Maine Hunger Dialogues
Be part of  Bowdoin Team!

Jamie Ptacek. ’17 writes:

Hey all of you ES people,
I apologize in advance for the length of this email. . .but will be BEYOND thrilled if you make it through the whole thing.

I am writing you because through my ES fellowship this summer I came in contact with a lovely man by the name of Frank Wertheim, who is an Associate Extension Professor of Agriculture/Horticulture with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension and the statewide coordinator of the Maine Harvest for Hunger Program (a pretty big deal). He is also the chair of the Maine Hunger Dialogues, an event that engages Maine college students and campus communities in the fight against hunger by providing a platform that: 1) raises awareness of the issue, and 2) provides opportunities for students to actively work to address hunger on their campuses and communities in collaborative partnerships with their institutions. Students, staff and faculty from Maine universities and colleges come together and learn about food insecurity issues and student skill building around themes such as project development, outreach and communications and project sustainability. Prepared with these new skills, campus teams have a chance to apply for a $500 mini-grant as seed money to start up a hunger prevention initiative on their campus or in their community. 

Whoa, I know what you’re thinking, and, yes, this is very cool stuff.

Anyways, when I was interviewing Frank he spent a lot of time trying to convince me to get a group of Bowdoin students together to attend the 2017 Hunger Dialogue, where the focus will be on Food Waste Recovery. The Dialogue will be held at UMaine Presque Isle from October 20-21.  To my knowledge, no one from Bowdoin has ever participated in this event, a trend that seems long overdue to be broken.

I know that many of you may have an interest in issues surrounding hunger and food insecurity, so I am sending out an email to gauge initial interest in attending the Hunger Dialogues this year.

The registration fee is $25 a person, which includes hotel accommodations, food, and conference activities. However, I have spoken with Sarah Seames at the McKeen Center and they have agreed to cover the costs of attendance for Bowdoin students if we can get a group of people together.

So, if you think that you may have an interest/be able to attend the 2017 Maine Hunger Dialogues this year, fill out this Google form by the end of the week (this is not a firm commitment, I just want to gauge interest). I am meeting with Sarah next week to discuss the details of attending the Dialogues and I want to have a good idea of how many Bowdoin people may be interested in attending before that meeting.

I really think this could be an amazing opportunity to engage with each other and other college students from across Maine in thinking about an issue that affects far too many Maine residents. . . .and Aroostook County is a pretty wild place to visit.

Please let me know if you have any questions! And if you know of anyone who may want to come, please forward this along to them.

Here is the link to the Google Form again: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdmTsxyC0bruh4DEsH3g2MzEf1mBMhTxM1iiqOeHwrUrcPDWQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

Ok, congratulations, you made it through.

Peace,
Jamie