<div>Food Banks play an important role in assuaging hunger and improving food security in many nations worldwide. These organizations provide food and services to people in need. Food banks rely on food and cash donations that occur infrequently, to meet their objectives. In a highly uncertain environment such as this, balancing the supply and demand of food is challenging considering the limited availability of resources and the complex system. This research addresses these challenges and presents and analyses several statistical and mathematical models to facilitate the distribution of food to the food insecure in a sustainable and effective manner. The objective of this research is to develop data-driven models and analytical techniques and developing decision support frameworks to assist the food bank administrators in understanding the dynamics of supply and demand of food donations and improve the prediction accuracies of the food supply and demand behavior at various levels of planning to ensure equitable and efficient distribution of food to the food insecure. </div><div> </div><div>First, a systematic review was conducted to research the evolving literature in the field of food bank logistics. Perusal of the literature shows that research in the field of food bank logistics is in evolving phase and issues pertaining to fairness, sustainability, cost reduction, food quality and nutrition, data uncertainty, and food waste study have not been reviewed extensively. Second, for understanding the food supply behavior, a novel hybrid model combining ARIMA and neural network autoregressive (NNAR) model was proposed for univariate analysis and the work was extended to conduct a multi-variate numerical analysis implementing machine learning algorithms with Random Forests (RF) best capturing the complex structure of the data. Thirdly, to understand the dynamics of the food demand behavior, a Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) clustering method is implemented to identify the possible causes of food insecurity in a given region by means of understanding the characteristics and structure of the food assistance network in a particular region, and the clustering result is further utilized to explore the patterns of uncertain food demand behavior and its significant importance in inventory management and redistribution of surplus food thereby developing a two-stage hybrid food demand estimation model with the proposed method significantly improving the prediction accuracies. </div><div> </div><div>Finally, the results of the analytical methods implemented and developed to study the supply and demand of the food donations is extracted and used to develop a conceptual framework for designing a decision support system to apply visual analytics to a food bank’s decision-making process. </div>

[pt] O Brasil presenciou a partir da década de noventa a inclusão do combate à fome como uma questão prioritária da sua agenda política, tanto na esfera da sociedade civil, quanto na esfera do Estado. Em nenhum outro momento de sua história houve tamanha mobilização social e implementação de políticas públicas especificamente voltadas para o enfrentamento da miséria e do seu corolário mais perverso: a fome. Neste trabalho de pesquisa procuramos identificar e relatar as principais intervenções realizadas com este objetivo pelos diferentes atores sociais entre 1993 e 2003. De maneira específica, elegemos a Campanha da Ação da Cidadania, uma iniciativa da sociedade civil, e o Projeto Fome Zero, política prioritária do governo Luís Inácio Lula da Silva, como marcos referenciais deste período. Utilizando estas duas iniciativas como objetos empíricos desta nossa pesquisa, pudemos compreender os processos social, político e discursivo que caracterizaram este período como a década de combate à fome. / [en] In the early nineties Brazil presented and included the Fight Hunger principle in its political agenda. The principle was to be adopted by both civil society and the State. Never before in its history had Brazil witnessed such social mobilization which shook policies directed at fighting the most perverse form of misery: Hunger. In our research we attempt to identify the principles of intervention of different social actors between 1993 and 2003 related to the objective. Consequently we chose the Ação da Cidadania (Citizenship Action) campaign, a social initiative, and the Projeto Fome Zero (Project Zero Hunger) which was a political priority of the Luís Inácio Lula da Silva government, as key references in the studied period. Employing both these initiatives with empirical data for the research enabled us to understand the processes social, political and discursive which ultimately characterized the Fight Hunger decade.

Food insecurity is not a new phenomenon experienced by elderly persons living in the United States. In a recent report by Feeding America, approximately 4.8 million Americans over the age of 60 are food insecure, which has doubled since 2001, and is 50% higher than in 2007. Due to lack of funding to the program, Meals on Wheels by Seniors First is unable to give meals to seniors in the Central Florida area who are food insecure. Through structured face-to-face interviews, this study examines elders on the program's waiting list and explores how this population obtains food if they are not being served through the program. Findings suggest that seniors on the waiting list are in need of the resource for survival, not convenience. This study has strong implications in which additional funding is needed as the Baby Boomer population ages and the need for food programs increases.

