Students to address food insecurity at Hunger Dialogue

Taking action is an emphasis of the second Maine Hunger Dialogue at the University of Maine on Nov. 6–7.

About 150 students and staff from 17 universities and colleges throughout the state will pack 10,000 nutritious, nonperishable meals for food pantries.

In addition, people from five college campuses and Mt. Ararat High School will report on hunger-alleviation projects they implemented after last year’s inaugural Maine Hunger Dialogue.

This year, 15 student teams from campuses throughout Maine will be awarded $500 each for hunger-alleviation projects. Dialogue participants also will be invited to apply for three summer 2015 internships — at Good Shepherd Food Bank of Maine, at the Orono Community Garden and at Partners for Hunger in York County.

“The goal of the Maine Hunger Dialogue is to inspire students from the state’s public and private universities and colleges, including community colleges, to learn, share ideas, network and work together to fight hunger across Maine,” says Frank Wertheim, University of Maine Cooperative Extension educator in York County.

“By focusing on campuses and surrounding communities across the state, students can make a real difference in people’s lives, as well as gain career skills, raise awareness of and work toward ending food insecurity in Maine. Next year we’ll come back together to share and develop new projects and continue to elevate the effort to reduce food insecurity among our families, neighbors and friends.”

The event grew out of the UMaine Extension Maine Harvest for Hunger program, which since 2000 has donated 1,788,400 pounds of surplus fruits and vegetables to people, soup kitchens, food pantries and shelters in the state.

The dialogue is part of a national movement to raise awareness of hunger on every U.S. campus of higher education. A goal is for participants to be inspired, educated and connected to resources in order to help some of the 48 million Americans estimated by Feeding America to be living in food insecure households.

Maine, according to Feeding America, is one of 14 states that between 2012–2014 had a significantly higher household food insecurity rate (16.2 percent) than the U.S. national average of 14.3 percent. Maine has an annual gap of 36 million meals — meaning that 36 million more meals are needed each year for every household in the state to be food secure.

Alex Moore of DC Central Kitchen and state Sen. Justin Alfond of Portland will be two presenters seeking to educate students about hunger and inspiring them to make a difference.

Moore, a Bangor native, is chief development officer at DC Central Kitchen. The award-winning organization aims to reduce hunger with recycled food, as well as to train unemployed adults for culinary careers and to serve healthy school meals.

During the first six months of the 2015, DC Central Kitchen prepared 914,738 meals for 80 social service agencies in the nation’s capital with 337,721 pounds of recovered food. It also served 516,247 meals cooked from scratch in 10 low-income area schools with 146,085 pounds of produce it bought from family owned farms.

Alfond, who has roots in Dexter and Waterville and lives in Portland, is the Maine Senate Democratic Leader. In summer 2015, he testified before the National Commission on Hunger as part of a national effort to ensure Americans have access to sufficient, healthy food.

He continues to fight in the Legislature for policies to address hunger in the state — including spearheading Maine’s five-year strategic plan to end childhood hunger.

“Food insecurity is a silent crisis that affects all of Maine, but there are simple steps we can take to address it,” says Alfond.

“Eliminating hunger is an achievable goal, and one that should be shared by all Mainers. I look forward to speaking with students at the Maine Hunger Dialogue about the steps we can take to unleash the full potential of children who are being held back by hunger.”

The two-day event at the Wells Conference Center on the UMaine campus begins at 1 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6 and ends at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 7. To register, to request a disability accommodation or for more information, including the agenda, visit extension.umaine.edu/programs/hunger-dialogue.

Contact: Beth Staples, 207.581.3777