Volunteers of Action Contre la Faim lay down plates on the Champ de Mars during World Food Day. (Thibault Camus/Associated Press)

Ten thousand empty plates were lined up in rows on the Champ de Mars next to the Eiffel Tower in Paris on Saturday to mark the United Nations' World Food Day.

Workers with the NGO Action Contre la Faim (Action Against Hunger) set up the display for the "Banquet Against Hunger" to draw attention to the 10,000 children who die each day of malnutrition.

"Ten-thousand children won't participate in any banquet, they won't have any meal today, Oct. 16, as they are dying from starvation," said the group's executive director, François Danel.

It's estimated between 3.5 million and five million children die each year from malnutrition-related causes.

"This is a huge figure and unacceptable," said Danel.

The slogan of the United Nations' 30th World Food Day is "United Against Hunger" and key concerns include increasing food prices and changing climates that affect food production.

In 2009, the critical threshold of one billion hungry people in the world was reached, in part due to soaring food prices and the financial crisis, a “tragic achievement in these modern days", said Jacques Diouf, director general of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FOA).

According to the FOA, that number is still at 925 million today.

Diouf has launched an online anti-hunger petition, which the FAO has dubbed the "1 billion hungry project."

With files from The Associated Press