UI CALS Students Lead War on Hunger
by Bill Loftus
College of Agricultural and Life Sciences students were among the early leaders in University of Idaho efforts to make the War on Hunger a campus priority. In 2006, Esther
Ngumbi, a Ph.D. student from Kenya studying entomology, visited Auburn University as part of an Idaho contingent. Her appearance as a speaker there is now expanding her advocacy for hunger-relief efforts to additional audiences.
Esther Ngumbi,
a Ph.D. student from Kenya
North Carolina State University invited Ngumbi to speak at its Hunger and Homelessness week on campus in mid November because student leaders who attended the 2006 Auburn event were so moved by her presentation there.
For Maddy Houghton, associate professor of dietetics at Spokane, the War on Hunger has galvanized more students at the university from other colleges. This year’s chairmen of the Committee of 19 are from the College of Business and Economics and College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences. “We’ve actively tried to recruit students from across campus to build support,” Houghton said.
The War on Hunger helps students develop both their intellects and their passions, Houghton added. “Most of them are pretty much veterans now. At the beginning they were eager to learn, and their knowledge has grown because they’ve educated themselves more on the issues,” Houghton said. “They’ve become much more attuned to what’s really going on, and its great to see them get excited about finding ways to help other people.”
Chris Chandler, a UI family and consumer sciences dietetics major who is completing his year-long practicum this year at Spokane, grew so interested in world hunger that he plans to focus on it in graduate school and then make it his career. Chandler wants to combine anthropology and sustainable agriculture in his future studies with the goal of reviving Africa’s interest in indigenous crops.
A recipient of a prestigious Goldwater Scholarship in 2006, Chandler believes some of the answers to Africa’s chronic famines may lie with the plants that nourished the continent before introduced crops began to dominate.
CALS remains in a leadership role. In mid-October, the Margaret Ritchie Distinguished Lecture was presented by June Henton, Auburn University College of Human Sciences dean. She was instrumental in helping her university take the lead nationally.
Learn more about the UI War on Hunger at www.uidaho.edu/waronhunger/.
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