By Bread Staff
October is traditionally “food month.” It’s the month for World Food Day (Oct. 16 this year), and it’s the time of the annual Iowa Hunger Summit and the award ceremony for the World Food Prize. (And don’t forget Bread for the World Sunday on Oct. 18.) Bread is involved in many of these events, and you are invited to observe or participate in them as well. Bread will be reporting on these events on our blog and social media channels.
Iowa Hunger Summit
October 13 in Des Moines, Iowa
Lead-in to the Borlaug Dialogue
The Iowa Hunger Summit is held each year during the World Food Prize’s week of events in October. It gathers several hundred leaders from across Iowa representing community organizations, business and industry, state and local government, social agencies, churches and religious communities, schools and universities, and other individuals and groups that lead or participate in projects to confront hunger.
The annual event was established by the World Food Prize Foundation as a means to celebrate Iowa’s great successes in fighting hunger and poverty and to unite in further action against both.
The World Food Prize Award Ceremony
October 15 at the Iowa State Capitol building in Des Moines, Iowa
The World Food Prize will be conferred upon Sir Fazle Hasan Abed of Bangladesh in a ceremony that is the centerpiece of the Borlaug Dialogue. Abed is the internationally renowned founder and chairperson of BRAC, which has produced agricultural and development innovations that have improved food security for millions and contributed to a significant decline in poverty levels through direct impacts to farmers and small communities around the world. Abed was chosen as the 2015 World Food Prize Laureate for his unparalleled achievement in building a unique, integrated development organization that many have hailed as the most effective anti-poverty organization in the world.
Borlaug Dialogue
October 14-16 in Des Moines, Iowa
Known as the “premier conference in the world on global agriculture,” the annual Borlaug Dialogue features the expertise and perspectives of governmental leaders; policymakers; farmers; CEOs and executives from agribusiness and nonprofit organizations; and scientific, academic and development experts from around the world.
The theme for this year’s event is “Borlaug 101: Fundamentals of Global Food Security.” It was chosen to celebrate the 101st anniversary of the birth of the founder of the World Food Prize, Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, and in view of the unprecedented challenge the world will face to sustainably and nutritiously feed the 9 billion people who will inhabit the planet by 2050. It is being billed as a “three-day ‘course’ on the fundamentals of global food security.”
Twitter Town Hall
October 14, 10:30 to 11:15 Central Time
From the Borlaug Dialogue in Iowa but open to everybody in the Twittersphere
The theme of the town hall is “Good News on the Path to #ZeroHunger,” focusing on the second of the new Sustainable Development Goals (end hunger) and the good news about what the world has done to reduce hunger.
Rev. David Beckmann, Bread’s president and one of the 2010 World Food Prize Laureates, will be one of the speakers, along with Catherine Bertini, former executive director of the World Food Program and 2003 World Food Prize Laureate.
Participate at www.twitter.com/#ZeroHunger.
