“The biggest challenge is the sheer volume of people,” says Tony Hall, former US ambassador to the UN World Food Program. Every day an estimated 1,500 malnourished refugees cross the Kenya border to escape Somalia’s widening famine.

An interfaith coalition is launching a prayer and fasting campaign to protect federal funding for programs that help the poor.

"I don't think any of us are under any illusions that we're going to solve the peace problem, but we also realize that you can't have peace without religious leaders," says former US ambassador Tony Hall.

Former congressman and ambassador Tony Hall suggests that nations haven't developed the political and spiritual will to confront the alarming global food crisis because "poor people don't vote."