A Haitian child carries a bag of food during a WFP food distribution in Balan, a suburb of Ganthier, 12 Nov 2009The World Food Program says for the first time in history, the numberof hungry people worldwide will exceed one billion this year.

Thehuge amount of people facing food insecurity has prompted the U.N.organization to appeal to individuals for the first time.

WFPlaunched the Billion for a Billion online campaign Saturday to get onebillion people living in the developed world to give one dollar a weekto the campaign at www.wfp.org/1billion.

WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said the small weekly support could transform lives.

Shesaid donor governments have supported WFP efforts in the past, but theycannot be expected to do so anymore because of the financial pressurethey are facing in the worldwide economic downturn.

Sheeranmade the online campaign announcement ahead of the World Food Summitbeginning Monday in Rome, where world leaders are meeting to findsolutions to the growing number of hungry people in the world.

Some information for this report was provided by Reuters.