A delegation of four students and one staff member represented Arkansas Tech University at the inaugural Arkansas College Hunger Summit at the Heifer International Pavilion in Little Rock on Thursday, April 14.
The event provided student leaders from Arkansas universities and colleges with an opportunity to learn facts about food insecurity on their campuses and talk about solutions for student hunger.
Results of a survey of 4,000 Arkansas college students were shared during the summit. The survey found that 40 percent of students cannot afford daily balanced meals, 40 percent have trouble focusing on their studies due to limited food intake, 35 percent have experienced bodily weakness due to lack of food and 33 percent said they have skipped meals because they could not afford to buy them.
ATU was represented at the Arkansas College Hunger Summit by Thomas Strahan, coordinator of alumni engagement in the ATU Office of Alumni Relations, as well as Arkansas Tech students Daniel Childers, Taylor Horton, Zalen Long and Devanté Turner.
Childers is a graduate student in health informatics from Russellville. Horton is from Lonoke and is a graduate student in student affairs administration. Long is a senior digital marketing student from Gainesville, Texas. Turner is a sophomore majoring in psychology and agriculture business. He is from Little Rock.
In return for their attendance at the summit, Strahan, Childers, Horton, Long and Turner earned a $1,000 grant to support hunger relief initiatives at ATU.
The Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance and Honors Arkansas hosted the summit, which was sponsored by the Garcia Family Arkansas Fund, a component fund of the Arkansas Community Foundation.
Learn more about the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance at https://arhungeralliance.org.
