The following is an interview with William Lambers, whose vigorous work with addressing global hunger has now reached international proportions. RED! contributing writer, Le’Erin Watts, conducted the interview.
RED!: What is it about The College of Mount St. Joseph that interests you and why are you so connected?
W.L.: I went to school at the college as an undergraduate and also for my master’s degree. Over that time, I have gotten to know teachers on campus, many of who are also authors or journalists. That personal interaction you have at the Mount with the teachers keeps you connected.
RED!: People around the country know you for your fight against and work to address hunger, especially hunger around the world. How are you able to involve the younger students at Mount St. Joseph in the work you do?
W.L.: I get the opportunity to speak at Mount classes and also take part in some events on campus. This gives me the chance to talk to the students about global hunger and ways they can get involved, including one way I will talk about in the next answer.
RED!: What interested you about Charity Miles?
W.L.: I used to see these tweets from the World Food Programme about Charity Miles so I asked what was this about? The World Food Programme office in New York filled me on the details, which I could use in a story. Charity Miles is a free app that you just download onto your cell phone. For every mile you walk, run, or bike you can raise money for a charity like the World Food Programme or Feeding America. Since I also walked and since I am a former runner, I thought I could maybe get involved myself. I just needed to get the cell phone, which I did.
RED!: Have you started the program? How many miles have you logged?
W.L: I announced to Jeffrey Hillard’s Cincinnati Authors class in late 2012 that I would attempt to start Charity Miles. I started it almost right after that class and have logged well over 100 miles mostly running and some walking. I was around 100 miles when I tried to count them in early December and have logged many miles since. I was told I am the 4th ranked runner in terms of miles for the World Food Programme.
RED!: Are there any other charities or organizations out there that are using creative ways to raise money?
W.L.: The World Food Programme has an online game called FreeRice which I talk a lot about in classes and speaking engagements. I even wrote a few of the questions for the game. Every time you get a correct answer ten grains of rice are donated to the World Food Programme. Some charities like the Feed Project sell merchandise to raise funds. There are creative ways that come right from the College of Mount St. Joseph, too. A student, Elizabeth Paff, who was recently in the Cincinnati Authors class, has started hunger fighting initiatives including launching a FreeRice team and collecting funds for life-saving Plumpy’nut food, which treats malnutrition, and gradually I believe she also plans to help faciliated a hunger walk to raise awareness to helping provide food to those in great need.
William Lambers is an author and historian. Visit his sites: http://www.williamlambers.com Author page at Amazon.com http://www.twitter.com/williamlambers
