By KRWG News
Silver City – From WNMU: Students and faculty members at Western New Mexico University have initiated a yearlong effort to address hunger issues in southwest New Mexico with the Food Security Initiative established this summer.
Literary Gardens, a new book club, will host its first discussion this Friday, September 25, 2009 with Sharman Apt Russell's Hunger: An Unnatural History.
Russell's book will be discussed at 12:00 p.m. in the Miller Library as the first in a semester-long series of books that cover hunger issues and studies.
A WNMU professor, Russell's book has been praised by The Washington Post Book World as "insightful," while the Economist called it "tasty."
"The book club is meant to engage the whole community in an ongoing discussion about food," said WNMU professor Emma Bailey.
Future book discussions include Michael Pollan's bestseller In Defense of Food on October 23, 2009 at 1:00 p.m., and John Nichols' The Milagro Beanfield War on November 20, 2009 at 1:00 p.m. The Miller Library will host all discussions.
The forums, which are open to the public, are just one way in which hunger is being addressed as a university-wide effort at WNMU.
Related programs in the Food Security Initiative include WNMU's campaign Hungry Words: Writing to End Hunger in New Mexico, designed to generate student writing on topics of hunger and food sustainability.
Hungry Words is a collaboration with The Volunteer Center and WNMU's Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC).
"Writing about a subject helps us engage more deeply with that subject," said Russell, Director of WAC. "Writing is a way of discovering what we think and feel."
Students' hunger-related writings will be posted in Hungry Words, an upcoming online journal created by Russell. The works may also be included in the annual Research Symposium at WNMU.