CEU Celebrates World Food Day with Week of Events Focused on Healthy Food Systems

October 22, 2013

CEU Sustainable Campus Initiative and the Human RightS Initiative (HRSI) collaborated to host a series of events marking World Food Day 2013 with the theme, “Healthy People Depend on Healthy Food Systems.” The events were intended to introduce the environmental, social, and economic realities of food systems to the CEU community.

The week began with a volunteering trip to the Babat Organic Study farm in Godollo, Hungary, to learn about organic farming and to harvest parsnip root (over 600 kilograms in all). At CEU during the week, donations were accepted on behalf of “Food Not Bombs” Budapest, a local volunteer group that collects food used to cook free meals for underprivileged residents. An interactive information zone was staffed by HRSI and student volunteers in the Octagon to answer questions about equitable food systems and to provide a ranking of visitors’ dietary habits on a nutritional and environmental scale. A panel discussion, “Defining Healthy Food Systems in Hungary, and their Reach Beyond,” featured local growers, food activists, and food researchers from Szent Istvan University and the OMKi Organic Agriculture Research Institute recounting the challenges and opportunities faced in Hungary’s developing local food systems. CEU’s World Food Day was also supported by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization regional office in Budapest. For more information, see http://www.ceu.hu/article/2013-10-18/ceu-digs-sustainable-food-issues-hu....