EIU Media Relations

Community Invited to Hunger Symposium, Collaborative Effort

The public is invited to a hunger symposium focused on bringing awareness to poverty and hunger in the Coles County area.

The symposium will be from 1-4 p.m. Friday, April 10, at the Lumpkin Family Center for Health Education at Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center.

Coles County Time Out is sponsoring the event, which is a collaborative effort between Eastern Illinois University, the Lumpkin Family Foundation and various businesses, churches and non-profit organizations in the Coles County area.

The event will include a keynote by Jim Hires, the executive director of Eastern Illinois Foodbank, who will discuss the state of hunger in the Coles County area. Numerous workshops will be available including a presentation by Michael Gillespie, an EIU sociology professor who will present census data to show the ‘true face’ of hunger within the community.

Other workshops will include a panel discussion with local food pantry directors, local community garden leaders and school food pantry directors.

To register for the event, call Marcia Shambaugh in EIU’s Office of Student Community Service at 581-3967. To register for the event online, click here.

For more information about the Office of Student Community Service and EIU’s continued endeavors, click here.

For more information about Gillespie’s research of poverty within Coles County, click here.