Iowa Hunger Summit
Iowans United in Fighting Hunger – At Home And Abroad
 |
|
| At the first Iowa Hunger Summit, Governor Chet Culver presented Norman E. Borlaug with a proclamation declaring October 16 as Norman E. Borlaug/World Food Prize Day in Iowa. Joining were former Governors Robert Ray, Tom Vilsack and Terry Branstad. | |
 |
|
| The Hunger Luncheon features simple meals representing Iowa-based programs for alleviating child and family hunger in its various forms. | |
 |
|
| Several hundred participants attend the Hunger Summit from across Iowa and the United States. |
The World Food Prize Foundation established the Iowa Hunger Summit in 2006 as a means to to celebrate Iowa's great successes in fighting hunger and poverty and to unite in further action against both.
The Iowa Hunger Summit, first held in 2007, seeks to gather 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 groups that lead or participate in projects to confront hunger.
The specific goals of the Hunger Summit are:
- To celebrate the many outstanding efforts of Iowans toward ensuring adequate food for all;
- To encourage Iowans to continue and expand these efforts; and
- To increase statewide awareness of hunger, poverty, and related issues.
Each year, World Food Prize officials contact organizations and individuals around Iowa to gather information on anti-hunger projects held in the past year and tabulate the total amount that Iowans have donated, collected, or contributed toward fighting hunger. This amount will be announced at the “Hunger Luncheon,” which features simple meals and an inspirational keynote speech on hunger-related issues.
The Iowa Hunger Summit is held annually on or around October 16, which is celebrated globally as UN World Food Day and is marked in Iowa by the World Food Prize events. In past years, the World Food Prize has attracted more than 700 participants from more than 65 countries annually, with many global leaders referring to the award as “the Nobel Prize for Food and Agriculture.”
With Governors Robert Ray, Terry Branstad, and Tom Vilsack serving as honorary co-chairs, the Iowa Hunger Summit draws inspiration from the legacy of statewide efforts like the Iowa CARES project to raise money to counter hunger in Ethiopia and the Iowa SHARES campaign to feed starving Cambodians, as well as from the ecumenical visit of Pope John Paul II to Des Moines in 1979, at which time he told rural Americans, “You are the stewards of the earth, with an obligation to feed all mankind.”
View Highlights from the 2009 Iowa Hunger Summit
View Highlights from the 2008 Iowa Hunger Summit
View Highlights from the 2007 Iowa Hunger Summit
