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World Food Day to have local flavor this year
World Food Day, on Oct. 16, is an international public awareness event that has been heightening the awareness of hunger, and what can be done to alleviate it, since 1981. There will be World Food Day events and activities in more than 150 countries this year, and what brings it all together is a videoconference originating in Washington, D.C., that will run from noon until 3 p.m.
As in years past, the SAES will host one of the hundreds of videoconference downlinks at colleges across America and at U.S. Embassies around the world. The SAES downlink site will be the Webb Hall auditorium. Several nutrition class instructors have already made plans to steer their students to Webb. Other SAES faculty, staff and students interested in taking in the proceedings are encouraged to attend. Refreshments will be served. The Webb Hall downlink is also open to the public. The American Dietetic Association gives continuing education credit for registered dietitians and dietetic technicians who participate, and the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences has approved Professional Development Units (PDUS) for members who participate.
This year’s World Food Day videoconference will have added interest for the SAES faculty and staff because one of the school’s longtime friends and supporters, Eva Clayton, is on the panel of experts that will be sharing ideas and responding to questions. Clayton was the first African-American woman to be elected to Congress from North Carolina, and she was a member of the House Ag. Committee. Clayton was a frequent champion of funding support for rural North Carolina and the entire network of 1890 land-grants, as well as the SAES. Clayton went on, following five terms in Congress, to serve as Associate Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Clayton will be joined on the World Food Day videoconference panel by Dr. Makanjuola Olaseinde, a Nigerian human rights advocate, and Dr. Deepa Narayan, senior adviser for Poverty Reduction and Economic Management at the World Bank. The videoconference moderator will be Ray Suarez of the Public Broadcasting System (PBS).
Posted September 27, 2006 05:02 PM