Public Health House and Foodshare: Hunger 101

by Alana Benito, junior nutritional sciences major

On October 11th, the Public Health House hosted Foodshare's Hunger 101 presentation. Two volunteers from Foodshare came to Watson Residence Hall to share this presentation with members of the learning community. Foodshare is Hartford and Tolland Counties food bank that serves over 128,000 people in our region who are at risk for food insecurity. Foodshare distributes over 16 tons of food each day to nearly 300 food pantries, soup kitchens and other agencies that help distribute this food to those in need.

The Hunger 101 presentation opened students' eyes to hunger issues that affect our neighbors. Students were given a brief introduction on what Foodshare does for our region and on the hunger demographics of this area. They then participated in a role-play activity where each student took on the role of a hungry person who only had a specific amount of money to buy food for their family for a day. Students all had varying circumstances and levels of hunger and went from the food pantry, corner market, social service agency, bank and emergency funds agency trying to get enough food or money to feed their families for one day. This proved to be a hard task and showed students how, even in Connecticut, people struggle on a daily basis to get enough food to avoid hunger.

The members of the Public Health House who attended were shocked and many were empowered to do something about it. The PHH will be having various volunteer opportunities to combat hunger and work with Foodshare in the future.