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By Nancy Spitler<\/b> David Beasley spreads the gospel of ending world hunger<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div> Ask David Beasley<\/span> what he brings to his position as executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme, and he doesn\u2019t hesitate.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cEnergy,\u201d he says. \u201cPassion.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cTitles will only take you so far. It\u2019s the heart. I\u2019ve heard it said that \u2018Pharoah had the title, Moses had the testimony.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n He repeats: \u201cPharoah had the title, Moses had the testimony.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n You almost begin to hear the cadence of a Southern evangelist. And then he begins to roll out the numbers:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re feeding 115 million people a day. And I need to raise $1 million per hour 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Now, it\u2019s almost $2 million to $24 million a day. If I can get it up to $36 million \u2014 \u201d He pauses. \u201cWe were raising $16 million a day when I started, assuming Trump was not going to zero out the budget.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n It was a daunting position to be in when Beasley took the position <\/span>in March 2017, knowing he was not only executive director but chief fundraiser as well. President Trump had announced his intention to severely curtail U.N. funding, so Beasley went to work behind the scenes, making the case to Democrats and Republicans alike that it would be more cost-effective to fund hunger relief efforts than to deal with the much more expensive aftermath of mass migration, destabilization, war and conflict.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI worked every angle, from senators and congressmen to family members and friends in the administration. Back door, front door, side door. I came in from every which way. I made the case and I talked common sense language.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe doubled our money with the Trump administration.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n When we talked, Beasley was in a brief break between working on crises building in Yemen and Palestine and Ethiopia and Syria and North Korea and Venezuela and DRC, the Sahel, Afghanistan. \u201cIt\u2019s percolating big time,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div> What if That Were My Child?<\/b><\/p>\n Beasley and his wife, <\/span>Mary Wood, live in Rome, the home office of the World Food Programme, the world\u2019s largest humanitarian operation. But he doesn\u2019t spend as much time in Rome as he does on an airplane, going from one hunger hotspot to the next, trying to bring attention to a problem of enormous immensity.<\/span><\/p>\n The passion is evident in his voice as he talks about what he sees in his travels, and it\u2019s clear that what motivates him more than anything are the children.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cRight now, there\u2019s so much crisis around the world,\u201d he says, \u201cso much starvation, so much destabilization. You\u2019re out there in the field, and you see that little child, under the most unbelievably catastrophic circumstances that the average American would be clueless about. \u2026 The spirit of those children inspires you not to slow down because, what if that were my child?<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the way I look at it. Every single human being is created in the image of the Almighty. I\u2019m gonna love my neighbor. \u2026 That neighbor is not just in Greenville, but in Yemen and Syria and Baghdad.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The World Food Programme is the hunger relief arm of the United Nations. They go into countries in the developing world \u2014 only when they\u2019re invited \u2014 under two different types of circumstances. The first is natural disaster, the second is conflict. The common thread in those two is the disruption of food distribution patterns.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div> \u201cThat\u2019s the way I look at it. Every single human being is created in the image of the Almighty. I\u2019m gonna love my neighbor. \u2026 That neighbor is not just in Greenville, but in Yemen and Syria and Baghdad.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div> Currently, the agency operates in more than 83 nations, trying to stave off hunger in a world increasingly torn apart by conflict. Beasley has described the agency as \u201cone of the biggest supply chain networks on the face of the planet.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In addition to providing food, the World Food Programme has initiatives to help communities become more resilient, offering education on how to produce better crops, how to find markets for produce they\u2019re growing, and how to strengthen children\u2019s nutrition. They provide more than 17 million meals for schoolchildren in more than 50 countries.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe have contracts with nongovernmental organizations in almost every country we work in,\u201d says Steve Taravella, one of WFP\u2019s senior media spokespeople. \u201cWe partner with other organizations to get the job done \u2014 local organizations who have deep roots, who we can rely on to distribute food.