Columbia College hosts panel discussion on world hunger

Mid-Missourians and Columbia College students gathered in Dulany Hall’s Banquet Room on Wednesday night to discuss poverty, hunger and health in the developing world.

Amy Miller, who hosts “The Amy Miller Show” on The Eagle radio station, KSSZ/93.9 FM, moderated the discussion. She said more than nine million people die each year from malnutrition, and five million of those people are children. One major cause of hunger is poverty, she said.

“Poverty is powerlessness,” Miller said.

Miller said many Americans have a cynical view that we should not provide aid to countries whose governments are known to be corrupt.

Diane Suhler, a panelist and assistant professor of business administration, said there will always be some degree of corruption but it can be minimized by creating monitoring devices that make sure donated money is being spent wisely and measurable goals that can be tracked by an organization such as the United Nations.

Suhler said ideally hunger, poverty and health need to be tackled at the same time, but hunger is the most pressing issue.

“It doesn’t matter if people have the income to buy food if it’s not available,” she said.

Brian Kessel, associate professor of political science at Columbia College, was another panelist. Before the forum, he said the project is a good way for both students and community members to get involved in foreign policy issues.

“I think it’s really important that we do whatever we can to increase awareness of foreign policy and international relations,” Kessel said. “There are important issues out there that people should be talking about.”

Emily Rowell, a freshman majoring in political science at Columbia College, came to the forum to find out if there’s any way she can help ease world hunger.

“I really don’t know that much about Third World hunger,” she said. “So I wanted to learn more.”

The forum was sponsored by the college’s Political Science Club and Model United Nations team, and the event was part of The People Speak project, a nationwide initiative that encourages the organization of forums for the discussion of U.S. foreign policy’s effects.

Any individual or group can host or attend a The People Speak event.