Even if they do not realize it, readers are perpetually in a condition that is strikingly similar to that of the Good Samaritan. Right now they have access to a vast network of communication that both enhances their senses and increases their sphere of influence. They can, for example, sit down at a computer and click on a certain combination of "sites" and the result will be that, in two weeks (or sooner), a DVD will arrive on their doorstep. Or, they can choose another combination, and the result will be that, in about two weeks (or less), a child will be saved from starvation and dehydration in some distant and destitute nation. Like the Good Samaritan, a reader of this thesis can see the desperate need of others and they have the ability to affect their condition. This perpetual Good Samaritan condition is directly a result of the recent changes the world has undergone as a result of technological advancement. This thesis is an exploration of the ethical implications of the potential perpetual good Samaritan. I will argue that (1) affluent individuals are able to affect positively the global poor and that they have a moral obligation to do so, (2) that this moral obligation is limited insofar as fulfilling the obligation requires a moral agent to sacrifice something of substantial significance (i.e., something that would cause a long term decrease in happiness), and (3) fulfilling this obligation requires specific actions on political, social, and individual levels.

This essay explores the use of young adult literature, primarily the young adult novel The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (2008), and how it creates an educational potential for learning and discussing ethics and ethical dilemmas for upper secondary school students. First, the curriculum for upper secondary school in Sweden is examined and confirms literature as important content of communication in the English subject and what the role of literature can be. Further, the curriculum’s ethical aspects are analysed, and it is affirmed that ethics has a significant part in the Swedish school and the English subject. However, the curriculum does not state how ethics should be taught. Additionally, research is presented and displays the connection between ethics and literature. Suzanne S. Choo’s thoughts and ideas on teaching ethics through literature are the framework of the analysis, and by analysing the ethical themes and issues in The Hunger Games, the aim is to prove the educational potential of teaching ethics with the use of the novel. The novel contains multiple ethical themes and topics suitable for an upper secondary school class, both broader themes regarding social and political issues, and internal ethical dilemmas. In conclusion, the novel appeals to many of the qualities requested in a book by young adults, and the educational potential is promising.

Hunger strikes are used as a method of protest to call attention to grievances or political positions and galvanize support for a cause. Historical examples from pre-Christian Europe through Guantanamo Bay have demonstrated various motives, interventions, and outcomes to this unique form of protest. Starvation causes life-threatening damage to the body, and to intervene on an unwilling subject involves invasive medical procedures. As scholars have debated how to approach this medical-ethical dilemma, a tug-of-war exists between autonomy, beneficence, and social justice with regard to the rights of prisoners of war (POWs) and detainees. International documents, legislation, and case law demonstrate vast support for and place precedence on the prisoners right to make their own autonomous, informed medical decisions, and many in the international community lean towards abstaining from intervention on hunger strikes on the basis of patient autonomy. However, there are notable arguments both for and against force-feeding that have been well documented. Despite the vast international dialogue, there is a key component that seems to have been forgotten—the environment within which the prisoner or detainee resides is immersed with coercive and manipulative activity and interrogation on a regular basis. This environment may impede the ability for the POW or detainee to make an autonomous decision and then leads to the refusal of life-saving, medical intervention on the basis of a decision that is markedly coerced or manipulated. It is therefore noted that a different lens must be used to analyze hunger strike situations for this specific population. / Urban Bioethics

Hunger and food insecurity are lingering public health problems, made more challenging by their evolving definitions, broad landscapes of interest groups, and complex political solutions. There is an important role for public health professionals and congressional committees in shaping the discourse and fortifying their relevance in food security policymaking. In short, the what, when, and who of issue definition becomes a foundation for food security policymaking. This study used in-depth content analysis to examine the evolution of food security discourse and interest group mobilization between 1974 and 2009 in media coverage of the issue of food security. Additionally, over 200 congressional documents were analyzed to investigate the role of specialized congressional committees in sustaining political attention to the issues of hunger and food security. The findings of this three-paper dissertation indicated that the evolution of food security conceptualization is ongoing and less comprehensive than anticipated. The study also found public health groups' remained at the periphery of mobilization on the issue. Finally, results demonstrated that congressional attention to hunger was significantly sustained during periods when a select committee, along with prominent policy entrepreneurs, was dedicated to the issue. The chapters and conclusion of the dissertation discuss ways in which public health groups can refine their media presence and move from the margin of mobilization to more effectively drive food security discourse in both the informal media venue and more formal policymaking venue of Congress in order to positively influence public health policies and outcomes related to food security. / Public Health

