Students and faculty presented research from heir various disciplines concerning food insecurity and nutrition education and its impact on local, national and global levels on Monday for the No Impact Week Food Symposium.
The Community and Civic Engagement Program from the College of Liberal Arts hosted their annual Food Symposium at Pebble Hill on March 26, 2018.
The event, hosted by the Community and Civic Engagement Program through the College of Liberal Arts featured more than 18 speakers who focused on all aspects of food — from production and distribution to consumption and waste management.
Vice President Kenzley Defler, senior at Auburn, presented information on the Auburn University Campus Kitchens Program. She said they had a record-high year with 31 shift leaders, 50 shifts per week and somewhere between 40-50 weekly volunteers.
Campus Kitchens has garnered national recognition as the recipient of the Sambazon Greenhouse Initiative project, as first reported by The Plainsman in January.
Organizations such as Hornsby Farms, Auburn University Office of Sustainability, the Community Garden Club of Auburn, Campus Kitchens and Community and Civic Engagement set up tables under a lighted white tent on the back patio of Pebble Hill.
Visitors and symposium speakers browsed each of the vibrantly decorated tables as representatives for each of the organizations spoke excitedly of their programs and initiatives, sharing information and stories of their own experiences with food insecurity, production, distribution, consumption and management.
Kendall Henderson, a 2013 graduate of Auburn University and two-year professor in the School of Nursing, offered her research on a new app that provides diabetes education for rural clients.
The app contains information from healthy shopping and cooking tips to exercise videos tailored to clients. Once downloaded, the app saves data and needs no wifi, so that patients can take the information learned in the doctor's office home with them.
The luncheon offered a keynote from William Harris of White Oak Farms, a six-generation family-owned farm in Bluffton, Georgia, as well as food and products from local vendors such as AU Fisheries, AU Herb Garden, the Lambert-Powell Meats Lab, Extreme Green Hydroponics, Tiger Dining, and peppers from Dadeville.
Harris, who is a graduate of the University of Georgia, focused on the importance of production, processing, and marketing as equal in the food business.
"It doesn't matter what scale you are performing on," he said. "You can be successful as long as you are being consistent in all three areas."
He also spoke to the importance of passion for animal welfare and emphasis on family. His daughter controls all the marketing for the company, and he said that his children know the end goal isn't the money, but the learning and growth involved.
Dean Joseph Airstrup welcomed students to the event and thanked them for their commitment to learning and to sustainable farming, distribution, and nutritional practices.
The Community and Civic Engagement Program is hosting No Impact Week from March 25 to April 1, dedicating each day to a different theme in the reduction of Environmental Impact.
Trash, Food, Consumption, Transportation, Water, Energy, Giving Bank, and Eco Sabbath are the successive themes of the eight days, boasting events such as a t-shirt swap and water tasting on the concourse, keynote speaking events and luncheons, and a visit to local parks over the weekend.
Dr. Giovanna Summerfield organized many of the events and helped to keep the 18 speakers on track during Monday's symposium.
"We want to thank all of you for your contribution to sustainability and to these programs," she said to the audience during the luncheon. "Let's keep this conversation going!"
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