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THE
Nov. 4, 2022 Vol. 98, No. 07
Online at TheLink.Harding.edu
Searcy, Ark., 72149
ASI holds panel with focus on food insecurity
Photo by MACY COX
Former Walmart CFO Brett Biggs, executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme David Beasley, and U.S. Senator John Boozman speak at the American Studies Institute panel in the Anthony and Wright Administration Building on Nov. 2. The panel was focused on global food insecurity. EMMA JONES editor-in-chief Harding University’s American Studies Institute (ASI) hosted its second distinguished lecture series event of the semester on Wednesday, Nov. 2, to focus on the topic of global food insecurity. The guests at the event were David Beasley, executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme (UNWFP) and former governor of South Carolina, Arkansas Senator John Boozman, and former Walmart chief financial officer Brett Biggs. The program began with Beasley talking in chapel at 9 a.m. about his efforts heading the UNWFP and how his faith drives his passion to end world hunger. Since 2017, Beasley has served as executive director of UNWFP, which is the largest humanitarian organization in the world focused on hunger and food security. In 2020, the World Food Programme was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize under Beasley’s leadership. “At the World Food Programme, we feel like we use food as a weapon of peace, just as modeled and talked about by the prince of peace,” Beasley said in an interview with The Bison. Beasley also talked about his interpretation of Leviticus 19:18 as being better translated to
“Love your neighbor as your equal” and how the verse should be the basis of interpretation for all scripture. “The difference is when you love your neighbor as yourself you can narrowly define that,” Beasley said. “But if you love your neighbor as your equal, seeing as that equal is in the image of God, it broadens it in such a way that gives a greater context.” After chapel, Boozman and Biggs joined Beasley for a panel discussion at 10 a.m. that was open to students and faculty. It focused more on faith in the workplace and how that had played out for each of them as Christians in their respective fields. Boozman, the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, has helped pass several legislation efforts to help fight hunger. “The way you change the world is [through] personal relationships,” Boozman said. “When you look at your life, what’s the evidence of your faith?” The ASI event continued with its main panel at 3 p.m., facilitated by University President Mike Williams. During this discussion, Beasley went into more detail about the number of people facing starvation globally. “We are in a crisis,” Beasley said. “There’s $430 trillion worth of wealth on the planet today, and the fact that a child dies every four
to five seconds from hunger-related issues is a shame, a disgrace on humanity.” Beasley also warned that due to continued conflict and climate shock, the world will soon be faced with food shortages and food price inflation. “[We’re] gonna have a food availability problem in 2023 based upon the direction that we’re headed,” Beasley said. During chapel, Beasley said his organization believed that world hunger could be solved by 2030, but not at the rate humanity is going. “If we end conflict and war, we could end extreme hunger,” Beasley said. “Even with climate change and everything we’re facing, but if you don’t end the wars, you can’t end the hunger.” Biggs, a Harding alumnus, served as the CFO at Walmart, the largest food retailer in the world, from 2016 to 2022. He said during the panel that he felt Harding was an appropriate place to convene on a topic like food insecurity. “When you think about Harding’s mission and what so many students have been trained to do, I think with the topic of hunger and food insecurity, this is the type of place it needs to happen,” Biggs said. “Convening at places and events like this [is] important, but we’ve got to go do something after this.” On a local scale, efforts are already being
continued searching for any remaining flames inside the house by tearing off countertops and tearing out the dishwasher and the sink to ensure there were no more flames. Shappley said he and his housemates later learned an electrical short in the kitchen had caught fire underneath the house. The heat from the flames caused a water pipe to burst, extinguishing most of the fire, and preventing the fire from spreading and destroying the deck or causing more damage. “We were super lucky because none of our belongings were destroyed and because we found [the fire] pretty quickly,” Shappley said. Their landlord does not live in Searcy, so the property manager helped them by placing plywood on the deck for safety. There is a hole in the kitchen wall, and most of the kitchen is destroyed. Shappely said the house smelled awful for three to four days, and they have been using seven air purifying machines to clean the air. They are still living in the house because their rooms were not damaged. The kitchen is the only unusable space. “I think fire was never something that was on my radar,” Shappley said. “We knew that there were some random issues like mold or the deck being very decrepit … I never expected fire to be something to worry about.” Dale did not hear the smoke detector and was woken by Shappley. He was confused to wake up to so much smoke and assumed the stove had been left on. Dale is thankful the fire was not as bad as it could have been. “I’m thankful that no one got hurt and that the fire department was very quick,” Dale said.
Senior David Martinez was working at Midnight Oil, a few houses down from the Knights’ house. He said he and his coworkers heard the sirens coming down the street and were curious why they were out so early in the morning. He later found out what happened and thought it had to be scary and alarming. “It was crazy for that to happen to someone you know,” Martinez said. The men are now waiting for renovations to begin on their kitchen and have created a makeshift kitchen with a George Foreman Grill, air fryer, microwave and rice cooker.
made to combat food insecurity in the community. One project has been the Student Association’s (SA) community garden, which has helped provide fresh produce to Jacob’s Place Homeless Mission in Searcy, according to Ella Duryea, a junior representative for the SA and the head of the community garden committee. “[Earlier] in the fall, we’d harvest whatever we had, and we’d take it over to Jacob’s Place, [where] it would be used as ingredients for homeless people to cook their own food,” Duryea said. Dr. Andrea Morris, the assistant to the provost for strategic initiatives, and junior Tucker Lovell have also been initiating conversations with different organizations across campus to gain student insight on what needs to be done to better combat local food insecurity. The two will be revealing their formalized program plan based on this insight during chapel today. Morris said the timing of this ASI event with the conversations that have already been happening was entirely coincidental. “When I learned that the executive director of the United Nations Food Programme was coming here, I said, ‘God, look at what you are doing,’” Morris said. “I was humbled and grateful that we had already begun a conversation.”
Knights’ house on Race Avenue catches fire EMILY STINNETT guest writer The home of seven students on 709 E. Race Ave. caught fire on the morning of Oct. 19. Senior Mason Shappley woke up to the smoke alarm going off at around 6:15 a.m. At first, he thought the alarm had malfunctioned, but he could smell smoke, so he knew something was wrong. Shappley lives with seniors Justin Green, Adam Dawidow, Jack Bobo, Connor Manry, Jackson Keller and Blake Dale in a rented house known to students as “the Middle School” or “White Castle.” All housemates are members of men’s social club Knights. Shappley said he woke up his roommates yelling the house was on fire. They noticed the smoke was coming from the kitchen, but they could not see any flames. They opened windows and doors to let the smoke out of the house and continued to investigate where the smoke was coming from, according to Shappley. Shappley tried to turn on the shower to create steam, yet the water did not work. He also said he heard what sounded like rain coming from outside by the deck, which was a burst water pipe from underneath the house. He then saw smoke billowing out between the countertop and the dishwasher. Shappley dialed 911. The men left the house for safety while waiting for the fire department to arrive. The fire department located the flames underneath the house and used chainsaws to cut holes under and on the side of the house, Shappley said. They extinguished the fire and
Photos provided by Mason Shappley
(Top) Senior Mason Shappley talks to a firefighter outside of the house. (Bottom left) Some of the damage done to the outside wall after firefighters had to cut a hole to put the flames out. (Bottom right) Senior Adam Dawidow holds the house’s pet cat, Sully, while waiting to go back inside.