An ambitious new charitable project encouraging the worldwide meat industry to spearhead a new initiative aimed at ending child starvation and hunger was launched at the recent World Meat Congress in Paris last week, endorsed by the International Meat Secretariat.

The Six-Second Project is a global non-profit organisation, based in the US, deriving its name from the appalling statistic that a child dies every six seconds from hunger or hunger-related causes. The Project aims to raise widespread awareness of that fact, to be achieved through a unified fundraising and awareness campaign led by the global meat industry. Another goal is to foster innovative and sustainable solutions to the hunger pandemic, especially in areas where the six-second statistic is the unacceptable reality, the organisation says.

The worldwide meat industry and its partners are being challenged to join the Project by participating in a unified cause ’cause marketing’ campaign to raise funds for defeating hunger.  The ambitious idea is that project partners will create special products and/or promotions and commit to donating a generous portion of sales to the Six-Second Project. Funds raised will then be used to provide grants that foster innovative and sustainable solutions to the global hunger pandemic.

“It is our hope that, by raising awareness of this global issue, the general public will also be inspired to make a difference, not only through their purchases of products from participating partners, but also through volunteering, donating and recruiting their neighbours and friends to become involved in this noble cause,” say the organisers.

In the unprecedented move – this is believed to be the first time a global industry has been challenged to confront such a crisis – the Six-Second Project is targeting the meat sector’s food production and distribution experts as it believes they have “never been better suited to accept such a challenge”.

The meat industry is not without its critics, its organisers note. “The industry is being challenged to address its environmental impact, and the sustainability of its future production. Likewise, the Six-Second Project challenges the meat industry to harness its size, strength, knowledge and diversity to become the leader in this fight. Through a unified effort to fight hunger, the industry can effect positive change by giving back to the communities that need it most.”

At the project’s launch at the World Meat Congress, chief executive of the US Meat Export Meat Federation, is reported to have said: “This is an opportunity to make meat the brand that is fighting global hunger.”