Tweets and Pictures from the First Day of the End Hunger in New Mexico Summit

I wish I could say there were a lot of tweets from the first day of the End Hunger in New Mexico Summit.  I couldn't find any tweets but my own.(I don't think there was a hashtag designated for the summit, so I created my own: #EndhungerNewMexico). I later found out that Roadrunner Foodbank was tweeting under the hashtag #hungersummit2014

My tweets came after the fact because I couldn't get a Wi-fi connection on my smart phone at the site of the summit.

Anyway, I'm using my tweets and some photos to relate what I thought were personal highlights at the summit.  These tweets are not in chronological order, but I placed them in an order that would best tell my story.  And each tweet reflects a theme.

Economic Justice
Mark Winne, author and food-justice advocate,  was the keynote speaker during lunch.  Winne said we've been down this road before--a similar gathering in 2003 brought together people from a broad range of non-profits, government agencies and the private sector, and yet it doesn't look like we've made much progress. While there are many reasons for this situation, Winne says a central problem is that we have not worked with the right priorities

"We must shift attention from only the symptoms & address the root cause of hunger, which is poverty -Mark Winne #EndhungerNewMexico summit
— Carlos Navarro (@CNinABQ) July 17, 2014

Alicia Edwards, Executive Director of the Volunteer Center of Grant County, also spoke about a lack or priorities in a workshop. She said we've been stuck in a band-aid mode, and we need to look at transforming our economic system. And even our approach to the immediate feeding solutions is misguided. For example, she said, when we put a food box together, the word that should come to mind should not be food, but meals.

"You can give people lots of things in a food box, but how many meals is it going to make?" Alicia Edwards, #EndhungerNewMexico summit
— Carlos Navarro (@CNinABQ) July 18, 2014

Lieutenant Gov. Chewiwi

Investment in the Future
Lieutenant Governor Antonio Chewiwi at Isleta Pueblo (where the conference was held), presented the organizers of the conference with a gift: a small clay pot to hold seeds.

This was a highly symbolic and appropriate gift, since seeds are a symbol of future growth, and the small pot was a place to hold this future growth.

Mayor Berry

 Private-Public Model
Mayor Richard J. Berry, spoke about a broad range of interests coming together in the our largest city in New Mexico to address important issues like homelessness (though the Albuquerque Heading Home program) and hunger. Mayor Berry spoke about empowering all citizens to attain economic mobility.

The mayor mentioned that Albuquerque is one of five cities selected for a special grant under the national Living Cities Integration Initiative.  The program promotes "a new type of type of urban practice focused on addressing income inequality and disparate access to opportunity at a systems level,” according to Ben Hecht, president and CEO of Living Cities. Watch for a future blog post on the initiative in this blog 

"We have a real challenge but a tremendous opportunity to craft a solution," -#ABQ Mayor RIchard Berry at #EndhungerNewMexico summit.
— Carlos Navarro (@CNinABQ) July 17, 2014

A Tweet from Roadrunner Food Bank

We are pleased to work with community leaders like @Mayor_Berry & @Gov_Martinez to #solvehunger #nm #HungerSummit2014 pic.twitter.com/JB1sXMcoRM
— Roadrunner Food Bank (@RoadrunnerFdBnk) July 17, 2014

The Bottom Line
Tim Armer, executive director of the North Central New Mexico Economic Development District (one of the organizations sponsoring the conference) said it best.

How many hungry people is an acceptable number? The answer is zero. Tim Armer, NC NMexico Econ. Dev. District #EndhungerNewMexico summit
— Carlos Navarro (@CNinABQ) July 18, 2014

Like all summits and conferences, this one was packed with information and speeches, so this is the tip of the iceberg. And there's more tomorrow, so watch for a blog post for the second day of the summit.