04/03/12 jb

HAYS, Kan. -- Three professors and three students represented Fort Hays State University at the second annual Kansas Hunger Dialogue conference recently at Johnson County Community College, Overland Park.

The purpose was to "unite the state's institutions of higher education in a joint effort tocreate awareness, action and advocacy to eliminate hunger at home and abroad," said Dr. Shala Mills, chair of the Department of Political Science. "FHSU worked on two action plans, one related to the Victor E. Garden that the Food and Politics class started last year and the other related to enhancing advocacy efforts on campus."

Other faculty members who attended were Dr. Curt Brungardt, Omer G. Voss Distinguished Professor of leadership Studies and director of the Center for Civic Leadership, and Doreen Kamoga, assistant professor of nursing. Students who attended were Brittany Deeson, Aurora, Colo., junior, Jordan Schmeidler, Victoria senior, and Kelly Nuckolls, El Dorado junior.

"I learned abouta lot of legislation coming up in Congress directly related to Federal Aid programs that provide assistance to the hungry and organizations that help the hungry," said Nuckolls.

Presentation topics included "Ending U.S. Hunger by Redefining 'Service'" and "Hunger: Take it Personally."

"This problem of hunger must be addressed in our academia world as well as our civic and service engagement sphere to know that we are ending this problematic issue," said Schmeidler. "Thus we have to act, not next year or next semester, but right now so we ensure not another person dies from the lack of food."

Twenty-one Kansas colleges, universities and community colleges attended this year.

"The student leaders who joined our trip, Jordan, Kelly and Brittany, represented FHSU very well," said Mills. "They were active participants and contributed great comments in their breakout sessions and in the general sessions. They were engaged in one-on-one discussion with presenters and with students and faculty from other campuses. The exciting news was that the 2013 Global Summit for Universities Fighting World Hunger will be held in Kansas. It was held in Honduras this year and in Canada last year."

To learn more about how to help fight hunger, contact the Center for Civic Leadership at 785-628-5592 or Mills at 785-628-4425.