Three Square presents
The Southern Nevada Hunger Symposium

Sponsored by the Harrah’s Foundation, in partnership with the Black Mountain Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas

During fall 2009, Three Square, with the assistance of several community partners, is hosting a group of national and local hunger-relief leaders to better understand the magnitude of food insecurity and how to best develop and implement programs to deliver urgently needed aid. Discussion participants are from the fields of academia, advocacy, community development, and health and social policy.

The Southern Nevada Hunger Symposium will bring local experts and national hunger-relief leaders together to envision and enable the development of a food-secure Southern Nevada. Specifically, the symposium will examine the economic and social costs of hunger in Southern Nevada, and will advance the development and implementation of programs to close Southern Nevada’s hunger gap – an estimated 24.7 million pounds of food annually – and limit hunger’s pervasive effects on our community.

Hunger is a well-known and detrimental problem, but, as a society, we do not fully realize the extent of its impact, implications and indirect costs. For example, what are the ramifications in a community when a child goes hungry over the weekend, when a senior has to choose between medicine and food, or when a single mother exhausts herself working two jobs and still can’t make ends meet? Alternatively, what benefits will our community realize when successful hunger-relief programs are launched? How will our community be enlivened when thousands more Southern Nevadans are able to contribute to our community, because they do not instead have to focus on having enough to eat?

The symposium will analyze:

• Education and Childhood Development
• Health Care
• Seniors
• Economic and Housing Stability

Confirmed policy experts and community leaders include:

• Catherine Bertini, former Under-Secretary General of the United Nations, Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme, Senior Fellow in Agricultural Development at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and 2003 World Food Prize Laureate for her work to end famine and decrease hunger
• George Braley, Senior Vice President of Government Relations and Public Policy at Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger-relief organization, former Associate Administrator of the USDA Food and Nutrition Service
• Dr. Raj Patel, acclaimed author and international hunger scholar, particularly well known for his 2008 book, Stuffed and Starved
• Dr. Thom Reilly, Executive Director of The Harrah’s Foundation, Director of the School of Social Work at San Diego State University, former Clark County Manager, and a Three Square founding Board of Trustees member

Moderated By:

• Dr. Carol Harter, Executive Director of the Black Mountain Institute, UNLV Regents Professor, and former President of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas

A report based on the results of the Symposium will be available in late 2009/early 2010.