Mexico City, Mexico - The Mexican government plans to launch a national program to fight hunger next Monday to deal with a problem that leaves nearly as many people dead as drug-related violence, officials said.

"The National Crusade Against Hunger" was announced on January 21st by President Peña Nieto, who said one of every four Mexicans suffers from some kind of nutritional deficiency.

"Hunger, for many, is perhaps an ignored truth. There are those of us who do not know about it. Others, perhaps, who do not accept it and some do not even dare to mention it," Peña Nieto said in a news conference.

Mexico, a country of 112 million people, registered 11,000 deaths from malnutrition in 2011, government figures show. A total of 8,000 of these deaths were caused by lack of access to basic foods and the rest to other hunger-related problems.

The National Crusade against Hunger will rely on 70 social programs focusing on health, education, and agricultural development. The programs are slated to received funding of $294 billion pesos ($23.15 billion) this year.