The Hunger Consortium





2021 TAMU HUNGER CONSORTIUM EXPO RESOURCES
Click here to view presentation slides from this year's Hunger Consortium Expo

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Welcome to The Hunger Consortium

Help address hunger at Texas A&M and food insecurity worldwide by bringing together faculty, staff, students, and community resources to address ongoing needs.

Did you know that one in seven Texas households suffered from food insecurity in 2014-2016?
Another survey showed that 36% of college students did not get enough to eat.
We all know how hard it is to concentrate when we're hungry, so, what can we do about it?

Explore the Consortium 
Join the effort to end food insecurity at Texas A&M, the state, nation, and world.

 

Dustin Kemp

Founding Coordinator:  Dustin Kemp

Dustin received his Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Leadership & Development in 2007 after an almost 8 year hiatus spent traveling the country as the front man for Austin-based band J. Greene & The Steady (formerly known as Suite 709). During this period Dustin was voted one of The Austin Chronicle’s Best Male Vocalists two years in a row.  His music has been featured on hit TV shows "Nashville" and "The Fosters". Kemp and his band were featured on Google+ and Billboard.com.  

In 2015 Suite 709 disbanded, and Dustin found himself without a college degree or a performance group. At the urging of his mother he was inspired to return to Texas A&M to finish his degree. With only $99 in his pocket, he came back to Aggieland in Fall 2015.

Homeless and hungry much of Fall 2015-Spring 2016, Dustin crashed on friends couches, slept in his car in parking lots and snoozed on the steps of Academic Building while working and taking classes. He was eventually taken in by Dr. Aisha Brown until she left in May 2016.  Dustin persevered with encouragement from his mentor Dr. Danielle Harris and his grandmother, and walked across the stage to receive his diploma from TAMU in December 2016 with an offer of employment as the Capstone Program Assistant for LAUNCH.

Dustin has spoken about his path towards becoming a college graduate in a TEDxTAMU talk (http://www.tedxtamu.com/dustin-kemp).  Those experiences have made him very aware of the problems many of our TAMU students and staff face with hunger and homelessness.  In his role as a Capstone Program Assistant, he spent a week in Puerto Rico in the summer of 2018 to help in disaster recovery and understand the potential for international experiences as service learning opportunities. The conditions Dustin saw in Puerto Rico reinforced his desire to address the problem of hunger, and he leaped at being given the opportunity to pull together resources, expertise, and information that can help all of us at TAMU find new and better ways to help address food insecurity on campus, in the community, nationally, and around the world.  Thus was born The Hunger Consortium.

Faculty, Staff, Students, and B/CS Community Members

The Hunger Consortium connects faculty, staff, students, and local community members involved in research, food preparation, management, and education with each other and others who want to make a difference by addressing hunger and food insecurity.

Join The Hunger Consortium if you are involved or interested in:

  • Developing or joining capstone projects aimed at hunger and food insecurity
  • Raising money to support programs and initiatives to combat food insecurity
  • Producing research, scholarly, and/or creative work on the same theme of hunger and food insecurity
  • Collaborating on research or service projects, proposals, and initiatives to leverage expertise
  • Volunteering at university and community organizations
  • Teaching about nutrition, budgeting, and food preparation, the physical, biological, or social underpinnings that lead to food insecurity, or creative efforts that address food insecurity.
  • Looking to make an impact on the critical problems of hunger and food insecurity
LAUNCH is focused on our students. The Hunger Consortium serves to help undergraduates:
  • Find mentors that will enrich the undergraduate experience
  • Take classes to learn about hunger and related subjects
  • Volunteer with community and university organizations
  • Help alleviate food insecurity in first year students
  • Locate the most effective resources