Miss Auburn University 2011 has cooked up an event to fight hunger and bring awareness to her cause while people run the Food Desert 5k on Sunday, April 7, around Auburn's campus.
Former Miss AU Emilee Williams, with help from Auburn organizations Committee of 19 and Campus Kitchens, organized this event as part of her Miss Alabama platform to symbolize the distance many people have to travel to get fresh fruits and vegetables.
"It's called the food desert 5k because the distance that people, about 25 million Americans, have to travel to access fresh food is about a three mile radius," Williams said. "If you live in one of those areas it's called a food desert which means that if you're food insecure, you can't really use your food stamps or anything like that at a healthy grocery store."
As Miss AU, Williams put together and sold Miss AU cookbooks to raise money to start a school-feeding program through the East Alabama Food Bank called the Backpack Program.
"These kids go home every weekend with a bag of just some snacks and things they can open," Williams said. "It's those kids that are on reduced lunch who may not have access to regular meals when they aren't at school."
This program was started this semester and at schools in Opelika and Loachapoka kids regularly goes home with backpacks. According to Williams, more than $1,500 was made from the cookbooks that went into the Backpack Program.
"I wanted something that could be related back to hunger," Williams said. "My vision was people would reach for the cookbook when preparing a recipe and that would remind them that not everyone has that luxury to prepare a fresh meal every night. It's just kind of a way to connect you back to people who may not have what you have access to."
Vice President of the Committee of 19, Azeem Ahmed, said he has worked with Williams in both the Committee of 19 and Campus Kitchens.
"She had this amazing idea for the Food Desert 5k as part of her Miss Auburn platform," Ahmed said. "I was like you know what, sounds awesome."
Committee of 19 is Auburn's war on hunger initiative that handles advocacy, awareness and fundraising for all the hunger related activities, like the Beat Bama Food Drive, on campus.
"Emilee has pretty much been running the event," Ahmed said. "She has done most of the event planning, and we will do some volunteering."
President of Campus Kitchens, Emily Scammel, said that they are helping collaborate and give Williams support.
"We have made a few donations, and more than anything we are just supporting full-heartedly everything she is trying to do," Scammel said. "A lot of our members will be there running the race. I probably will not be running because I am horrible at running, but I will be there for support anyway. Just whatever she needs us for."
The race will start at the RO parking lot off Thach Avenue by the Village residence halls at 1 p.m. and continue around the campus until making it back to the RO parking lot.
It is $15 to register, and T-shirts will be sold for $12 at the registration tent. The first male and female to finish will earn a prize. For more information contact ecw0010@auburn.edu or visit https://www.racesonline.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=public.race_detail&race_id=15855 to register to race.
Cutline
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