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n These aren\u2019t hot meals being delivered. \u201cWe\u2019re providing food to help people get by until longer-term solutions can be <\/span>found, staples like lentils and peas and cooking oil and salt,\u201d says Taravella. \u201cIn times of real emergency, like after an earthquake, we fly in with HEB\u00a0 <\/span>\u2014 high-energy biscuits.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In 2021 the agency is expecting to feed more people than at any time in its 60-year history, possibly up to 129 million. The pandemic has only heightened the hunger crisis worldwide.<\/span><\/p>\n When Beasley talks about the people and communities he visits, you have the sense that these pictures have been burned indelibly into his memory.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cYou go into a crisis area where hundreds of thousands are fleeing for their lives, and they\u2019ve watched their loved ones killed, burned alive, tortured, whatever it might be \u2014 and I have the footage to show that,\u201d he says. \u201cWe scaled up from a few thousand to a million people in a matter of months. When you sit down and talk with the people, it\u2019s just heartbreaking. It just tears you apart to think that there are still human beings on Earth doing this to other human beings.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In October of 2020, Beasley accepted the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the World Food Programme, awarded \u201cfor its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n He used that day and his formal acceptance speech in December 2020 to further amplify the message he repeats day in and day out: \u201cFamine is at humanity\u2019s doorstep. For millions and millions of people on Earth. Failure to prevent famine in our day will destroy so many lives and cause the fall of much we hold dear.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n He went on to say, \u201cWe believe food is the pathway to peace.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div> Around the Dinner Table<\/b><\/p>\n David Beasley grew up<\/span> in the small South Carolina town <\/span>of Lamar in Darlington County, along what has been branded as the \u201ccorridor of shame.\u201d Like many small Southern towns of the time, there was a white school on one side of the tracks and a Black school on the other side.<\/p>\n \u201cMy home was a cotton field away from the school, so I walked until I was old enough to drive.\u201d<\/p>\n In 1970, Lamar\u2019s schools were integrated under federal court order, and the resulting violence was \u201cthe worst outbreak to occur since the United States Court last October ordered the \u2018immediate\u2019 dismantling of Southern dual school systems,\u201d according to the New York Times.<\/i><\/p>\n Beasley remembers the time: \u201cThere were riots, protests, that lasted weeks on end. Great violence. The white school became a 99 percent Black school because the white students left the public school and began private schools.\u201d<\/p>\n Beasley\u2019s mother was an English teacher at the high school and a fierce advocate for public schools and for civil rights. The Beasley children stayed in public school.<\/span><\/p>\n Beasley and his brothers, Rick and Wes, were all athletes, playing multiple sports. Most of the Black athletes at the high <\/span>school didn\u2019t have cars to return to evening practice after school, says Beasley, \u201cso it was either ride the bus and don\u2019t play ball, or what do you do?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n So, Beasley and his family offered rides, bringing teammates who didn\u2019t have transportation back to the Beasley home for a couple of hours. Beasley\u2019s mother would feed the whole group, they\u2019d go back to school for practice, and then the Beasley carpool would give them a ride home.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI went from a dinner table of all whites to a dinner table with as many Blacks as whites. It really impacted my life. I don\u2019t care what culture, what religion \u2014 but when you sit and have a meal with folks, it changes things. It really opened my heart and my eyes to reality.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div> Running and Walking<\/b><\/p>\n When David Beasley decided <\/span>as a college junior, at the ripe age of 20, to run for the South Carolina House of Representatives, the first thing he had to do was register to vote. His father, himself a former member of the House, had convinced him that he would have a shot at running against the entrenched incumbent Gary Byrd, a farmer from Society Hill.<\/span><\/p>\n He went home over Christmas in 1977 to tell his mother he was running for statewide office. You might understand why it took her by surprise. \u201cI had never voted before in my life,\u201d Beasley says. Besides, he had come to Clemson in 1975 with a plan. He was majoring in microbiology and looking toward medical school.<\/p>\n His mother was not amused. \u201cMy mother is the ultimate caregiver for people \u2014 a warrior for justice and what\u2019s right,\u201d Beasley says. \u201cShe chewed me out. \u2018It\u2019s dirty, it\u2019s corrupt, it will get to you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Beasley says he argued back: \u201cIf no one good gets involved, what do you think\u2019s gonna happen?