MFK CEO Chris Greene Joins International Experts to Spotlight Locally Driven School Feeding

At the 2025 World Food Prize Foundation’s Norman E. Borlaug International Dialogue, Chris Greene, CEO of Meds & Food for Kids, joined an international panel of experts to explore how localized development solutions can feed more of the world’s children.

The panel was titled: “Hunger Hotspots and the Humanitarian Development Nexus: Agricultural Research and School Feeding for Global Stability.”

Fellow panelists included: 

• Rev. Eugene Cho, President/CEO, Bread for the World, Moderator
• Amir Mahmoud Abdulla, Commissioner, Kofi Annan Commission on Food Security
• Ibnou Dieng, Director of Strategic Planning and Chief of Staff, IITA
• Marekh Khmaladze, Head of the Data and Monitoring Initiative of the School Meals Coalition, United Nations World Food Programme

Chris discussed the importance of locally driven, nutrition-sensitive approaches in humanitarian settings to strengthen both immediate and long-term solutions. Key points included:

• Humanitarian aid is important in acute crises, but can create dependency if it persists without addressing underlying systemic issues. Locally sourced and produced solutions are critical to build resilience and sustainability.
• Partnerships and collaboration are key to developing resilient, long-term solutions that build local capacity. Initiatives like school feeding programs can create critical infrastructure and support local economies.
• Nuance, curiosity, and humility are needed to avoid assuming that solutions that work in one context will automatically translate to another. Addressing the complexity of these challenges requires comprehensive, multi-layered approaches.

“In fragile settings, the nexus of humanitarian aid and development is where we translate compassion into actual resilience,” Chris said. “We need to look at things like school meals as not just charity, but as the creation of the infrastructure that is needed for a better tomorrow.”

“Agriculture is not peripheral to peace. It is actually peace in motion. We need to pursue the policies and activities that actually achieve the outcomes children need,” he added.

“When we’re facing these complex problems, we need to acknowledge that they require comprehensive solutions, that they should be humanitarian when needed, always developmental by design and local at every level,” Chris concluded.