By Jenise Huffman
My company (Tyson Foods, Inc.) is so committed to alleviating hunger that they are funding a fellowship for me to work in New York City at Millennium Promise for 6 months to work on reducing hunger and poverty in Africa.
Millennium Promise was founded by Dr. Jeffrey Sachs and Ray Chambers after the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan introduced the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The Millennium Development Goals are the world’s time-bound and quantified targets for addressing extreme poverty in its many dimensions while promoting gender equality, education and environmental sustainability
Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Hunger and Poverty
Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education
Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality
Goal 5: Improve Maternal Health
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases
Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability
Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development
Tyson Foods has demonstrated a deep commitment to advance the first of the MDGs: eradicate extreme hunger and poverty in the world.
To this end they have generously loaned me to Millennium Promise to support their mission to achieve the MDG’s.
Millennium Promise uses a holistic approach to work with impoverished communities, partner organizations and national and local governments to implement high-impact programs aimed at stopping the cycle of poverty. Their flagship initiative, the Millennium Villages project now operates in 80 villages across 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa..
I’m so excited to be part of this organization’s strategy development, branding and business development efforts. It is so fulfilling to go to work every day knowing that I work for a company that is actively participating in finding a solution to world hunger and the poverty that leads to chronic malnourishment. I’m proud to work for Tyson and be part of this amazing endeavor. The solution won’t be easy, but I don’t know of anything more important than to save the more than 20,000 people who die every day due to extreme poverty (inability to buy food or medicine).
Jenise Huffman is a National Account Exec in the Tyson Foods Consumer Products Group.