Rural Child Hunger Summit 2021 Is Food a Gift or a Commodity? Why it Matters for Policy and Practice

Many of us have experienced food as a gift and expression of love, perhaps at the family table during holidays or among friends. However, if we look just beyond our own tables, we can begin to grasp complex underlying relationships connecting us to our food – land, water, living things, and each other – as well as the social dynamics at play which determine who has a seat at policy tables where decisions affecting food systems and our social safety net are made. Join us for a brief discussion on reframing our basic understanding of food and attendant implications for child nutrition and public policy.

Share Our Strength is proud to partner with Duke University’s World Food Policy Center to bring attendees this session, in addition to a recent report on Rural Child Hunger and Faith Community Engagement.

Speakers:

Dr. Norman Wirzba, Gilbert T. Rowe Distinguished Professor of Theology and Senior Fellow at the Kenan Institute for Ethics, Duke University

Raised on a farm in southern Alberta, Norman Wirzba now teaches theology, philosophy, and environmental studies courses at Duke University. He is the author of Food and Faith: A Theology of Eating along with other books relating to humanity’s place in creation. This Sacred Life: Humanity’s Place in a Wounded World will be published later this year. When not teaching and writing he likes to garden, bake, play guitar, and make things with wood.

Derrick Lambert, Senior Manager, Share Our Strength

Derrick leads development of the No Kid Hungry campaign’s work with rural communities and provides oversight for No Kid Hungry’s summer meals portfolio. Prior to joining Share Our Strength in 2016, he worked as a Program Manager with Hunger Free Vermont, working closely with state agency staff, school districts and statewide partners to initiate and expand implementation of a range of federal child nutrition programs. Derrick is also a former educator, having spent four years in France teaching at public secondary and post-secondary institutions.