GEOFF BENNETT: This week, the head of the world's largest humanitarian organization is stepping down.

Cindy McCain has led the World Food Program for three tumultuous years through unprecedented humanitarian crises and global funding cuts.

Nick Schifrin speaks with McCain now about her legacy and the future of humanitarian assistance at a moment when international aid covers less than half of what the world needs.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Across the globe, the World Food Program says that more than 315 million people face acute hunger.

And for the last three years, executive director Cindy McCain has confronted multiple crises, two simultaneous declared famines, unprecedented attacks on humanitarian workers from Gaza to Ukraine, and widespread funding cuts, including by the United States government.

Her final day is Sunday.

And she joins me now.

Cindy McCain, thanks very much.

Welcome back to the "News Hour."

CINDY MCCAIN, Executive Director, World Food Program: Thank you.

NICK SCHIFRIN: It's always a pleasure.

Let me just start with that big number that I just mentioned, 315 million.

That's more than double the number that it was in 2019.

How have so many become so hungry?

CINDY MCCAIN: I think it's a combination of things.

There's so many new conflicts that have erupted around the globe.

We have had climate change issues, as you know.

We have had major environmental impacts with hurricanes and with typhoons around the globe.

It's really the perfect storm for food insecurity.

NICK SCHIFRIN: As I just laid out, you have had a tumultuous run as executive director, if it's OK for me to explain that, two simultaneous famines in Gaza and Sudan declared.

We have never seen that in the past.

We have had these attacks on humanitarian workers and, crucially, funding cuts, especially by the U.S.

And you and the WFP have said that that could cause an additional 58 million people to face starvation.

Do you leave this role with fear for those trends or faith that they can be combated?

CINDY MCCAIN: I think a little bit of both, quite frankly.

We have increased in famine and food insecurity around the globe.

But I know what our teams are capable of, and I know what this organization is capable of.

So the hope that I have is that these people are in place.

They do their jobs impeccably.

They're also people that never tire.

They will risk their lives to feed.

And so that's my hope, in knowing that all these people will be able to help those who can help themselves.

But funding is a large part of that.

And without the funding and without the political will of the world, we won't be able to do that.

But let me also say -- you mentioned Ukraine.

Humanitarian aid workers are not targets.

And we have been hit twice in the last two weeks.

And UNHCR was hit, and another convoy OCHA was in was hit.

They're targeting us directly, and that's unacceptable.

NICK SCHIFRIN: What does that say that humanitarian workers are being targeted in Ukraine?

And we also saw hundreds, according to the U.N., die in Gaza.

CINDY MCCAIN: It's a lack of respect for humanitarian law.

It's the inability for us to really get the message out also and making sure that countries and regions understand what's at stake.

If we can't feed people, the worst of the worst is going to happen.

They're going to migrate.

Women and children are going to be hit hardest in all this.

The bad guys will intermingle in all this and really, really cause chaos.

Food security is national security.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Let me zoom in into a couple of the crises that you're facing.

The most recent, of course, is the war in Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

WFP has estimated that some 45 additional million people could be at risk of acute hunger.

What happens if the strait is not open, and where is the impact felt the most?

CINDY MCCAIN: Our costs are 20 percent higher.

So that's 20 percent less money that we can use to feed people because we have to buy expensive gas, expensive fertilizer.

We can't move it as efficiently as we should be able to because access is denied.

We need the strait to open.

NICK SCHIFRIN: One of the countries that you have been focused on so much in the last few years is the largest humanitarian crisis in the world, Sudan.

And that is also one of the most vulnerable to the closure of the strait.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Some 40 percent of the population there right now are facing crisis levels of hunger.

As you said, higher prices for food and fuel means less food.

What will happen to Sudan if the strait isn't open?

CINDY MCCAIN: You know, in the worst-case scenario, the country could implode, I mean, and just turn into complete anarchy.

To be able to keep people safe and to be able to feed people as well, not just with food, but safety, we need to be able to help stabilize the country.

And food is the largest factor in that.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Take a minute to dwell on that idea of all of the families, all of the people who are hungry who you have met over the years.

Is there one story, is there one moment in the last few years that will stay with you and that you think symbolizes the needs, the crisis that the world faces right now?

CINDY MCCAIN: I was in Sudan, actually, and we were in a kind of a camp, that makeshift camp, that had been set up.

People were just kind of lodging there until they could move on.

But it was a mother and a child.

They took me into it, to her dwelling, which is a partial tent.

And this woman, with all the hardships she'd had, she'd walked great distance, and she had her child and another child with her, who was not hers, but that she'd picked up on the road because his mother had died.

And she said -- she said, with great dignity, said: "We just need food."

And she was so direct.

She didn't want anything else from me.

And she really said: "Take the message back, please.

And please don't forget us."

I think that was one of the most, for me -- I stepped up and got out of the tent once I was finished and it moved me to tears, to be honest with you.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Unfortunately, your ability to help that mother and so many people around the world has been affected by funding cuts.

This is not exclusively a Trump administration issue or a U.S.

issue.

This happened before the Trump administration.

But can you talk about the legacy at this point of the depth of the cuts to USAID and all of the humanitarian organizations that the U.S.

has cut off funding from and also the way, the accelerated way that those cuts were made?

CINDY MCCAIN: Well, it's tragic, I mean, in terms of our ability to be able to operate.

And it is not just the United States.

It is worldwide.

Most every country's either cut or had to cut funding to our organization and other organizations like us.

So we continue to make our case, to describe just exactly what we're seeing on the ground, and why food security is so important.

This isn't all about defense, although defense is a large part of it, but food security is part of that package.

It has to be, because food is the way to stabilize regions and countries.

And we can't -- but we can't do it without everybody's willingness to participate in this and make sure that we can make it happen.

We're losing generations of children right now.

And that's not fair.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Cindy McCain is the outgoing executive director of the World Food Program.

Cindy McCain, thank you very much.

CINDY MCCAIN: Thank you.