Last week, the Honors Program Symposia held its sixth event which featured Dr. Frank Gillen, UT professor emeritus of English and writing and the founding director of the Honors Program. The topic of this event was Combining Research and Service, Asking “What Do We Owe to Others?”
Gillen, along with some of the students from his Honors Writing 102 class last semester, discussed their research on hunger and poverty, not just in the world but also in Tampa Bay.
“The research enables us to look at root causes and rather than simply dealing with the symptoms of, let us say, hunger or poverty, to make long-lasting change,” Gillen said.
The class looked at the Tampa Bay area and how it stood in relation to severe poverty and hunger. In most cases the two paralleled each other.
“I think what surprised us most was the extent of poverty and hunger in our area,” Gillen said.
The class found that 12.2 percent of Tampa households are food insecure, which means that these citizens are not receiving the proper nutrition to healthily develop. The reason behind this is that non-nutritional food is cheaper, so poorer families end up buying unhealthy foods for themselves and their children.
“It’s not a question of not enough food; both here in the United States and worldwide it is a question of poverty,” Gillen said. “Often in our area it is a question of lost jobs, or the fact that many of the jobs that are created do not provide sufficient income to adequately feed a family.”
The student panel discussed how there are established programs out there to help households in these situations such as food stamps. However, many issues were discussed that limit the productivity of the Food Stamps program. One of the main examples was that many people in our society look down on those who use food stamps to support themselves. As a result, many people refuse to use food stamps because they are afraid of what society might think.
Food stamps are in fact a stimulant for the U.S. economy. According to the Food Research and Action Center’s website, “USDA research shows that each $5 of federal SNAP/Food Stamp benefits generates nearly twice that in economic activity.”
One of the main concerns surrounding food insecurity is the effect it has on children. The lack of nutrition in a child’s diet can lead to serious problems concerning his development of organs and bones, the student panel explained. Not only that, it can also have serious effects on the brain and can harm a child’s mental health. These types of problems will affect the child for the rest of his or her life.
“Child hunger is a major problem in today’s society,” said Nick Tran, a sophomore accounting major who attended the symposium. “It’s ever-present not only in third world countries, but in our hometown of Tampa Bay. The number of people that are ill affected by malnutrition is strikingly high.”
Gillen closed with the questions like “How does this affect you?” and “What can you do to help?” He explained that he knows it may not seem relevant to students at this point in their lives; college is the focus right now. However, he hoped that it encouraged some students to look more into the issue, take a stand or raise awareness on the severity of the problem. The point of the presentation was to shed some light on the people in Tampa Bay, as well as the world, who suffer from hunger and are not receiving the nutrition they need.
“My hope is that if incoming freshmen or students can be made aware of problems like this, awareness will continue through their studies and out into their lives after university study is finished,” Gillen said. “Furthermore, my vision, perhaps only my dream, is that of students passing on the knowledge that they have accumulated in their research and projects to students who will be entering our university the following year.”