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI was an idealistic young man \u2014 wanted to make the biggest impact,\u201d Beasley says. He had considered his options: \u201cIf I\u2019m a ball player, how many people can I help? If I\u2019m a doctor? If I could build a better system that would perpetuate beyond my life, that would help an infinite number of people. That\u2019s how I rationalized it.\u201d<\/p>\n His father advised him to look up Doug Jennings \u201978, the president of Clemson Young Democrats, for some guidance and campaign advice.<\/p>\n Jennings, a political science graduate, remembers Beasley as a smart but fun-loving Kappa Sigma fraternity boy. He was surprised when Beasley showed up at his apartment, announcing his intentions to run in the spring of 1978 and asking for some pointers.<\/p>\n From Bennettsville, South Carolina, Jennings had volunteered on several campaigns, knocking on doors and handing out Pug Ravenel flyers.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were starting out that day literally from ground zero,\u201d Jennings remembers. \u201cI might have thought I knew what I was talking about, but I didn\u2019t know much more than David. I was so eaten up with politics \u2014 I used to collect bumper stickers and brochures from candidates every time I would see one and drop it into a little suitcase I had. When David came over, we dumped it out on the kitchen table and started looking through Dick Riley brochures and Pug Ravenel brochures.\u201d The pair cobbled together a David Beasley brochure.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first person I ever voted for in my life was me,\u201d Beasley says, \u201cand I only won by three votes.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div> \u201cMy mother is the ultimate caregiver for people \u2014 a warrior for justice and what\u2019s right.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div> Beasley threw himself into his campaign, leaving Clemson on Thursday afternoons to drive to Bennettsville and Darlington. \u201cI would miss my Monday classes, go to classes Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and go back,\u201d says Beasley. \u201cI think I got a 4.0 that semester.\u201d He was clearly in his element.<\/p>\n \u201cDavid was full of energy, full of enthusiasm,\u201d says Jennings. \u201cHe knocked on doors all over this district. He would knock on somebody\u2019s door, go into the kitchen, sit down and have a glass of iced tea with them. Usually when he came out of there, I would think he had that vote.\u201d<\/p>\n The hard work paid off, and Beasley beat an entrenched incumbent in the primary. But Gary Byrd, who had come up short, didn\u2019t accept the defeat at the ballot box.<\/p>\n \u201cBack then,\u201d says Jennings, \u201cthe Democratic Party\u2019s executive committee was the final governing entity on primary election challenges. It consisted of political appointees from the 46 counties. Gary Byrd had been around a while. He loses, files a protest in Columbia with Democrats on the committee, and they were going to conduct a hearing.\u201d<\/p>\n Beasley, with a flair for the dramatic, announced he would walk to Columbia for the hearing. It\u2019s not just down the street. It\u2019s a 95-mile walk.<\/p>\n \u201cNobody believed him, but he did,\u201d Jennings continues. \u201cThat was the story on WIST and the news organizations \u2014 this young guy who has just beat an old incumbent for the House has walked to Columbia for the protest hearing. He prevailed at that hearing and turned 21 and was sworn into the House. That was a pretty cool story.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Beasley\u2019s election did necessitate leaving Clemson and transferring to the University of South Carolina. He says that even at that point, he was still planning to go to medical school \u2014 that is until he realized that medical school labs conflicted with the legislative session. The law school, however, was only a couple of blocks away, and he could work out his class schedule.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI thought, \u2018I\u2019ll get a law degree and then come back later for med school.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Beasley became the youngest person at the time to serve in the S.C. House, then the youngest majority leader in the U.S. and the youngest chair of the education committee in the U.S.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div> Learning From Losing<\/b><\/p>\n In 1991, Beasley switched political parties <\/span>in preparation for a statewide run. Jennings explains the switch: \u201cThere wasn\u2019t a dime\u2019s worth of difference between a conservative to moderate Democrat and a middle-of-the-road Republican.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n With his youthful enthusiasm, seemingly endless energy and confidence that may have bordered on cockiness, Beasley ran for governor in 1994 against entrenched Republican Arthur Ravenel Jr. in the primary and Democrat Nick Theodore in the general election.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of us didn\u2019t think he could do it and told him he\u2019d lost his mind,\u201d says Jennings. \u201cTime after time, he\u2019s proven us wrong. And showed us that if you believe in something and work hard enough and do it the right way, you can achieve those goals.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In 1996, after several episodes of racially motivated violence, Beasley came out in support of removing the Confederate flag from the Statehouse dome and faced significant backlash. The issue is thought to be a major factor in his defeat for a second term.