If you are struggling with – or concerned about – hunger and food insecurity in the area, you are invited to attend a community discussion on Thursday at Rockingham Community College in Wentworth.

The free public event is part of a yearlong reporting and community conversation series focused on issues of hunger and food insecurity in rural North Carolina, by the nonprofit news organization Carolina Public Press. This is the fourth of five hunger-related events Carolina Public Press will hold across the state this year. Residents of Rockingham, Caswell and Stokes counties are invited to attend.

The Newsmakers event will include a forum from 1-2:30 p.m. that will highlight local, regional and statewide challenges of and solutions to hunger and food insecurity. Following the forum, there are breakout sessions on child hunger from 3-4 p.m. and senior hunger from 4:30-5:30 p.m. We’ll also take a look at what Carolina Public Press uncovered in reporting the Faces of Hunger series.

Forum panelists will be Tamara Cox Baker, project and communications director at No Kid Hungry; Jessica Burroughs, hunger and food insecurity campaign director at MomsRising; Catina Chestnut, principal at Moss Street Partnership School; Amber Joyce, community member; Nikki McCormick, vice president at Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina; and Marty Roberts, co-director of Rockingham United Mobile Market. The child hunger breakout session will be led by Jessica Burroughs, of MomsRising, and First Lady Kristin Cooper. The senior hunger breakout session will be led by Marty Roberts, of Rockingham United Mobile Market and Jessica Soldavini, graduate research assistant at No Kid Hungry NC. 

Carolina Public Press will moderate the event, which includes networking, a panel discussion and audience Q&A. This will also be a “give and take” event; attendees are welcome to “give” food to donate or “take” food they may want or need. The forum will be livestreamed for those who are unable to attend in person.

The event series is sponsored by AmeriHealth Caritas North Carolina. Forums have also been held in Yancey, Jackson and Chatham counties, and another event is planned for Nov. 21 in Brunswick County.

The Newsmakers forum is free and open to the public. Seats to the forum are limited and RSVPs are required. For more information or to reserve your spot or to find out how to join the livestream, call 828-774-5290 ext. 405.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may republish our stories for free, online or in print. Simply copy and paste the article contents from the box below. Note, some images and interactive features may not be included here.

This release, story or event was developed through multiple sources and/or is from the staff of Carolina Public Press.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *