Harmony Land: The Story about 17 Sustainable Development Goals arrived May 25, turning the world’s most urgent challenges into an adventure story built to show children they are part of the solution.
TORONTO, ON / ACCESS Newswire / May 28, 2026 / Suman Roy, CEO of the Zero Hunger Project and founder of Feed Scarborough and Hunger-Free Canada, released Harmony Land: The Story about 17 Sustainable Development Goals, a children’s book that turns the United Nations’ global agenda into a story young readers can follow.
Rather than a side project, Roy wrote “Harmony Land” to close a gap he runs into constantly in his advocacy work: most people, including adults, are not familiar with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). These 17 goals, adopted by all UN member states in 2015 as part of the 2030 Agenda, range from ending poverty and hunger to gender equality, clean energy, and climate action, yet everyday awareness of them remains thin. Roy views that gap as a justice issue rather than a communications disconnect; people cannot advocate for or build what they do not know is possible.
Harmony Land is the first book in a planned series, positioned as a narrative companion to the broader set of SDG education tools already used in classrooms and homes.
An adventure, not a lecture
With a structure that children grasp immediately and adults will recognize for its precision, the book follows four friends, Lila, Jamal, Sofia, and Raj, who are pulled into a magical realm after a storm destroys their town’s community garden and empties the local food pantry. Guided by Goalie the Owl, they travel through 17 distinct lands, each representing one Sustainable Development Goal, completing a challenge in each that earns a glowing star. Together, those stars form the Great Shield of Hope.
Hunger is the thread Roy uses to connect all 17 goals, an argument he brings real authority to as the leader of hunger-relief initiatives in Canada and globally. In the book, Goalie the Owl puts it to the four protagonists directly:
“Hunger is connected to everything. No money means no food. Dirty water makes people too sick to grow food. No schools means kids don’t learn how to farm better. Fighting destroys farms. A hot planet ruins crops.”
The stakes are grounded in real data rather than softened for a young audience. Citing the UN’s 2024 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report, the book reflects that roughly 733 million people faced hunger globally in 2023, about 1 in 11 people worldwide and 1 in 5 in Africa, and that progress on the Zero Hunger goal has stalled in many regions because of climate shocks, conflict, and economic downturns.
A curriculum in disguise
Each of the book’s 13 chapters covers one or two goals through hands-on problem-solving scaled to what children can actually picture doing:
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Jamal builds a water pump from bamboo and a bicycle wheel.
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Sofia organizes a Skill Share Morning so neighbors can teach each other practical trades.
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Lila starts a Seed Library.
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Raj, who comes from a family that runs a food pantry and keeps granola bars in his pockets just in case, explains how that pantry works.
By the end, the four return home to find that the magic globe was never the point: the goals live in community gardens, seed libraries, and ordinary conversations, not a magical realm. The children form the Evergreen 17 Goal Guardians Club and get to work. That shift, from passive witness to active participant, is the book’s central move, treating young readers as the answer rather than the audience for a problem.
From the page to the community
The release extends beyond the book. Roy is hosting a summer camp this season that gives children hands-on experience with the same Sustainable Development Goals the four characters work through in Harmony Land. The camp is built on the position that SDG education should not stop at the last page and that every child deserves access regardless of family finances; it is designed to be accessible to every family in the community, with financial support available so any interested child can take part.
Availability
Harmony Land: The Story about 17 Sustainable Development Goals is available beginning May 25 wherever books are sold, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indigo, Google Play, and Apple Books.
About Suman Roy and Feed Scarborough
Suman Roy is a business and community leader focused on food security, systemic inequity, and sustainability. He is CEO of the Zero Hunger Project and founder of Feed Scarborough and Hunger-Free Canada, and helped draft Toronto’s first Food Strategy. A global advocate and speaker for the UN Sustainable Development Goals, he has represented Canada at the UN High-Level Political Forum, the World Summit for Social Development, and the FAO. He has been recognized as CEO of the Year (NGO), Changemaker of the Year, and Visionary of the Year, is a recipient of the King Charles III Coronation Medal, and holds an honorary doctorate in International Relations from Universidad Azteca. Feed Scarborough, founded in 2018, is a community-driven organization building a hunger-free and resilient Scarborough through food banks, a mobile meal program, community gardens, and farmers’ markets.
Media Contact
Suman Roy, Founder, Feed Scarborough
Website: sumanroy.ca | feedscarborough.ca
Email: suman@sumanroy.ca
SOURCE: Suman Roy
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire
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