Auburn will be the site of the ninth annual Universities Fighting World Hunger Summit, Feb. 28-March 2, at the Auburn Hotel and Dixon Conference Center.
Each year, the summit is held at a worldwide campus and features keynote speakers. Ideas and tactics are shared to solve hunger on a global scale.
"The theme for this year's summit is Innovations: so, asking how to solve hunger not incrementally, but how can we quantitatively just take a quantum leap in solving hunger," said Paula Gray Hunker, director of strategy and policy for Auburn's Hunger Studies Institute.
The Universities Fighting World Hunger Summit will feature presentations from former Lost Boy Alfred Orono Orono, entrepreneur Mick Jackson and US International Development Administrator Rajiv Shah.
The Hunger Studies Program is a component of the Auburn War on Hunger Initiative, which began in 2004 when Auburn's College of Human Sciences was invited by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to be its lead academic partner in a student War on Hunger campaign. The institute has developed into a University minor, which Hunker encourages students of all majors to explore.
"Everybody has a part in solving this," Hunker said. "The concept was really to make it multi-disciplinary and collaborative in terms of bringing people together."
Dr. Kate Thornton, director of hunger and sustainability initiatives, said. "As the hunger effort has grown across campus, we've had a lot of faculty members express interest in incorporating these topics in their classes."
Thornton helped develop and teaches some of the courses in the hunger studies curriculum, along with other faculty members from across the University. Even if you aren't pursuing the hunger studies minor, Thornton explained that the intro class, Hunger Causes, Consequences and Responses, could be valuable to any major.
"It's a catchall class," Thornton said. "But I hope that by the end, you'll be able to speak intelligently on world hunger and understand news media."
According to Hunker and Thornton, the issue of global hunger and finding a solution is more complex than one might think.
"The good news is huge. Huge progress has been made," Hunker said. "But the bad news is with the growing population and the growing impact of climate change, we need to grow more food."
The estimate from the UN is that 50 percent more food needs to be grown by the year 2050, when the global population is projected to reach 9 billion. But, the issue of hunger is more complex than simply growing more food.
Hunker said the hunger studies minor is looking for communications majors, engineering students and political scientists to help solve world hunger and poverty on governmental levels.
Last year, the hunger studies capstone course presented hunger solutions to the WFP, UNICEF and The Food and Agriculture Organization in New York City. The presentation was such a success that the class was asked to send representatives to present before the WFP in Rome, Italy.
Sophomore Sara Raines, a double-major in nutrition and agriculture with a minor in hunger studies, was one of the two students selected to travel to Rome.
"Although the problems are really complex, even the simplest solution can make a huge difference," Raines said.
Raines also pointed out how students can make an impact in Auburn, whether they are a part of the hunger studies minor or not.
"There's so much poverty and hunger here and people aren't aware of it, even in Auburn--we're just in this little bubble," Raines said.
Raines said she advised students to get involved at local, off-campus food pantries.
The Universities Fighting World Hunger Summit will be preceded by a pre-summit conference and will feature international university presidents. All students are encouraged to attend and a student discount will be available.
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