‘Love your neighbor.’ Former Gov. Beasley touts World Food Programme to SC legislators

A former South Carolina governor and award-winning international humanitarian urged state lawmakers to embrace civility, love and unity in the interest of serving themselves and others.

The Legislature gathered Wednesday to honor David Beasley — South Carolina’s 113th governor and former executive director of the United Nations World Health Programme — for a long and distinguished record of service to the “state, nation and to the world.”

“The list of Gov. Beasley’s accomplishments would take far too long to discuss here today,” said Senate President Thomas Alexander, R-Oconee, in introducing Beasley before the joint assembly. “But I do want to point out what he achieved in his six years as the head of the World Food Programme, the world’s largest humanitarian organization. In his six years at the helm, Gov. Beasley raised over $55 billion for the World Food Program, the most ever.”

Beasley, who recently left his post at the WFP, is largely credited with helping to curb world hunger, leading the WFP to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020. Cindy McCain, the wife of the late U.S. Sen. John McCain, was appointed his successor.

“Yes, we raised $55 billion in six years,” Beasley said. “Last year, we raised $39.4 million per day, seven days a week. We fed 160 million people last year alone — not one time, but day in and day out, all year long, depending upon the season and the place. We averted famine, starvation, mass migration and the destabilization of nations.”

Founded in 1961, the WFP is a humanitarian organization that provides food for disadvantaged people recovering from wars, natural disasters and climate change effects.

Beasley began serving as executive director of the WFP in 2017 after being nominated by Nikki Haley, a former S.C. governor and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and now a 2024 Republican presidential candidate.

While hailed for his accomplishments at the WFP, Beasley said Wednesday that he couldn’t help but think about the millions of kids he couldn’t serve.

“When there’s $430 trillion of wealth on planet Earth, there should not be a single child on the face of this planet that goes to bed hungry, much less die,” he said.

Prior to his humanitarian work at the WFP, Beasley served as governor of South Carolina from 1995-1999, following more than 10 years in the S.C. House.

At the start of his political career, Beasley was known for achieving milestones, winning his state House seat while still a junior in college at Clemson University. He is also known for serving as the youngest House majority leader and speaker pro tempore during his time in those respective roles.

In 1998, midway through his term as governor, however, Beasley came under fire when he appeared on statewide television and asked lawmakers to remove the Confederate flag from the State House dome.

Outraged by the move, Republicans, at the time, rallied against Beasley, eventually causing him to loose reelection to Jim Hodges, who has remained the only Democrat elected to the South Carolina governor’s office since 1998.

Beasley said Wednesday that although he believes the nation is moving in the wrong direction, lawmakers in South Carolina can change that course.

“With the heart, the spirit that we have in this room, our state, let’s go forward with that motto that clearly says, ‘While I breathe I hope,’” Beasley said. “Within that we will achieve the greatest commandment known to mankind: love your neighbor.”