Features

The University of California at Berkeley will host a two-day symposium that will showcase innovative local methods of fighting hunger. 

“The Community Food Security Symposium” began Tuesday.  

Food security experts, social welfare and food policy organizations and representatives from federal, state and local agencies will meet to discuss several programs that seek to increase food security. 

Local programs that will be showcased include farm-to-school programs that link small farmers with school lunch programs as well as community gardening projects and farmers markets. 

Food analyst Gail Feenstra, of the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program of UC Davis, says the symposium may lead to new collaborations between the participants – a right step in the fight against hunger. 

“Achieving food security – adequate, nutritious and locally available food – in California's communities will require partnerships among nutritionists, agricultural economists, farmers, community health advocates, state agency officials and consumers,” says Feenstra. 

The symposium begins with opening remarks from the co-chairwoman of the Food Security Workgroup in the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Lucia Kaiser, and the division's vice president, W.R. Gomes.