Shortfall for U.N. food agency grows to $750 mln

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Surging commodity prices have helped push the shortfall faced by the World Food Program for food aid donations this year to $750 million, the United Nations' agency executive director said on Friday.

In February, WFP announced it needed extra donations to help cover a $500 million shortfall -- driven by soaring food and fuel costs -- and avoid cutting back aid in 2008.

Since then, higher costs have widened that gap, Josette Sheeran said in an address in Washington, just as tight crop supplies and rising prices intensify hunger.

WFP has received some responses to its emergency appeal, but is seeking additional support from donors, the biggest of whom is the United States.

"We will face in the next couple of weeks the need to cut at least 400,000 children from school feeding. We've been borrowing from our future pipeline in the hopes of increased contributions coming in," Sheeran said.

"We're literally sitting down thinking, 'What goes now?' These are very, very challenging choices," she said.

Sheeran also said the agency was troubled by what appeared to be a reduction in new crop plantings by farmers in Africa -- due in part to rising prices for inputs like fertilizer -- a trend that would only aggravate the price crunch.