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Hungry For Change: America's Struggle to Eliminate Food Deserts

49 million Americans—nearly one in six—are food insecure, which means they lack access to enough food to live healthy, active lifestyles. The final CNN Dialogues event of 2013 will focus on the issues of food security and food deserts in the United States, with a particular emphasis on the nearly 16 million children who spend their days and nights hungry. We will discuss what works, what doesn’t and what needs to change to put healthy food in the hands of more Americans.

Tuesday, November 12, 2013  - 7:00-8:30pm

Spelman College, Cosby Auditorium  

440 Westview Drive, SW  Atlanta, GA 30310

Complimentary registration is now open.

Registration is complimentary, but required. Please register above. Seating is based on time of arrival and availability.

For directions to the Spelman Cosby Auditorium, please click here.

Please park in the Westview Parking Garage, the fee is $3.00.

Moderator - Sanjay Gupta, CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent

Dr. Sanjay Gupta is CNN’s Emmy Award-winning Chief Medical Correspondent. Gupta, a practicing neurosurgeon, plays an integral role in CNN’s reporting on health and medical news and also anchors the weekend program Sanjay Gupta, MD. His medical training and public health policy experience distinguish his reporting on a range of topics. Gupta’s passion for inspiring Americans to lead healthier, more active lives led him to launch “Fit Nation,” CNN’s multi-platform anti-obesity initiative. In addition to his work for CNN, Gupta is a member of the staff and faculty at the Emory University School of Medicine and is Associate Chief of Neurosurgery at Grady Memorial Hospital.  https://twitter.com/drsanjaygupta

Panelist - Hugh Acheson, Chef, Restaurateur and Author

Hugh Acheson is the author of the James Beard Foundation Award Winning Cookbook “A New Turn In the South: Southern Flavors Reinvented for Your Kitchen” and is chef/partner of the Athens, Georgia, restaurants Five & Ten and The National, and the Atlanta restaurant Empire State South. He is a James Beard award winner for Best Chef Southeast and was named a Best Chef by Food & Wine Magazine. Acheson competed in Bravo’s Top Chef Masters Season 3, is the host of the Bravo’s online series Battle of the Sous Chefs and he currently stars as a judge on Top Chef. Acheson spends much of his free time working with various food access organizations, including Wholesome Wave and ONE. He is passionate about developing a sustainable food system in which locally grown products are available and affordable for all. https://twitter.com/HughAcheson

Panelist - Maura Daly, Chief Communication and Development Officer for Feeding America

Maura Daly is the Chief Communication and Development Officer for Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger relief charity. In this role, Daly oversees the organization’s relationships with corporate partners to ensure the vitality of significant revenue streams that support charitable feeding programs for low-income Americans. Prior to her current role, Daly served as Feeding America’s Vice President of Government Relations and Advocacy, where she led numerous government and policy-related initiatives, including child and senior hunger programs, food stamp outreach, and federal and state legislative affairs. Through Daly’s advocacy, Feeding America has built a community of 80,000 hunger relief advocates, increased the number of children served by 25 percent and released Hunger in America 2010, a comprehensive study of domestic hunger.   https://twitter.com/DalyMaura

Panelist - K. Rashid Nuri, founder Truly Living Well Center

K. Rashid Nuri founded the Truly Living Well Center for Natural Urban Agriculture in Atlanta in 2006 after 40 years of managing agri-businesses in 30 countries. Nuri first started his business by selling home-grown collards out of the back of his van. Today he's leading a staff of 35 people in the production of 35,000 pounds of annual produce for the local community. Nuri is also working with the city government and urban advocacy organizations to expand the global concept of urban agriculture as a conduit for social change. A Harvard graduate, Nuri has studied soil science at UMass, been involved with organic community gardening in California, organized agricultural cooperatives in eight southern states, preserved thousands of acres of land for black farmers in Georgia, managed farms for Cargill Corporation in Asia and Africa and served as USDA Deputy Administrator during the Clinton Administration.  https://twitter.com/TLWUrbanAg

Monica White, Ph.D. assistant professor of Environmental Justice U of Wisconsin-Madison

Monica White, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of Environmental Justice at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a joint appointment at the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and the Department of Community and Environmental Sociology. Her research engages grassroots organizations, particularly minority communities, which are involved in the development of sustainable community food systems as a strategy to respond to issues of hunger and food inaccessibility. White has received a multi-year, multi-million dollar USDA research grant to study food insecurity in Michigan and has been appointed to the Food Justice Task Force sponsored by the Institute for Agricultural Trade Policy. White is currently working on her first book, “Freedom Farmers: Agricultural Resistance and the Black Freedom Movement, 1880-2010.”

About CNN Dialogues

CNN DIALOGUES is a community forum that aims to highlight diverse ideas and perspectives on the most significant issues and events shaping our time. It is a place where we address shared challenges and concerns to foster a dialogue of learning, understanding and hope. Our mission is to come together to analyze and reflect on everything from the arts to the economy, from human rights to health and sexuality. The topics are limitless. We will explore how global events have local impact; and how having a dialogue that bridges our differences will help us collaborate to create solutions and opportunities for a shared future.

CNN DIALOGUES is a partnership between CNN, the James Weldon Johnson Institute for the Study of Race and Difference of Emory University, and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights. CNN Dialogues takes place in various venues around Atlanta, the capital of the South and a city of change. This is the final dialogue planned for 2013.

For more information contact the James Weldon Johnson Institute for the Study of Race and Difference: email jwji@emory.edu or call 404.727.2515.