CHICAGO — Continuing its efforts to eradicate worldwide hunger on World Food Day, Archer Daniels Midland Co. on Oct. 16 announced a partnership with Concern Worldwide, an international humanitarian organization dedicated to the reduction of suffering in the world’s poorest countries.

ADM Cares will donate $1 million toward the creation and implementation of the Lifesaving Education and Assistance to Farmers (LEAF) Project, which will provide immediate and longer-term responses to chronic malnutrition and hunger for people living in extreme poverty in Kenya and Ethiopia. ADM will work closely with Concern Worldwide to design and implement the 18-month program, drawing on ADM’s long-standing agricultural, nutritional and technical expertise and industry-leading talent to propose possible solutions to pressing nutritional challenges faced by those living with chronic hunger.

“We are proud to announce our partnership with ADM today, said Colleen Kelly, chief executive officer of Concern Worldwide U.S. “The LEAF project will have a lasting impact on some of Kenya and Ethiopia’s most vulnerable communities, and will set an important example for the global corporate sector. International institutions and humanitarian and development organizations are unanimous that achieving zero hunger will not be possible without private sector partnerships, such as LEAF. The ADM team’s strong commitment and proven expertise will be vital force multipliers for our Kenya and Ethiopia teams, and we are excited to see where that expertise could add value to other initiatives in the future together.”

Kenya and Ethiopia are ranked in the “Serious” category on Concern’s newly released Global Hunger Index. The LEAF project will build on Concern and ADM’s shared goal of advancing nutrition innovation globally, by providing lifesaving nutritional treatment for acutely malnourished children and pregnant or lactating women, as well as agricultural transformation to reduce chronic malnutrition in both countries. Over the life of the project, the program will feature intervention at three levels — food systems, behavior change and public health — and is predicted to directly benefit nearly 50,000 individuals.

“At ADM, we fundamentally believe that providing access to nutrition has the power to solve many of the world’s challenges,” said Juan Luciano, chairman and c.e.o. of ADM. “In partnership with Concern Worldwide, we are unlocking the power of nature to save lives today, and to enrich them tomorrow. We’re hopeful that by leveraging our collective knowledge, expertise and perspectives, we can help make a difference in the dire nutrition situation for thousands of residents in Ethiopia and Kenya, while being good stewards of the environment.”