ST. CROIX — The University of the Virgin Islands’s Albert A. Sheen Campus was overflowing with local talent on Sunday, as U.V.I. celebrated World Food Day, aimed at educating\u00a0students in the territory from fourth through ninth grade on the challenges of poverty and world hunger first hand. The set events, which began on Friday with a hunger banquet, was organized by U.V.I.’s Cooperative Extension Service (C.E.S.)<\/p>\n
World Food Day is celebrated October 16 of every year\u00a0in honor of the date of the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 1945, a U.N. agency whose focus is to defeat hunger around the world.<\/p>\n
An opening ceremony saw speeches from local officials, among them President of the 31st Legislature, Neville James, and Stephanie Williams, St. Croix administrator, all of whom spoke in some capacity on the importance of the territory pivoting to growing its own produce for self-sustenance, and the various roles being played by different institutions to bring said vision to life.<\/p>\n
Among the institutions is the Department of Agriculture, which, among other efforts, has partnered with the Department of Education for the Farm to School program. The idea is to overtime see the territory’s schools relying mostly on local produce for meals, and the effort so far is said to be working, though Carlos Robles, D.O.A. commissioner, said at the event yesterday that a lot of work was needed to change the mindset of students who he said were struggling to shift to locally grown food.<\/p>\n