National Commission on Hunger Members to Discuss Progress and Goals at Together at the Table: Hunger and Poverty Summit Oct. 7-9 at Baylor

Dialogue with members of the National Commission on Hunger highlights national hunger and poverty summit at Baylor University

Media Contacts: Lori Fogleman, Baylor Media Communications, 254-710-6275 or Kasey Ashenfelter, Texas Hunger Initiative, 254-710-6686 Follow Lori on Twitter at @LoriBaylorU
Follow Baylor Media Communications on Twitter: @BaylorUMedia WACO, Texas (Oct. 6, 2015) – Several members of the National Commission on Hunger are coming together at the national Together at the Table: Hunger & Poverty Summit at Baylor University, Oct. 7-9, to discuss their experience on the Commission and what they hope to see come of their work, in the near and long-term future.

The bipartisan National Commission on Hunger was created in 2014 by legislation initiated by former Rep. Frank Wolf of Virginia, and its 10 members are tasked providing Congress and the Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture with recommendations on how to most effectively reduce food insecurity in the U.S.

Attendees of the Together at the Table: Hunger & Poverty Summit will have the chance to hear directly from and engage in discussion with members of the commission and also Rep. Wolf.

"The goal of the commission is to provide Congress with practical, tested information on how to address hunger in our country," said Jeremy Everett, commission member and director of Baylor University's Texas Hunger Initiative. "Hunger is a problem too immense for 10 individuals to solve, so a key part of our work on the commission has been to hear from individuals having success in their anti-hunger work."

Together at the Table, which is co-hosted by Baylor's Texas Hunger Initiative, USDA Southwest Regional Office, Alliance to End Hunger and Feeding Texas, will include breakout sessions and five plenary sessions, including: Dialogue on Faith & Public Service, 1:00 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 7, featuring:

• Judge Ken Starr (moderator), President and Chancellor of Baylor University
• Ambassador Tony Hall, U.S. Congressman (retired), former ambassador to the UN Agencies for Food & Agriculture and executive director emeritus of Alliance to End Hunger
• The Honorable Frank Wolf, U.S. Congressman (retired), distinguished senior fellow of the 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative and The Jerry and Susie Wilson Chair in Religious Freedom at Baylor University

Dialogue on the Economics of Hunger & Poverty, 4:45 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 7, featuring:

• Dr. Kathy Krey (moderator), director of research, Baylor University's Texas Hunger Initiative
• Dr. Craig Gundersen, Soybean Industry Endowed Professor in Agricultural Strategy at the University of Illinois
• Dr. Joseph Sharkey, professor in the Department of Health Promotion & Community Health Science and founding director of the Program for Research & Outreach-Engagement on Nutrition & Health Disparities Solutions at the Texas A&M School of Public Health

Keynote address, 11:00 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 8

• Billy Shore, founder and CEO of Share Our Strength

Dialogue on the National Commission on Hunger, 4:15 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 8, featuring:

• Greg Kaufmann (moderator), senior fellow at the Center of American Progress and editor of TalkPoverty.org.
• Dr. Mariana Chilton, co-chair of the National Commission on Hunger, Associate Professor at Drexel University School of Public Health and director of the Center for Hunger-Free Communities
• Jeremy Everett, commission member and founding director of Baylor University's Texas Hunger Initiative

Dialogue on Hunger & Health, 10:00 a.m. Friday, Oct. 9, featuring:

• Rebecca Middleton (moderator), chief operating officer of Alliance to End Hunger
• Tangela Fedrick, Witnesses to Hunger, Center for Hunger-Free Communities
• Dr. Deborah Frank, member of the National Commission on Hunger and founder of Grow Clinic for Children at the Boston Medical Center
• Audrey Rowe, administrator for the Food & Nutrition Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)

The annual Summit, now in its fourth year, brings together leaders and practitioners from across the country to share their knowledge and expertise on addressing poverty, with a specific emphasis on food insecurity.

The breakout sessions will address issues such as public policy, community organizing, health and nutrition, federal nutrition programs and food security research. Both plenary and breakout sessions will be held in various rooms in the Bill Daniel Student Center on the campus of Baylor University. The three-day event will conclude at 11 a.m. Friday, Oct. 9.

More information about the Summit can be found at www.baylor.edu/texashunger. ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution, characterized as having "high research activity" by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The University provides a vibrant campus community for approximately 16,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 80 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions. Baylor sponsors 19 varsity athletic teams and is a founding member of the Big 12 Conference. ABOUT THE TEXAS HUNGER INITIATIVE Baylor University's Texas Hunger Initiative (THI) is a collaborative, capacity-building project focused on ensuring that every Texan has access to three nutritious meals a day, seven days a week. THI develops and implements strategies to end hunger through research, policy, education, community organizing and community development. Headquartered at Baylor University with 12 regional offices across the state, THI convenes federal, state and local government stakeholders with nonprofits, faith communities and business leaders to create an efficient system of accountability that increases food security in Texas.