Dr. Dunstan Campbell, Food and Agriculture Organisation representative in Jamaica, The Bahamas and Belize, plants a tree to mark World Food Day at a national church service held at the Portmore New Testament Church of God, Bayside, St. Catherine, yesterday. - Norman Grindley/Deputy Chief Photographer

WITH AN estimated 854 million people retiring to bed hungry daily, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is on a drive to ensure every-body's right to food when World Food Day is commemorated tomorrow.

Dr. Dunstan Campbell, FAO representative in Jamaica, said the theme, 'The Right To Food', was aptly chosen. He was speaking at yesterday's church service held at the Portmore New Testament Church of God in Bayside, St. Catherine, to mark the day.

"'The Right To Food' has been chosen to be the theme of this year's World Food Day so that the voice of the disadvantaged may be heard," Dr. Campbell told the congregation.

He continued: "At the 1996 World Food Summit, the heads of state and government reaffirmed 'the right of everyone to have access to safe and nutritious food, consistent with the right to adequate food, and the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger.'"

Dr. Campbell, also FAO representative in The Bahamas and Belize, said that the right to food was recognised in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, and was further strengthened by ratifying of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Host pastor Ronald Blair also charged those present, which included representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, to share what God has provided.

"When God provides, divide. We must share, give something to someone, to the hungry and malnourished," Mr. Blair said.

It is said that some 36 million people die yearly of starvation, hunger and malnutrition.

World Food Day was proclaimed in 1979 by the conference of the FAO. This year, over 150 countries are organising events around the theme.