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UK Joins with Universities Fighting Hunger
By
Carol
Spence
 LEXINGTON, Ky., (Oct. 18, 2006) – Count to five. Another child
just died of hunger. Count to 19. Those few pennies can feed a
child in a Third World country for a day. Count still further to
34. That’s how many dollars it takes to feed that child for a
year. Looking at the latter two figures, it would seem like a
simple solution to end world hunger. But then consider that more
than 300 million children around the world suffer from chronic
hunger. Consider that in the year 2006, an estimated 854 million
people remain underfed and malnourished.
Those numbers may seem overwhelming, but Janet Tietyen thinks
they shouldn’t scare people into inaction. Tietyen, a University
of Kentucky Cooperative Extension specialist in food and
nutrition, is spearheading UK’s involvement in a nationwide
movement called “Universities Fighting World Hunger,” started by
Auburn University in conjunction with the United Nation’s World
Food Programme.
“There’s enough food in the world to feed everybody, so that’s
not the problem. The problem is that it’s not in the right
places and it doesn’t get distributed due to lack of political
will,” Tietyen said.
World Food Day is celebrated every year on Oct. 16, the birthday
of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. As in past years,
activities were held on the UK campus to raise awareness of the
world’s plight. But this year was different, Tietyen said. UK
joined with 30 other college and university campuses across the
country for the national launch of “Universities Fighting World
Hunger.”
Tietyen said there is great potential at the university level to
bring about change.
“We know that education can solve many ills and that
universities together can be very powerful in this fight,” she
said.
UK already has strong ties with sub-Saharan Africa, an area of
the world where, Tietyen said, hunger issues are not improving.
Kwaku Addo, associate professor in the College of Agriculture’s
Department of Nutrition and Food Science, and a native of Ghana,
teaches a study abroad program in that country. With its stable
government, Addo said in his presentation during UK’s World Food
Day event that Ghana could be a safe central base to fight
hunger in other countries in the region.
Tietyen agrees. “It makes perfect sense for us from this campus,
especially in agriculture and human environmental sciences, to
strengthen that link and work on food issues that are of
importance in that region.”
 This year’s World Food Day theme was “Investing in Agriculture
for Food Security.” Since the early 1980s, foreign aid for
agriculture and rural development has declined by
$4 billion. Small-scale farmers, who comprise the largest group
involved in agriculture, often cannot provide enough food for
their own families. With a concerted effort, that ill-fated
system can be turned around by improving education,
infrastructures and technology.
UK has an experienced partner nearby in Georgetown College. Last
year, four Georgetown College students began “Project
Compassion,” which raised money to feed children in four
Guatemalan schools. Two members of that four-person team spoke
at UK’s event. Whitney Elliott told the crowd of about 30 that
they decided to “adopt” 1,400 Guatemalan children because that
was the same number of students at Georgetown College. Their
goal was to get every student on campus to donate $34, the
amount of money it takes to feed a child in a Third World
country for a year. Though not all the money came from the
student body, Elliott said they presented a check for $50,000 to
the UN World Food Programme at the 2005 commencement ceremony.
UK can learn from Georgetown’s example, Tietyen said. Her goal
is to raise awareness on campus and get people engaged. With
students working as advocates for ending world hunger and
faculty bringing the issue into the classroom, she believes that
UK will produce good global citizens who can reach a completely
achievable goal within their lifetimes.
“Ending world hunger is a matter of food distribution and good
governance and advocacy, fundraising and more people wanting to
make a difference.”
For more information about how to become involved in the fight
to end world hunger, contact Janet Tietyen at
jtietyen@uky.edu. |
Contact: : Janet Tietyen, 859-257-1812 |
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of Agriculture, through its land-grant mission, reaches across
the commonwealth with teaching, research and extension
to enhance the lives of Kentuckians. |
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