Being a part of last month's World Food Prize youth institute in Des Moines was quite the experience for two Marshalltown High School seniors.
Brennan Goodman and Riley Willman attended the conference, after being nominated by an MHS teacher. They met former world leaders and learned about the issue of world hunger during the three days. The event was part of an international symposium that drew 1,400 people from 75 countries.
"I learned a ton," Willman said. "It was an amazing experience."
The pair learned about the plight of the less fortunate in the world, especially the problem of hunger.
"I learned how widespread hunger is," Willman said.
At the same time, Goodman said there are efforts underway to help these people, such as the World Food Prize.
"It was a good sense of knowing that people in the world are working on these issues," Goodman said.
Both said they now want to help fight hunger in the world and are planning community fundraisers soon.
Goodman and Willman may seek the next step in the program, which is a World Food Prize international internship. In recent years the internship has sent former MHS students James Lindgren to Bangladesh and Claire Runquist to India.
One of them could carry on this tradition, though the internship has become very competitive.
"They've really encouraged us," Goodman said of Lindgren and Runquist.
The World Food Prize celebrated is 25th anniversary this year and was founded by Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug to recognize and inspire people to improve the quality and quantity of food availability in the world.
