The UGA Senior Hunger Coalition has been selected as the university’s 2014 nominee for the Engagement Scholarship/W.K. Kellogg Foundation Engagement Award for the South.
The award recognizes programs that demonstrate how colleges and universities have redesigned their learning, discovery and engagement missions to become even more involved in their communities. It is sponsored by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities and the Engagement Scholarship Consortium, with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
SHC was created in 2010 through a partnership between the university’s Office of Service-Learning, the foods and nutrition department in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, the Athens Community Council on Aging, UGArden and the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia. The coalition was formed to combat food insecurity among older adults in Athens-Clarke County. The SHC identifies local senior citizens who are food insecure, raises awareness of senior hunger and creates innovative, sustainable and evidence-based interventions to “Squash Senior Hunger” in the community.
Since it began, the coalition has created a standard protocol to identify at-risk seniors and distributed 18,287 meals and 155,400 pounds of food to 550 ACCA clients and community members.
The regional awards will be presented at the National Engagement Scholarship Consortium Conference Oct. 7-8 in Edmonton, Alberta.
