Capilouto signs commitment to combat worldwide hunger
December 10, 2014
By Cheyene Miller
UK President Eli Capilouto has joined leaders from universities around the world in an effort to combat international hunger.
According to a report from the UK College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, Capilouto and other leaders from the U.S., Canada and Central America signed the Presidents’ Commitment to Food and Nutritional Security, a collaboration of almost 50 universities worldwide that seeks to alleviate the hunger of the world’s population.
Capilouto signed the commitment on Tuesday in Lexington, while many of the leaders signed at the Hunger Forum and Public Signing Ceremony at the United Nations in New York City.
“At UK, we are investing — with our dining partner — millions in the study and promotion of food as a scholarly enterprise, but also for its value in building and sustaining its community,” Capilouto wrote in an email to the Kernel. “I see this initiative as consistent with that effort and with the partnerships we are building with local growers and with our faculty, students and staff.”
The commitment that Capilouto and the other university leaders will sign states that, “although the world as a whole has made dramatic progress against hunger and malnutrition in recent years, a shocking percentage in every nation of the world continues to struggle with food insecurity.”
The commitment also includes an action guide, which suggests specific steps that universities can take to aid hunger problems, though they are not necessarily required to do so.
These actions include conducting a hunger assessment of the university, then designing an appropriate action plan aimed at achieving a “zero-hunger campus.”
The action plan also instructs universities in how to offer courses and programs teaching students the reality of food insecurity and malnutrition, and asks them to offer incentives and rewards for providing breakthrough international research on methods to reduce world hunger.
The commitment encourages student involvement, calling for leadership and participation in food packaging events, statewide hunger dialogues, food drives and on campus/community gardens.
According to the College of Agriculture report, this is the first time that universities from all around the world will meet in hopes of ending worldwide food insecurity.
