Central American farmers at Iowa Hunger Summit

["Lesley Crosson" <lcrosson@churchworldservice.org>]

Media Contacts: Lesley Crosson, Church World Service, (212) 870-2676, 
lcrosson@churchworldservice.org Jan Dragin - 24/7 - (781) 925-1526, 
jdragin@gis.net 
 
MEDIA ALERT
 
Central American farmers bring region’s food security challenges to 
Iowa Hunger Summit
 
Church World Service to heighten its Central America program with 
focus on malnutrition
 
Editors, producers: Central American delegates to the Hunger Summit 
and Church World Service’s regional liaison Don Tatlock are available 
for interviews, by arrangement. Translation is available where needed.
 
DES MOINES, IOWA – Saturday October 9, 2010 -- A small delegation of 
rural farmers, agronomists and development specialists from 
vulnerable regions in Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua are visiting 
Des Moines, Iowa, Tuesday October 12 – Friday October 15 to share 
their region’s food security struggles and successes amidst poverty, 
climate change and high rates of malnutrition with other U.S. and 
global participants at Tuesday’s fourth annual World Food Prize Iowa 
Hunger Summit. 
 
The five Central American men and women are partners and participants 
in sustainable food and nutrition security programs supported by 
humanitarian agency Church World Service. As special invited guests 
of the World Food Program and Foods Resource Bank, the delegates are 
scheduled to participate as panelists at October 12 hunger summit 
sessions and will attend World Food Prize events October 13-15.
 
The Guatemalan, Honduran and Nicaraguan guests come to Iowa 
representing a collaborative new regional approach in combating the 
causes of high malnutrition and persistent food insecurity in their 
region. The Church World Service “Growing Healthier” initiative will 
engage farmers and local partners across country boundaries in 
exchanging ideas, experiences, successful methods and approaches that 
can improve nutritional health and food availability within their 
campesino and indigenous farming communities. 
 
The effort will be implemented in the three countries within existing 
Church World Service agriculture and food security programs and is 
funded by the Foods Resource Bank and through donations from CWS’s 
CROP Hunger Walks, held every year in Iowa and nationwide. 
 
WHAT AND WHEN:
The Iowa Hunger Summit
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
9:00 AM to 3:30 PM
 
and
The World Food Prize Norman E. Bourlaug International Symposium
“Take It to the Farmer” - Reaching the World’s Smallholders
October 13-15, 2010 
 
WHERE:
Des Moines Marriott Downtown Hotel 
700 Grand Avenue
Des Moines, IA 50309
(515) 245-5500
 
WHO:
Among the summit’s U.S. and international participants will be:
 
Representing the Church World Service Central America “Growing 
Healthier” Campaign
Funded by The Foods Resource Bank and Church World Service CROP 
Hunger Walks 
 
From Guatemala:
• Hugo Garrido, executive director of CIEDEG (Conference of 
Evangelical Churches of Guatemala)
 
• Olga Tumax (“too-MOSH”), rural farmer and leader and trainer of 
indigenous women for grassroots organization Ixmucane (“Ish Mooh KA 
nay”) Association. Tumax is also a participant in a CWS-CIEDEG food 
security program in Totonicapán, Guatemala. 
 
 
From Honduras:
• Suyapa Ucles (“Sue YAH Pah OOH kles”), program director for all 
programs in Honduras implemented by CASM (Mennonite Social Action 
Commission), a CWS partner
 
• Guilmer (“Wilmer”) Miguel, rural farmer and participant in the 
Church World Service food security program in Nueva Frontera, Santa 
Bárbara, Honduras
 
 
From Nicaragua:
• Rosa María Matamoros, agronomist, and director of community 
development for CIEETS (Inter-Ecclesiastic Center for Theological and 
Social Studies), a CWS partner
 
 
BACKGROUND
The only event of its kind, the Iowa Hunger Summit will gather more 
than 500 participants from across Iowa, other U.S. several states and 
foreign countries, who are united by common involvement and interest 
in confronting hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity within the 
U.S. and abroad. The Des Moines summit is the official kick-off to 
World Food Prize events each year and the awarding of the $250,000 
World Food Prize, created by Iowa’s Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dr. 
Norman Borlaug and regarded as the “Nobel Prize for Food and 
Agriculture.”
 
Des Moines’ Rev. Russell Melby, director for the Church World Service 
Iowa Regional Office and Iowa’s CROP Hunger Walks, says, “With the 
hunger summit and World Food Prize as the setting, CWS is doubly 
honored to host its local Central American partner agencies and 
participating farmers to Des Moines, and to engage with concerned 
colleagues from Iowa and around the world on our shared commitments 
and challenges to end hunger.” 
 
Melby said “It’s both fitting and coincidental that, during this 
time, many of some 1,600 yearly Church World Service-sponsored CROP 
Hunger Walks are taking place across Iowa, the rest of the farm belt 
and nationwide. While our Guatemalan, Honduran and Nicaraguan 
colleagues are sharing approaches to ending hunger with other 
farmers, food security experts and activists, Iowans across the state 
are just winding up or preparing to ‘walk the walk’ themselves, 
raising money to support hunger programs locally and globally.”
 
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