Presidents United to Solve Hunger and foreign dignitaries met in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, June 17, to discuss hunger issues and implement a plan of action to end hunger all over the world.
Paula Hunker, director of strategy and policy with the Hunger Solutions Institute in the College of Human Sciences said university presidents from six continents were represented at the meeting.
Hunker said the United Nations is a major partner, as well as other organizations dedicated to ending hunger all over the world.
The main international speaker was Juan Hernandez, president of Honduras.
"He sees PUSH as a tipping point in solving hunger," Hunker said. "It gives him access to all of these other universities in the world, both in terms of the knowledge and elevating the visibility."
During the meeting, Hernandez announced he was establishing a branch of the Hunger Solutions Institute in Honduras to combine all the best ideas to build sustainable practices that will last long term in his country.
Sara Rains, senior in nutrition, wellness option, with a minor in hunger studies, said she saw "really overwhelming support" from the university presidents.
She said she thought the meeting was good because the presidents were taking the first step of action.
"I was really excited afterwards," Rains said.
Rains said she felt honored to attend the meeting as a student.
Hunker said PUSH aims to encourage collaboration between universities.
"The whole goal is for universities to work collectively," Hunker said. "Traditionally, universities are competitors. They're competitors for students, they're competitors on the football field, they're competitors in many areas ... the goal of PUSH is to come up with a different kind of paradigm where they become collaborators, and as collaborators create a collective force that is focused on solving hunger and malnutrition."
Approximately 80 university presidents are members of PUSH and Auburn president Jay Gogue is a member of the steering committee.
PUSH began in December 2014, after people within the Hunger Solutions Institute saw a need for continuing leadership on college campuses to solve hunger.
"You have to have the energy of students ... but you need to have the continuity of leadership on each campus," Hunker said. "So out of that we came up with Presidents United to Solve Hunger."
Hunker said the June 17 meeting was designed to discuss how to implement the plan of inventory and mapping, teaching, research and outreach. She said they launched the first step, inventory and mapping, at the meeting.
"They were saying, 'We don't even know everything that we're doing,'" Hunker said. "So this inventory and mapping will, one, it will give presidents a really good finger on the pulse idea of everything that's happening on their campus. Two, it will give PUSH, the collective group, an understanding of where there's opportunities for collaboration."
Ultimately, Hunker said, this will strengthen the voices of universities in the campaign to end hunger worldwide.
Hunker said Auburn has many things to be proud of with their involvement and leadership within PUSH.
"[PUSH] never would have happened without Auburn," Hunker said.
Hunker said she believes hunger is solvable because of the rapid speed of innovation and communication.
"I think we're at the tipping point, and the premise of PUSH is one of the missing pieces of doing this effectively is knowledge, and that's where universities come in," Hunker said.
Hunker said the outreach emphasis at land grant universities such as Auburn is essential to ending hunger.
"Getting the research that comes out of universities out of the so-called ivory towers and into the hands of people that need it the most," Hunker said.
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