Global Hunger: Systems, Snafus, and (Possible) Solutions

This panel discussion addresses global food distribution systems, challenges and gaps in the current network, and possible approaches to overcoming existing barriers in comprehensive distribution.

The panel will feature the following distinguished hunger activists:

Congresswoman Eva Clayton

Congresswoman Eva Clayton served as the Assistant Director-General of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), having previously represented North Carolina’s 1st District in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Earlier this decade, Congresswoman Clayton was the U.S. delegate charged with tracking the progress of the 1996 World Food Summit which aimed to cut global hunger in half by 2015. In 2003, she led a Congressional delegation to several southern African countries (including Zambia and Malawi) to gain a better understanding of hunger in that region of the world.

Congresswoman Clayton is an internationally recognized expert and advocate in the areas of sustainable agriculture, nutrition, and protection of small family farmers in the U.S. and abroad.

 

Rev. Ray Buchanan

Rev. Ray Buchanan, an ordained United Methodist minister,  co-founded and directs Stop Hunger Now—an international hunger relief organization dedicated to the coordination and distribution of food and other life saving aid to children across the world.

Having previously served as the founder and co-director of the society of St. Andrew gleaning and domestic food distribution organization, he currently serves on the Board of Directors for Food Resources Bank, the International Food Bank Association, and Faithnet.

Rev. Buchanan is the recipient of the Caring Institute “National Caring Award,” the National Association of Christians and Jews “Humanitarian Award,” and the Maxwell House “Real American Hero” award.

 

Dr. William Whelan

Dr. William Whelan, a former Jesuit Volunteer, currently serves as the Vice Chairman of the Jesuit Volunteers International.  After encountering hunger firsthand as a volunteer in Zambia in 1973, he became a hunger economist with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa.  Working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Assistance Division, he is now conducting a study requested by the House and Senate Agriculture Committees that reviews the prior experience of donor countries, the World Food Program, and Private Voluntary Organizations in undertaking local and regional food aid purchases in low income countries.

Dr. Whelan previously worked for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as an agricultural policy economist and field project manager, technical director of USAID’s global Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET), and food emergency response technician for USAID's Office of Food for Peace.

Dr. Whelan was a member of the US delegation to the London-based Food Aid Convention (FAC) and was elected Chairman of the Committee in 2006 to serve during the United States’ one year rotation as Chair.  He has been an invited speaker at various international conferences on food and hunger-related topics, including on food aid at the 2004 and 2007 “Policies Against Hunger” Conferences in Berlin, sponsored by the German Government. In addition to his work for the USDA and USAID, he has been an assistant professor of economics at Rutgers and a visiting professor of economics at Gettysburg College during the ‘07-‘08 Academic Year where he taught “Food, Hunger and Agriculture in the Global Economy” and a course in development economics.

 

This session will be moderated by:

Ajulo Othow

Ajulo Othow is the Deputy Director of the US Regional Office of Oxfam America. 

Ajulo joined Oxfam America as the Rural Policy Specialist, where she led Oxfam’s work with advocates seeking equity for minority farmers as part of the 2007 Farm Bill reauthorization, together they’re work resulted in over $1.2 billion within the Farm Bill for minority farmers and ranchers.   Ajulo came to Oxfam from her post as Economic Development Director with the Southern Rural Development Initiative in Raleigh, North Carolina where she traversed the length and width of the US Southeast for over eight years.

Throughout her career, she has focused on building alternatives to the dead-end economy faced by so many young people in rural areas throughout the South.  Ajulo has a masters degree in International Development from George Washington University, a bachelors degree from Hampton University in Political Science and has completed fellowships at both Duke University and Princeton University.