📅 September 28th, 11 AM - 12:30 PM Central
📍 St. Louis, MO, USA (virtual)

~ Partners/Moderators ~
• Bill Ray | MoveWorth
• Dr. Ameena Zia | Blue Ridge Impact Consulting
• Erica Williams | A Red Circle

~ Panelists ~
• Rev. Charles Shelton | Teens of Tomorrow
• Leah Lee-Burnett | Growing Food and Growing People
• Nicole Hawkins | Vice President of Community Programs & Partnerships, St. Louis Area Foodbank
• John Pimmel | Director Of Partnerships And Strategic Planning, Little Bit Foundation
• Daneika Irving | Board Member, Mission Attempt

The dialogue aims to identify the challenges of feeding 14 million food insecure children of America. Feeding America has projected that by the end of 2021, more children will experience food insecurity than ever before. As the gaps in access to food were highlighted as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is recognized that federal child nutrition programs were critical in meeting the needs of the most vulnerable in our communities, the children. It is also recognized that policy plays a significant role in addressing challenges for food insecure households with children. What policies exist? What is the importance of community awareness and coalition building? And what advocacy tools are available for communities?

The virtual consultative forum aims to foster dialogue in St. Louis, Missouri through an inclusive stakeholder approach to examine the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act as a policy tool and to highlight avenues of participation for local communities in identifying their needs, their challenges, and their interventions to secure sustainable policies.

📅 October 14th, 1 PM Eastern (new date/time)
📍 Florida (virtual)

The United Nations Secretary-General has called for a Food Systems Summit to help deliver progress on all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In preparing for the Summit, community stakeholders will discuss challenges to sustainable food systems by focusing on connecting the homeless population, low-income families, and the senior community with access to resources. As a UN Food Systems Summit Dialogue, the event will discuss interventions rooted in equity, sustainability, and livelihoods in food systems.

This virtual consultative forum aims to foster dialogue in Florida through an inclusive stakeholder approach to examine the relationship between food insecurity and social determinants of health. The conversation will be grounded in identifying needs, challenges, current resources, and interventions to secure sustainable practices. Without increasing resources and connectivity, there’s a cap on how much organizations can assist the end-user, the person, or the family. We will reveal grounded solution approaches that create sustainable change alongside working to address evidence-based, scalable results, including using an integrated digital eco-system to make the world more connected through partnerships. Providing access comes with connecting the resources to the needed person or party and delivering the items when needed at the required location. That solution involves integration, partnership, and a digital eco-system.

The event will bring together service providers of free community clinics, food distribution sites, and homeless shelters by leveraging information communication technologies (ICTs) such as an online portal to service the needs.

📅 September 30th, 11 AM - 12:15 PM Eastern
📍 Blacksburg, VA (virtual)

Keynote: Brad Copenhaver, the Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Biography: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ameenazia_unitednations-foodsystems-food-activity-6845570242958159872-WmTz

The virtual consultative forum brings young adults in conversation to foster dialogue around the importance of understanding food insecurity around the world. An inclusive stakeholder approach examines the relationship between different food systems and to highlight best practices that identify needs, challenges, and interventions to secure sustainable practices. Grounded in a solutions-approach to partnership, the event is part of an experiential learning project that is being hosted by Virginia Tech students of POLS 3115 & IS 3115: Select World Problems (Fall 2021). This event, as part of the coursework under the guidance of Dr. Ameena Zia, is rooted in principles of the UN sustainable development framework and works to promote dignity, accessibility, and inclusion in society.