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UD, Hall Hunger Initiative partnership strengthens work to end hunger

A new partnership between the University of Dayton and the Hall Hunger Initiative will leverage the resources of both organizations to address growing hunger problems in the community and create additional opportunities for students, faculty and staff to get involved.

“Hunger is poorly understood in our community and there are many who think it’s a third world problem or only within the poorest parts of our nation,” said former U.S. Congressman, Ambassador to the United Nations for Food and Agriculture and three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee Tony Hall, who founded the initiative in 2015. “However, in Montgomery County alone, more than 90,000 people are food insecure, meaning they face days when they don’t know where their next meal will come from. 

“The Hall Hunger Initiative can start the work of creating a just and equitable food system but the ones who will bring this goal to reality are in classrooms and the community today. The University of Dayton is the ideal partner to strengthen our current projects and develop new ones that leverage the experience and connection of our staff and the creativity and energy of students.”

Under the new partnership, the self-funded Hall Hunger Initiative staff and operations will move to the University of Dayton Fitz Center for Leadership in Community, located at 1401 S. Main St. with the Dayton Foundation and Dayton Development Coalition. The Fitz Center shares the initiative’s goals of addressing systemic inequities and injustices, and their work together will help serve as a model for nonprofit-higher education partnerships in other communities.

“The next big idea to end hunger is out there, and the resources of the University of Dayton can help the Hall Hunger Initiative identify it,” said UD President Eric F. Spina. “There is a role for everyone, from undergraduates in our student-run Flyer Enterprises to students studying dietetics and nutrition, engineering, mathematics, and the arts and sciences. Students, faculty and staff in partnership with HHI will strive to replace hunger with a just and equitable food system that works for everyone. Together, we can live up to the aspiration to become the University for the common good.” 

The Hall Hunger Initiative looks at the issue of hunger on a systemic basis and brings people together — community partners, top government decision makers, volunteers leading small food projects and others — to develop solutions. Examples of successes in the region include the Gem City Market, for which Hall acted as capital campaign chair; Miami Valley Meals, which provides jobs for the unemployed and supplies prepared food for the hungry; and a racial wealth gap simulation, which teaches participants about the root causes of hunger; among others. 

More information is available online at hallhunger.org.


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