<\/span><\/p>\n The night the election results came in and it was clear he had lost, Beasley asked his team three questions: Did we do what was right? Did we do what was right when it was right to do it? And when we did what was right at the right time, did we do it the right way, not out of bitterness and judgement and condemnation and hatred and division but out of love and compassion and unity?<\/span><\/p>\n The answer to all three questions came back in the affirmative.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThen we\u2019ve been successful,\u201d he told his team. \u201cEnd of story. Don\u2019t hang your head. You can look in the mirror and say we did what was right.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n As a result, Beasley received the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award \u2014 but that didn\u2019t mean losing was easy. \u201cLosing an election teaches you a lot about yourself, what\u2019s important in life,\u201d Beasley says.<\/span><\/p>\n Beasley spent the next 10 years with the Center for Global Strategies, a nongovernmental organization that pursues bridge-building initiatives. It was a time for developing relationships with government leaders from different parties and different countries, \u201cto learn how to work together, pray together, be together,\u201d as Beasley puts it.<\/span><\/p>\n Another Clemson alumnus, former governor and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, was one of several who recommended Beasley for the position at the World Food Programme. In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, she touted Beasley\u2019s reputation in business \u201cfor honesty and integrity that carried over into his career in public service\u201d as well as his more recent work, where he \u201choned the skills of international diplomacy, with an eye toward lifting up the vulnerable and the disadvantaged.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div> A Clemson Degree \u2026 Finally<\/b><\/p>\n This spring<\/span> at the May graduation ceremonies, David Beasley finally got something he had missed out on \u2014 a Clemson degree. President Clements and Board Chair Smythe McKissick presented him with an honorary doctorate of humanities in recognition of \u201chis life\u2019s work bridging political, religious and ethnic boundaries to champion economic development and education.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Beasley joked that he was taking the spotlight away from his son Ross, who was graduating that day with his bachelor\u2019s degree in political science, but as he did with the Nobel Prize, he used the occasion to share with graduates and their families that when he took the World Food Programme job four years ago, there were 80 million people at the brink of starvation, a number that had spiked to 135 million right before COVID-19. This year, he said, that number has spiked to 270 million because of the economic ripple effect of the pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n He ticked off the time with his fingers: \u201cEvery 4-5 seconds, someone is dying from hunger. We don\u2019t have to pit COVID [against] hunger. We can do both.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n He went on to recount an interview with Scott Pelley on 60 Minutes<\/i> when Pelley said to him, \u201cGovernor, you\u2019ve got the greatest job on Earth \u2014 saving people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI said, \u2018Scott, I really do. But I\u2019m gonna say something to you that you haven\u2019t thought about. I don\u2019t go to bed at night thinking about the children we saved; I go to bed weeping over the children we didn\u2019t save. When we don\u2019t have enough money, <\/span>our teams, we have to choose which children eat, which children don\u2019t eat. Which children live, which children die.\u2019 I looked at Scott, \u2018How would you like that job?\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cScott looked at me in horror and said, \u2018Oh my God, I never thought about it.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Beasley noted that at the height of COVID-19, the average net worth increase for the world\u2019s 2,800 billionaires per day was $5.2 billion. \u201cAll I need to address the millions that are knocking on the door of famine is $5 billion,\u201d just one day\u2019s increase.<\/p>\n He started winding up, and the same evangelical rhythm snuck back into his voice: \u201cYou see, we have a cure; we have a vaccine for COVID-19 now. We have a vaccine for famine, for hunger. It\u2019s called food. And we also have a vaccine for the world\u2019s greatest problem of hatred and war and conflict and divide. And that vaccine is love. It\u2019s the most powerful weapon on Earth. Love your neighbor as yourself. The ancient translation is actually \u2018love your neighbor as your equal.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cCan you imagine what would happen,\u201d he asked, \u201cif we started treating everyone as our equal? You would end discrimination, racism, hatred, war and conflict. Imagine what we could do with the 14-15 trillion dollars we lose because of war to put it to helping the poor and the needy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Beasley gave no benediction, no amen. But he did finish with one more question: \u201cCan I count on you to dedicate your lives to helping people?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>
\nPhotography provided by\u00a0United Nations World Food Programme<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>
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