Students from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, UNC Charlotte and Germany participated in a global summit yesterday to share perspectives on world hunger. The title of the summit, hosted and organized by the UNCCharlotte chapter of Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE)was “Hunger & Poverty: Uniting Youth for a Common Cause.”
CMS students from the Center for Leadership and Global Economics magnet program at Beverly Woods Elementary, Winding Springs Elementary, Eastway Middle, Kennedy Middle, International Studies at Garinger, and International Business and Communication Studies at Olympic attended the summit. The middle and high school magnet programs made presentations to demonstrate what they learned this year about world hunger and poverty. Some schools held walk-a-thons to raise awareness while others held food drives to raise awareness. SIFE students from UNC Charlotte worked with the school teams on their research projects and presentations.
Students from the Herder School in Berlin, Germany also participated in the summit for the third year in a row. The title of their presentation, which addressed poverty issues facing their country,was "The Berlin Tafel."
Keynote speakers for the summit were Rahman Khan, director of diversity and community relations for Compass Group and Kay Carter, executive director for Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina.
Carter challenged students to take action on world hunger. “To truly solve this problem, we all must participate,” Carter said. “You can help out by volunteering at food banks, holding food drives and talking to your elected officials about this worldwide problem. Tell them that in a country like this no one should go hungry.”
The Global Summit is just one of the projects SIFE organizes each year.SIFE studentswork with a variety of communityto plan and implement programs that increase financial literacy and self-suffiency. The UNC Charlottechapter has been recognized by the national SIFE organization and Charlotte Saves for its programs.