Panelists at the Carolina Public Press Newsmakers forum on hunger and food insecurity, held in Sylva on Oct. 2 at The Community Table, discussed the issues contributing to food insecurity, including in their own lives and in the lives of community residents. Matt Rose/Carolina Public Press

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As a part of its yearlong reporting project on hunger and food insecurity in rural North Carolina, Faces of Hunger, Carolina Public Press held a Newsmakers forum and resource fair on Wednesday, Oct. 2, at The Community Table in Sylva.

Forum panelists joined moderator, Carolina Public Press Managing Editor Frank Taylor, to discuss local, regional and statewide challenges of and potential solutions to hunger and food insecurity. Panelists are Tamara Cox Baker, project and communications director at No Kid Hungry; Paige Christie, executive director of The Community Table; Jody Miller, community engagement coordinator at Region A Partnership for Children; Carrie McBane, community organizer at Down Home North Carolina; Emily Mitzel, site coordinator at Blue Ridge Health; and Hannah Randall, CEO at MANNA FoodBank.

Journalists with Carolina Public Press reported on local hunger and food insecurity issues facing Jackson and surrounding counties, including that one in every four children live in poverty here, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Geographic isolation also creates challenges in the battle against food insecurity.

Watch the forum, recorded in its entirety, below. Carolina Public Press will hold free public Newsmakers forums in Yancey, Jackson, Chatham, Rockingham and Brunswick counties on these issues throughout the fall.

Jackson County Newsmakers Forum on hunger and food insecurity, at The Community Table in Sylva.

Posted by Carolina Public Press on Wednesday, October 2, 2019

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