Students join international conversation about food equity

Students in the PLACE urban studies class joined forces with students from Rex Putnam High School in Milwaukie, Oregon, to give a presentation about food security at a virtual international youth conference.

Other presenting groups were from Grand Rapids, Michigan; Medellin, Colombia; Lima, Peru; and Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. The conference was at 6 a.m. PST, so the students from Oregon awakened at 4:30 to set up at Rex Putnam at 5:30 a.m.

The mayor of Grand Rapids addressed the conference and said he was grateful to have youth tackling the important issues of food sustainability and equity.

Representatives from the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability also attended the virtual conference from locales in Germany, Bangladesh, and Brazil.

The presentations were informative, the questions were rich, and everyone learned a lot about local food issues in different countries.