UN agencies said Monday that more than 22 million Afghans will suffer “acute food insecurity” this winter, warning the already unstable country faces one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

“This winter, millions of Afghans will be forced to choose between migration and starvation unless we can step up our life-saving assistance,” said David Beasley, executive director of the World Food program.

Afghanistan’s Taliban government kicked off a program to tackle hunger on Sunday, offering thousands of people wheat in exchange for labor.

The scheme will be implemented around Afghanistan’s major towns and cities and employ 40,000 men in the capital alone, the Taliban’s chief spokesman said at a press conference in southern Kabul.