World Food Day brought several hundred people together on Sunday to celebrate this year’s theme, “United Against Hunger,” at the St. Croix campus of the University of the Virgin Islands.
The day began seriously as speakers from the UVI Cooperative Extension Service and UVI’s Agricultural Experiment Station painted a stark reality of the crisis that the world is facing: more than one billion hungry people are struggling to eat.
“There is an expectation that there will be three billion hungry by mid-century,” said James Rakocy, the Director of UVI’s Agricultural Experiment Station, as he examined the major causes and potential solutions to combat hunger.
But these statistics didn’t seem to deter the crowd from having fun. There were plenty of exciting and educational activities to keep people engaged, including agricultural and health workshops, booths selling delectable dishes and desserts, as well as the three major competitions: Citrus Splash, Youth Super Chef, and, the House of CANs.
The one event that seemed to be a crowd favorite and lasted most of the day, was the third annual student Youth Super Chef competition in which three junior high and high school teams battled each other in an event similar to the “Iron Chef.” This live competition included a panel of expert culinary judges who kept the children on their feet with constant questions regarding their dishes.
“It’s been very good – it gives us and the students a chance to really get into it; they really do a wonderful job,” said one of the panel judges, Jo Ann Allen Murphy.
Another event that brought a large group of onlookers was a demonstration from St. Croix Martial Arts Center, where students showed methods of Tae Kwon Do.
Some of the educational workshops provided door prizes to people. For example, the Citrus Production Workshop sponsored by the V.I. Department of Agriculture, gave out plants to the first 30 attendees.
One of the last events of the day was The House of CANs Competition, a 4-H youth activity that brought several children together in a race against time. Each group was given only 40 minutes to construct a project that had a viable structure. The kids struggled frantically to get the cans out of the nine shopping carts full of food.
Sarah Dahl-Smith, an extension agent with the 4-H program and one of the main organizers of the food bank, said that the local schools had collected 1,721 pounds of food.
“We have more than doubled that number with the donations from today – I have never seen this much donated,” she said.
World Food Day is a worldwide event to commemorate the day in 1945 when the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization was founded. The first World Food day was in 1981, and it is observed every year on Oct. 16th. This is the 27th year the University of Virgin Islands has commemorated the event.
