UA canned food drive aims to feed world
Jack Willems
Issue date: 10/15/08 Section: News
The UA, in conjunction with the Arkansas World Trade Center and Tyson Foods Inc., will sponsor a canned food drive tomorrow in acknowledgement of World Food Day.
Collection boxes will be placed on campus and throughout the region for donations of nonperishable food items, said Scott Van Asche, trade research manager at the Arkansas World Trade Center. Collection boxes will be at all UA residence halls, Facilities Management, the Office of Study Abroad, the UA Global Campus in both Fayetteville and Rogers, and the Arkansas World Trade Center in Rogers.
The goal of the food drive is to raise 600 pounds of canned foods for the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank, Van Asche said. Tyson Foods has offered to provide 10 pounds of chicken for every pound of canned foods raised, said Ed Nicholson, director of community relations at Tyson Foods.
Tyson will provide up to 60,000 pounds of food for the food drive, he said.
"We would be delighted to see that amount raised," Nicholson said.
The food will be used to feed hungry people in the area, said Nick Brown, executive assistant for sustainability at the UA. Not everyone is aware of how serious hunger is domestically, Brown said.
About 15 percent of the population has trouble paying for food, and almost 34 million people in the U.S. are at risk of hunger, Nicholson said. Tyson Foods donates between 7 million and 10 million pounds of chicken a year to local food banks to help fight the problem, he said.
World Food Day began in 1981, and it is an annual event that aims to increase awareness and action to alleviate hunger, according to the World Food Day Web site. In the U.S., more than 450 national, private voluntary associations sponsor the endeavor.
In addition to concerns about hunger, World Food Day also will raise the issue of climate change this year. The Arkansas World Trade Center will host a teleconference on global warming and how it is affecting poverty, Van Asche said.
Climate change produces droughts in some places and floods in others, which hurts agriculture in places where hunger is already a problem, Brown said.
"It is somewhat broader than global warming," he said.
The UA is committed to becoming carbon-neutral, Brown said, and in the near future, the university will use biodiesel for the off-road vehicles it uses at its farm, he said.
Collection boxes will be placed on campus and throughout the region for donations of nonperishable food items, said Scott Van Asche, trade research manager at the Arkansas World Trade Center. Collection boxes will be at all UA residence halls, Facilities Management, the Office of Study Abroad, the UA Global Campus in both Fayetteville and Rogers, and the Arkansas World Trade Center in Rogers.
The goal of the food drive is to raise 600 pounds of canned foods for the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank, Van Asche said. Tyson Foods has offered to provide 10 pounds of chicken for every pound of canned foods raised, said Ed Nicholson, director of community relations at Tyson Foods.
Tyson will provide up to 60,000 pounds of food for the food drive, he said.
"We would be delighted to see that amount raised," Nicholson said.
The food will be used to feed hungry people in the area, said Nick Brown, executive assistant for sustainability at the UA. Not everyone is aware of how serious hunger is domestically, Brown said.
About 15 percent of the population has trouble paying for food, and almost 34 million people in the U.S. are at risk of hunger, Nicholson said. Tyson Foods donates between 7 million and 10 million pounds of chicken a year to local food banks to help fight the problem, he said.
World Food Day began in 1981, and it is an annual event that aims to increase awareness and action to alleviate hunger, according to the World Food Day Web site. In the U.S., more than 450 national, private voluntary associations sponsor the endeavor.
In addition to concerns about hunger, World Food Day also will raise the issue of climate change this year. The Arkansas World Trade Center will host a teleconference on global warming and how it is affecting poverty, Van Asche said.
Climate change produces droughts in some places and floods in others, which hurts agriculture in places where hunger is already a problem, Brown said.
"It is somewhat broader than global warming," he said.
The UA is committed to becoming carbon-neutral, Brown said, and in the near future, the university will use biodiesel for the off-road vehicles it uses at its farm, he said.
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Gary Baumgarten
posted 10/15/08 @ 5:45 AM CST
World Hunger Year co-founder Bill Ayers will be my guest on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com at 5 PM New York time today to talk about World Food Day.
Please go to my blog at www. (Continued…)
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