Feeding Change event to be held at Innovation Quarter

Guest post by Molly Davis, assistant general manager, 88.5 WFDD:

88.5 WFDD, the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina, and Wake Forest University’s Pro Humanitate Institute are teaming up to present an interactive community conversation on the issue of hunger in the Piedmont called Feeding Change. The event will take place at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 10, in the Atrium at Wake Forest Innovation Quarter, located at 575 North Patterson Avenue in downtown Winston-Salem. A reception catered by Providence Catering, the catering arm of Second Harvest Food Bank’s Triad Community Kitchen program, will follow the conversation.

“This event is very different from past community conversations presented by WFDD,” said Molly Davis, 88.5 WFDD’s assistant general manager. “It’s not a lecture or presentation—rather, it’s a series of small, round-table discussions built around a group dialogue method called the World Cafe. The idea is to foster truly meaningful conversations about the important topic of hunger in our community, and hopefully to arrive at potential solutions.”

The event is free and open to the public, though reservations are strongly requested, so that an appropriate number of tables can be provided. Attendees are encouraged to come with their own questions, thoughts, and ideas. After three rounds of small-group discussions, the lead moderator, Wake Forest Provost Rogan Kersh, will collect feedback from the entire group.

“Right here in the Triad, hunger is a very serious and pervasive problem. One in 6 of our neighbors is food insecure. And this preventable problem is even more severe among our children, as more than 1 in 4 children in our community goes to bed hungry,” said Clyde Fitzgerald, executive director of Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest NC. “Building awareness of this critical issue and engaging people to be part of the solution is absolutely essential. September is Hunger Action Month across the country. This unique, action-oriented, community conversation about hunger and the candid discussion of potential solutions is the cornerstone of our food bank’s activities during September. We’re grateful to WFDD, WFU’s Pro Humanitate Institute, and WFU Provost Rogan Kersh for their leadership in making the Feeding Change Community Conversation on Hunger a reality.”

More information and a link to register can be found at wfdd.org or at hungernwnc.org.

88.5 WFDD, Public Radio for the Piedmont, is a broadcast service of Wake Forest University and is the only public radio station of its kind located in the Piedmont Triad. It broadcasts news, information, and public affairs programming cover- ing the arts, people, and institutions in the area from its Winston-Salem studios. The state’s charter NPR® member, 88.5 WFDD is the longest continuously-broadcasting public radio station in North Carolina.

Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest NC is the leading hunger-relief organization for an 18 county service area (Ala- mance, Alexander, Alleghany, Ashe, Caldwell, Caswell, Davidson, Davie, Forsyth, Guilford, Iredell, Randolph, Rockingham, Stokes, Surry, Watauga, Wilkes, and Yadkin), working in partnership with more than 400 local food assistance programs that include food pantries, soup kitchens, emergency shelters and special feeding programs for children and seniors. Together, it provides critical nutritional support for nearly 300,000 neighbors in need each year, including 100,000 children.

Wake Forest University’s Pro Humanitate Institute is charged with serving as the programmatic facilitator of the University motto, Pro Humanitate – for Humanity. It sustains authentic relationships with local and global partners as it works with Wake Forest University students, faculty, and staff to encourage deep academic learning, foster transformative civic engagement, and address community-identified needs in order to build more meaningful lives and a more just world.