Hunger & Vulnerable Populations: Children, Immigrants, and the Elderly 

This new breakout session will focus on how hunger affects vulnerable populations in North Carolina and across the country.  The session will look at the physical effects of hunger in vulnerable individuals and vulnerable communities - especially children, immigrants, and the elderly.

The questions this session will attempt to address are:

  - What makes people "vulnerable" to hunger?

  - How does hunger manifest itself in "vulnerable" individuals and communities?

  - What can be done to ensure that these individuals and communities have access to the food they need?

The session will be facilitated by Dr. Kristen Borre, a nutritional anthropologist concerned about food, hunger and nutrition among vulnerable populations who has conducted applied research on food production/distribution and dietary decision making among populations ranging from Native Canadians to food security among families of hired NC farm workers and their families. 

Her research has examined how individual dietary and health behaviors are affected by social, cultural and environmental constraints and/or opportunities. She has developed community level intervention programs that are able to be sustained through community partnerships and funding to improve the healthy lifestyles of rural people.  Her academic training includes a doctorate in anthropology and masters degrees in public health nutrition and medical anthropology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  She is currently an adjunct professor of anthropology at East Carolina University.

Her research has appeared in academic journals and in the Encyclopedia of Food and Culture, but her passion is not just academic.  It is rooted in a deep concern for social justice and desire to see a world where no one suffers the effects of hunger.