The Hunger Solutions Institute is thrilled with the recent efforts made by one of our UFWH chapters,The Third Freedom, located at Dakota Wesleyan University (DWU). Over the past several months, they participated in a number of activities and events to raise awareness and help to solve the problem of hunger around the world.
In April they hosted the South Dakota Hunger Summit, which was attended by 150 people. The focus of the summit was to engage people to work together on initiatives that target food security in South Dakota. Some of the events included a food pack for local backpack program, Empty Bowls event sponsored by local High School, awarding of the McGovern Hunger Ambassador award, and guest speakers and dialogue sessions for participants.
Students at DWU have also been raising funds to help support the McGovern Center’s Livestock for Life project. The project provides small animals to families living in extreme poverty, supports those families with training by local livestock care professionals, and covers other support fees to ensure that animals are well cared for. Recipients sign contracts to participate in training and provide proper animal care and also pledge to give the first or second offspring to back the local leadership who provide the gift to another family in need. The projects are overseen in Rwanda by a local parent-teacher organization and in Uganda by a village church leadership team. After raising funds to support this Livestock for Life, UFWH students participated in a “handing-over ceremony” while in Uganda this July.
To help raise money for this project, students worked with Dr. Alisha Vincent of the McGovern Center to produce a book called “A ‘Moo’ For You”. The book was written by Dr. Vincent and illustrated by DWU student Dyrani Clark, and UFWH students are now marketing and selling the book with all proceeds benefiting Livestock for Life.
Lastly, The Third Freedom has been involved in The Grain Bank. For this project, students are working with a philanthropist in Uganda to help provide ongoing training and support to a group of 20 young male and female farmers. This is an ongoing project that aims to increase the level of agricultural education, smallholder farmer support, yield productions, and introduction of poultry and fish farming cooperatives.
Through these creative initiatives, DWU students were able to apply their own interests and abilities to the area of hunger. We hope these projects will inspire you to think about how your own university can engage!