seven in ten are borrowing food in order to get by. reporter: officials say that food insecurity will push people deeper into poverty, which could result in families turning to ever-more desperate measures to survive, including child labor, early marriage, and even the sale of children. on saturday, senior taliban leaders asked countries to release the plokd aid, saying it hurt the common people and would force more families to migrant. hard choices ahead for the international community, but mainly for the people of afghanistan, who once again are left out in the cold. michael holmes, cnn. a teen in texas is using his coding abilities to help people who are nonverbal. coming up, we have the inspiring story of just who motivated him to take on that cause. stay with us.
millions are without work, and the cost of food and fuel has shot up, making many basic necessities too expensive for afghans to buy. the u.n. s world food program warns that a harsh winter could bring an avalanche of hunger and destitution to the country koechlt the aid group says an estimated 98% of afghans aren t eating enough, up 17% since the taliban s takeover. families are resorting to desperate measures as the bitter winter sets in. 9 in every 10 families are now buying less expensive food. which tends to be less nutritious. 8 in 10 are eating less. and 7 in 10 are borrowing food in order to get by. reporter: officials say that food insecurity will push people deeper into poverty, which could result in families turning to
absolutely today was a great breakthrough to be able to resume our humanitarian air service into kabul, bringing in humanitarian workers. we were also able to fly into kandahar and out to mazar, as well, and also brought medical supplies into mazar. and we ve got another flight coming in tomorrow, so, yeah, it s absolutely fantastic. how is life in kabul now for those who are most in need? how difficult is it for people to get by, day by day? yeah, we ve seen really terribly a sharp decline in the situation since the 15th of august. you know, the economic freefall has come on top of already a very severe drought and some of our recent surveys that we ve just done over the last couple of weeks are showing that three in four afghan households now are really suffering. many are borrowing food, many others reducing portion sizes, many are eating much less nutritious food, and, as you just mentioned as well, many arejust, i mean. parents are forgoing food to give it to their children,
skipping meals, sending their children to family and friends homes to eat. borrowing food, borrowing money and then coming to one of our 3,000 food pantries soup kitchens or homeless shelters during the last two weeks of the month trying to be able to get enough food to feed themselves. it s a working parent earning less than $7.20 an hour or $15,000 a year. i want to follow up on two things there. one, your point these are often working folks, that this is poverty that is associated with people actually having jobs. and the other thing the way that this hits kids, one of the things we see in schools, for example, is during the last week of the month often the more discipline problems because kids are actually coming to school hungry. is that the sort of thing that you re pointing out to us here? absolutely. and we pay a horrible high cost for hunger. hunger is merely a symptom of poverty and in our state, we ll spend $6.97 billion in