Public Event- Addressing Hunger in the Central Valley

Andreas Wenzel

Soc. 122: Social Movements

Public Event

On March 30, 2016, I attended a public campus event put on by the Fresno State Speaker Series that revolved around Food Justice. The event took place from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. inside the Peters Auditorium, entitled "Addressing Hunger in the Central Valley". Andy Souza, CEO of the Community Food Bank, was the primary guest speaker at the event, and shared both statistics and his own personal experiences of hunger and food insecurity here within the central valley.

            Mr. Souza explained the extent of help the Community Food Bank provides, donating to 250 agencies (churches, community centers, schools, etc.) within Fresno, Madera, Kings, and Kern Counties, serving over 290,000 people each month. He also explained how this "Emergency" Food source is being used as a staple for nutritional balance for tens of thousands of individuals. Souza elaborated on hunger and food insecurity as the hidden epidemic that it is, explained the "cliff-effect," and shared video clips from presidential speeches over the last few decades that show the presidents of the time verbally addressing the issue, followed by the increased statistics of food insecurity and hunger by the millions by the end of each presidency. He also shared his own experience of food insecurity being hidden from him as a child by his mother, who was simultaneously skipping meals among other tactics to make ends meet. This particular part got me thinking about my own childhood experience, and in hindsight I found out that my single-mother too, was having to strategize to maintain as healthy of a diet as she could provide.

            The event undoubtedly altered public opinion about the issue. I doubt that anyone in attendance doubted or opposed the existence of hunger and food insecurity in the central valley, but the presentation definitely changed peoples' level of understanding about the issue. His sharing of personal experience prompted me to question my own, enabling me to learn about previously unknown variables in my own development. The quality of the presentation was not an issue whatsoever, but the quantity of such presentations directed to the public for awareness' sake is the only thing I think could use some improvement.