{"id":228601,"date":"2025-04-17T16:30:20","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T20:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=228601"},"modified":"2025-04-17T16:59:10","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T20:59:10","slug":"inaugural-uconn-hunger-symposium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2025\/04\/inaugural-uconn-hunger-symposium\/","title":{"rendered":"Inaugural UConn Hunger Symposium"},"content":{"rendered":"

Congresswoman Jahana Hayes visited UConn Health to speak at the first UConn Hunger Symposium about the vital importance of nutrition access in Connecticut.<\/p>\n

\"Congresswoman
Congresswoman Jahana Hayes speaking at the UConn Hunger Symposium.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cFood is a basic need,\u201d Hayes shared, even in America. \u201cHunger is a policy choice, that is something we can solve for! This one is actually one we can fix.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"UConn
Husky Harvest food pantry at UConn Health.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI would like to welcome you all to the first-ever symposium on hunger,\u201d shared Dr. Adam Perrin, director of Student Wellness and faculty co-director of Student Affairs at UConn School of Medicine. \u201cHopefully there will be many more to follow. As a family medicine doctor I always ask my patients about this social determinant of health. It\u2019s amazing how much food insecurity is out there. It\u2019s a harsh reality in our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the UConn Hunger Symposium Hayes emotionally shared her own past, personal journey with food insecurity, and the struggles she also witnessed in her students as a former public school teacher in Connecticut stressing that, \u201cchildren need food to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to ensure food is getting to people. It\u2019s so deeply personal to me, I understand how important these programs are,\u201d said Hayes who recounted her first visit to the UConn Waterbury campus when she was first running for Congress. \u201cFood insecurity came up and they were starting a food pantry at the school.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"UConn
UConn President Radenka Maric with Congresswoman Jahana Hayes at the first UConn Hunger Symposium.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jason Jakubowski, President and CEO of the non-profit CT FoodShare, also participated in the Symposium and applauded UConn for its dedication to now having Husky Harvest food pantries on each of its 7 campuses.<\/p>\n

Hayes pointed out startlingly how 3.8 million college students last year experienced food insecurity, and how she has introduced The Closing the College Hunger Gap Act to help them as the Ranking Member of the Nutrition, Foreign Agriculture, and Horticulture Subcommittee. She also works closely in Connecticut with CT Foodshare that has also generously donated food and resources to the Husky Harvest food pantries.<\/p>\n

\"UConn
Congresswoman Hayes touring the UConn Health campus food pantry on April 17. 2025.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThanks for all that you do,\u201d shared Hayes with the leadership of UConn, UConn Health, its faculty, staff and medical and dental students attending the symposium. \u201cI applaud what you are doing, and in your clinical curriculum. I know the students who train here will be a kind, different type of doctor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"UConn
Dr. Adam Perrin of UConn School of Medicine and Jason Jakubowski, President and CEO of CT FoodShare.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cFood insecurity is real. We have food pantries on each of our campuses. This is very dear to my heart as president of the University,\u201d shared Radenka Maric, president of UConn. \u201cI\u2019m so proud this symposium is taking place.\u201d<\/p>\n

The medical school staff including Suzanne Tate and student volunteers founded UConn Health campus\u2019 Husky Harvest food pantry back in 2023 after a survey showed that even 30 percent of its students may struggle at times with food insecurity.<\/p>\n

\"UConn
UConn School of Medicine Dean Dr. Bruce T. Liang and Congresswoman Hayes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cOur students are taught as part of their 4-year curriculum about the vital importance healthy food plays on one\u2019s health,\u201d shared Dr. Bruce T. Liang, dean of UConn School of Medicine. \u201cAs a cardiologist I know how critical good nutrition is for a person\u2019s health. As we do more research innovations, nutrition is going to be even more important.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Congresswoman Jahana Hayes Tours UConn Health\u2019s Husky Harvest Food Pantry <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":228629,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1715,2231,1868,179,2233],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1873],"class_list":["post-228601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-impact","category-health-well-being","category-meds","category-uconn-health","category-university-news"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 11:19:53","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228601"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":228668,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228601\/revisions\/228668"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/228629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228601"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=228601"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=228601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}