Yesterday was the first day of the World Food Summit. Along came the Pope, and Barosso from the EU, and most African Heads of State but hang on? where were the leaders from the G8 rich countries? Berlusconi was the only one who bothered to turn up.

The ActionAid team did manage to have a fruitful day but it wasn't without it's fustrations:

NGOs weren't able to get to the important rooms to hear the speeches and meet with delegates. Instead we were cooped up in a room watching the proceedings on a TV screen!

However, HungerFREE (in the form of our Americas Director, Adriano) did manage to get a slot in the busy agenda of Lula, President of Brazil. Last month we launched a report called "Who's Really Fighting Hunger and Brazil scored first place among the 29 developing countries studied.

Because of strong political will, Brazil has cut child malnutrition by a staggering 73%, and child mortality by 45% in just 6 years. This shows what can be done when you put your mind and money to it.

How do you honour a man who has made it his priority to eradicate Hunger? Well we thought that we would give Lula a pair of HungerFREE boxing gloves! It may sound strange until you think that it is through his efforts that Brazil is punching well above it's weight in the fight against hunger. He seemed quite tickled with them and was quick to put them on and pose for the cameras. There's a 10 second clip of him below from Brazilian TV below.

We also met with the French Minister to hand over the Peuples Solidaires, ActionAid, Avaaz petition which has now been signed by nearly 180,000 people calling for an end to the hunger scandal.

We'll be handing the petition over tho the representatives of more world leaders tomorrow and let you know if any of the fine words in the speeches have made it into concrete promises.

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