PROVIDENCE, R.I. — April 14, 1999 — As the millennium approaches, the University of Rhode Island’s Alan Shawn Feinstein College of Continuing Education is working with a number of local organizations to offer a monthly series of televised Town Meetings with related statewide activities. Launched late last month, the next Town Meeting, planned on Monday April 19, will focus on hunger. Underwritten by the Feinstein Foundation, the meeting will be broadcast live by Cox Communications from the Paff Auditorium at URI’s Providence Campus. The public is invited to be part of the audience and requested to be seated by 6 p.m. The meeting can be viewed on Cox 3 from 7 to 8 p.m. Four food experts will be part of the live audience. They are Dr. J. Larry Brown, director, Tufts Center on Hunger and Poverty; Bethany DiNapoli, registered dietitian, Rhode Island Department of Health; Pauline Moye, director, Florence Gray Center, Newport; Bob McDonough, assistant administrator, Food Stamp Program. “As we approach the 21st century, we need to look at hunger and the broader picture of food security,” says Donna LaVallee, a dietitian/nutritionist at URI who is coordinating the meeting . “We need to look at such things as access to food, transportation, and poverty. There are a range of problems that affect the food system from economic opportunity to inner-city supermarkets to diet-related health problems.” As a follow-up to the town meeting, LaVallee will hold a meeting to establish a statewide food security coalition on Thursday, April 22 at URI-ASFCCE. The hope is that an ongoing coalition will have a vision and the determination to set goals to confront the challenges of creating a food secure Rhode Island. The URI series is being held in partnership with the Rhode Island Foundation, Cox Communications, The Providence Journal, WJAR-10 and WRNI. More information about the series is available at http://www.uri.edu/prov/2000/2000.html or by calling Bob Sauber, series coordinator, at 277-5311. For More Information: Donna LaVallee, 401-277-5270 Bob Sauber, 277-5311 Jan Sawyer, 401-874-2116