil's 170 million people currently live below the poverty line.

To meet the immediate needs of everyone who goes hungry in the country, the government needs to provide emergency help to 11 million families, according to official estimates. At the same time, the effort must include long-term actions to enable the population to manage on its own, so that in the future every family is able to buy its own food.

by Rogerio Waldrigues Galindo from Perspectives in Health