Hunger U visits USU
Students take Hunger U’s world hunger quiz on the TSC pattio on Thursday. Jeffrey Dahdah photo
News Editor
Hunger is the world’s number one health risk. That is the point that the Hunger U tour tries to impress at college campuses across the country. On Thursday and Friday the tour made a stop outside the Taggart Student Center.
“We’re out here engaging in conversations with students about different ways that they can address the issue of global hunger crisis,” said Bo\David Williford, social media director for Hunger U. “It really opens the door for conversation and opportunities to share chances for engagement outside of Hunger U, for them to get involved in local or international efforts.”
Utah State was the tour’s second stop after starting on the University of Utah’s campus on Tuesday. The purpose of the tour is to raise awareness about world hunger and to get people involved in relief efforts. They donates a meal per person that takes a hunger quiz housed on the truck.
“We have a really awesome exhibit that we take from campus to campus, people come up and we have them go to one of our kiosks and take the hunger challenge, that donates a meal on their behalf,” said Tracee Schiebel, communications director for Hunger U. “We also have conversations, which is the most important part.”
Though Hunger U pushes for involvement, a large part of the exhibit is for educational purposes.
“It just opens people’s eyes to how many different issues that cause hunger,” Williford said. “Whether it is geopolitical issues, highway infrastructure, production or storage there is tons of issues.”
The hope is that with the education, activism and change will follow.
“Not only do they learn about hunger through taking the challenge, but we also interact with them and ask what they thought was most surprising and they learn a lot about hunger and hopefully they will use the information and make a change,” Schiebel said.
Williford said he got involved because when he was younger he didn’t know enough about hunger.
“I grew up on a cattle ranch in Texas,” he said. “So growing up I never asked myself how many people are hungry, in my small world it was always just everybody was fed.”
However when Williford went to college and befriended some international students, he learned about the magnitude of the hunger issue.
“I had never seen hunger the way they had seen hunger,” Williford said. “So those dialogues really inspired me to take a few years and do some things that really matter and can really change the world.”
Schiebel thought that the stop in Logan, while brief, was a success.
“I’ve had really great interaction, this campus has been so receptive to our message,” she said. “We have people lined up asking what they can do to help and make a difference. It’s really exciting when kids thank us for coming instead of us thanking them for stopping by.”
Junior Raul Lira, who stopped by the exhibit, echoed Schiebel’s sentiment.
“If you can get one person to notice something that they didn’t notice before then that’s a change already,” Lira said.
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