McConnell Center lecture series kicks off with food insecurity discussion

The McConnell Center at the University of Louisville kicks off its spring lecture series with a Jan. 24 discussion about food insecurity, featuring Ryan Quarles, commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Agriculture.

Quarles' free, public talk on “Unbridled Hunger: Food Insecurity Challenges and Solutions for Kentucky” is from 6-7 p.m. at Chao Auditorium, Ekstrom Library. It will cover a range of public policy issues, including the role of health care and education in rural and urban parts of Kentucky.

Quarles formed the Kentucky Hunger Initiative, a first-of-its-kind effort to bring together farmers, charitable organizations, faith groups, community leaders and government entities to help reduce hunger in the state. According to a 2016 study done by Feeding America, 17 percent of Kentuckians struggle with hunger.

The January lecture is part of the McConnell Center’s 2018 spring public lecture series, “Taking Kentucky’s Temperature: Future of Health Policy in the Commonwealth.”