Thinking Differently about Hunger
Backing a brilliant idea and empowering people to deliver its full potential. Deploying our legal experience to give valuable support to a pioneering venture. Using our global network to address a global issue.
According to the United Nations World Food Programme, 10 million people die every year of hunger and hunger-related diseases – more than those who die from tuberculosis, malaria and AIDS combined. As governments, NGOs, scientists and food producers struggle for a solution, one beautifully simple idea is already making a difference around the world.
As sustainable as it is logical, food banking rescues surplus food and distributes it to hungry people. This is a compelling idea that can make a real difference, without relying on a large and costly infrastructure. DLA Piper volunteers already support food banks in almost every US city in which we have an office. Until last year, however, no global initiative had been created to spread this great idea. That is why we helped create the Global FoodBanking Network (GFN).
GFN works with individuals, companies and governments to create food banks where they do not exist and to make existing ones work better. DLA Piper lawyers across the US worked to establish GFN as a nonprofit corporation. Challenges included advising on corporate formation and governance, tax work, intellectual property and assistance with various contracts against the backdrop of numerous country jurisdictions.
At DLA Piper, we are using our reach to support GFN around the world. What began as a New Perimeter project has become an ongoing pro bono partnership led from the US and supported by DLA Piper lawyers around the world. Offices in Ghana and Japan have been involved, as have legal partners in several other countries. This is truly an international collaboration. In 2007, 35 lawyers spent more than 1,000 hours working for GFN.