Harper Adams supports World Food Day

Posted 10 October 2013

A feast of international flavours awaits visitors to a festival of food being held at Harper Adams University to mark World Food Day.

Tasty treats from all four corners of the globe will be on offer in the university’s Regional Food Academy on Wednesday as staff and students come together to heighten public awareness of the problem of hunger across the world.

World Food Day is celebrated every year on October 16 to mark the anniversary of the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations in 1945.

The World Food Day theme this year is ‘Sustainable Food Systems for Food Security and Nutrition’.

The event, which will run from 12.30pm to 2pm, will include a variety of stalls offering mouth-watering morsels from countries such as Australia, Britain, India, China, Brazil, Mexico and many more.

Trays full of cupcakes, pasties, samosas, buns, biscuits, sweets and other treats, all made by staff and students, will be on offer at the event.

Suggested donations will be welcomed and all profits will be donated to Self Help Africa Shrewsbury, a charity which works with rural communities in Africa to help them improve their farms and their livelihoods.

The event will also include live music from Henry Keil on African drums and his band, a talk at 1.15pm on Self Help Africa by the charity’s Sustainable Agriculture Advisor, Pietro Chiappini Carpena, and a raffle for a food hamper. Tickets are currently on sale at the receptions in the Main Building and Faccenda.

Simon Keeble, Rural Enterprise and Land Management (REALM) course leader at the university, organised the event after contacting Self Help Africa.

“Having heard that Self Help Africa were in Shrewsbury and I was about to launch our new International Rural Property module for Land Management students (REALM/RPM), I went to see them and heard about the United Nations FAO World Food Day which is on October 16.

“As Harper Adams hadn’t celebrated this day and we are fully aware of the importance of food security internationally and nationally, I felt it was paramount that Harper Adams had an event on this day.

“As we have international students and staff I was sure Harper Adams would be enthusiastic to promote this day with food, music from around the world and a talk by Self Help Africa.

“So many people have shown interest in providing food, music and displays for this event, including staff and students, and I hope that this will make people aware of how precious food is for all of us on this earth.”

Joanne Darlington, Business Development Manager UK at Self Help Africa Shrewsbury, said: “It is fantastic that Harper Adams students and staff are coming together to celebrate World Food Day on Wednesday with Shrewsbury-based charity Self Help Africa. We are delighted all profits from the event will be going to Self Help Africa.

“The charity has been working for almost 30 years and now works in nine African countries supporting rural communities to grow more food and earn a better living.

“Almost 280 million people in Africa are hungry. We help communities to produce more food and earn an income from their farm surplus. There is a solution to hunger and poverty in Africa – it is called farming.

“A donation of just £8 could buy two chickens for one family. Eggs provide valuable nutrition, chicken manure makes great compost and once the chickens are bred the family can pass the chicks to their neighbours. You could be providing a whole village with eggs and chicks.”

To find out more about World Food Day visit www.fao.org/getinvolved/worldfoodday/en/ and to find out about Self Help Africa go to selfhelpafrica.org/selfhelp/Main/Home.asp