University of Alabama President Judy Bonner is scheduled to join leaders from the other universities including Auburn University for a ceremonial signing of the Presidents’ Commitment to Food and Nutritional Security at the United Nations in New York City on Tuesday.
“While Alabama and Auburn may battle it out on the football field, I am so proud of the young men and women from both schools who work in partnership each year to combat hunger in our communities,” said Bonner in a released statement. ”By signing the Presidents’ Commitment to Food and Nutrition Security, I am pleased to work with (Auburn University) President (Jay) Gogue and nearly 50 other presidents from around the world who are standing together to say that hunger and malnutrition have no place in the 21st Century.”
The symbolic signing is meant to affirm the universities’ commitment to make addressing food insecurity a priority and collaborating to increase their collective impact in teaching, research, outreach and student engagement, according to a draft of the commitment.
The signing, which will be webcast allowing student groups to watch and participate on their campuses, will be in the UN’s ECOSOC Chamber and be accompanied by a hunger forum discussing the role that universities will play in solving hunger.
The commitment’s goals include building and strengthening a university food and nutrition security network by sharing information about best practices, engaging faculty in a multidisciplinary process across institutions to develop and implement new strategies to address food insecurity, empowering students to be critical thinkers and meet the challenge of food insecurity, and creating public and political will for an end to hunger by disseminating information.
“Most universities are already contributing to food security across their programmatic agendas,” said AU’s Hunger Solutions Executive Director June Henton, AU College of Human Sciences dean and founder of the institute. “But PUSH will accelerate individual university achievements in two distinct ways. First, additional strength will come through the power of collective action and commitment to share best practices. Second, it will give universities a strong and unified voice at the multi-sector table as the world defines sustainable food security initiatives going forward.”
The commitment is the result of a February forum co-sponsored by the Hunger Solutions Institute, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. The forum also produced Presidents United to Solve Hunger, which enables members to share information across campuses, according to a release from UA.
PUSH is international and includes public and private institutions. UA and Auburn are joined by Southeastern Conference peers Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Missouri and Tennessee.