Another war

Esther Ngumbi talks about hunger in her native country of Kenya.

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Story Published: Oct 21, 2007 at 12:40 PM PST

Story Updated: Oct 21, 2007 at 12:58 PM PST

By Matt Loveless

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MOSCOW - It's a war with no easy solution, and the University of Idaho is joining the fight. This war is the one on hunger.

Wrapping up World Food Bank Week on the campus Friday was Auburn University's June Henton. Henton said the week, culminating in her presentation Friday morning, was all about raising awareness.

"To really help students better understand conservation of human resources, then to engage in this effort," said Henton, Dean of the College of Human Science at Auburn.

Esther Ngumbi is a Ph.D. student at UI with some first hand experience.

"Being from a developing country," said Ngumbi. "Being from Kenya, where I saw it. I grew up with hunger. I know what it feels like to be hungry. I feel that this is a great cause, and we need to revive our students and let them know that, still the war is on."
Research shows chronic hunger kills a child every five seconds in the world, and affects hundreds of millions more. In other words, it is not a problem fixed by donating canned foods.

"It's gong to require education, it's going to require advocacy," said Henton. "Its going to require both short term and long term solutions to hunger."

“Like UNICEF, World Food Program," said Ngumbi. "All these programs that are working all day to make sure that people have food."

"Now if you're looking for the ultimate complex problem, everybody always says, 'We're not looking to solve world hunger here,'" said Henton. "But we actually are trying to solve world hunger."

That's why they bring the issue to the doorstep of a young demographic. Henton said on college campuses, the message isn't falling on deaf ears.

"It's a matter of helping with the problem, but it's also a matter of training leaders," Henton said. "This generation of students, they'll be our decision makers, our policy makers."

"We have to stand up and make hunger something that we want to fight," said Ngumbi.

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