Background: Overweight and obesity affect approximately one-third of Canadian children and these children are at an increased risk of developing life-long obesity-related health consequences. Treatment efforts in the pediatric setting focus on behavioural modification – including modification of dietary intake. Eating behaviours encompass a modifiable aspect of dietary intake and could be a useful approach for weight reduction in the context of pediatric weight management (PWM) programs. Objectives: 1) To describe changes in family, child and parent eating behaviours over a 12-month period after enrolment in a PWM program. 2) To examine if changes in family eating behaviours over the first 6 months in a PWM program can predict child BMI z-score at 12 months, even when controlling for other factors related to changes in BMI z-score. Methods: Children ages 2-17 with a BMI >85th percentile were included in this analysis. Data was collected at baseline, 6 month and 12-month timepoints as part of the CANadian Pediatric Weight management Registry. BMI z-score was derived from height (cm) and weight (kg). Eating behaviours (eating related to hunger (ERH) and eating style (ES)) were measured in children, parents and families using the Family Eating and Activity Habits Questionnaire. Child and parental scores were summed to generate a family score. Decrease in scores over time indicated improvements in eating behaviours. Results: 807 children were included in the analysis (48.3% male, 51.7% female, mean age 12.08, mean baseline BMI z-score 3.55). Family ERH scores decreased significantly from baseline to 6 months by 1.63% (-0.16 points, SD=0.09, p<0.05) but by 12 months scores were the same as at baseline. Child ERH scores decreased significantly by 2.06% at 6 months (-0.14 points, SD=0.02, p<0.05), but at 12 months scores were the same as at baseline. Parent ERH scores did not change significantly. Family ES scores decreased from baseline to 6 months by 1.88% (-1.99 points, SD=0.21, p<0.05) and stayed approximately the same at 12 months. Child ES scores were similar, decreasing 2.86% (-1.68 points, SD=0.03, p<0.05) from baseline to 12 months. Parents ES score decreased significantly by 6 months, but after 12 months, scores were the same as at baseline. Change in either family eating behaviours from baseline to 6 months did not predict child BMI z-score at 12 months when adjusting for age, sex and BMI z-score at baseline. In subsequent exploratory analysis, increases in child eating behaviour scores at 6 months was a significant predictor of increases in child BMI z-score at 12 months (p=0.02) when adjusting for age, sex and BMI z-score at baseline. Conclusion: In the context of PWM programs, eating style and eating for hunger improved over the first 6 months after enrolment. Improvements in child eating behaviour after 6 months could predict improvements in child BMI z-score after 12 months. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

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This thesis examines the trope of hunger in Cuban cinema produced during the socio-economic context known as the Special Period. Films selected for this discussion are Fresa y chocolate (1993) by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío, and El Rey de La Habana (2015) by Agustí Villaronga. Focused on the analysis of the trope of hunger, this study offers a summary of the Cuban cultural manifestations of the last decades that have addressed the issue of hunger as well as a brief historical context that allows us to understand the development of this trope from 1960 to the present. Focused on the aforementioned films, this study has observed the aesthetic and stylistic particularities used in filmic representations to convey the island's shortcomings. The thesis demonstrates the existence of two main famines within Cuban society: cultural hunger and physiological hunger. Cultural hunger is studied in Fresa y chocolate as a direct consequence of the cultural control of the repressive ideological apparatus implanted in the sixties. The analysis of El Rey de la Habana shows how physiological hunger builds a marginal and abject subject, unable to escape the vicious circle that society has imposed on him. / Master of Arts / This thesis examines the trope of hunger in Cuban cinema produced during the socio-economic context known as the Special Period. Films selected for this discussion are Fresa y chocolate (1993) by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío, and El Rey de La Habana (2015) by Agustí Villaronga. The trope of hunger in these films is analyzed in its multiple manifestations, whether literal or figurative, paying special attention to the aesthetic and stylistic particularities that they use to convey the island's shortcomings.