Hana Baig
Hana Baig is a Master's student in Human Nutrition at McGill who is studying to become a Registered Dietitian (RD). Through this degree, she is gaining knowledge in how all aspects of nutrition can contribute to overall wellbeing. Prior to her education at McGill, she obtained a B.Sc. in Applied Human Nutrition at the University of Guelph. Her bachelor’s degree enabled her to participate in opportunities for many hands-on food and nutrition related learning experiences. She also expanded on her education by completing a certificate in business during this degree.
Hana’s volunteer experience includes involvement with the non-profit organization KUSHI SMART that aims to decrease preventable disease risk in all populations regardless of their socio-economic background. She has assisted with identifying local communities at risk for food insecurity that would benefit from the development of an education and assistance program. This also involved determining unique characteristics of the community in order to tailor the program to their needs. Through this volunteer organization, she developed materials to assist with increasing the food security of university students through on-campus events. Hana has also been involved with food banks and lunch and learn programs that address food insecurity in different student populations. Hana will contribute to the Margaret A. Gilliam Institute for Global Food Security by assisting with the development and teaching of the Fundamentals of Sustainable Food Systems course, hosting webinars, and completing various administrative tasks for the institute.
Matthew Morvan
Matthew Morvan is a Bachelor's student in cognitive sciences at McGill who has both been learning from and collaborating with the Margaret A. Gilliam Institute for Global Food security in drafting proposals and developing new opportunities for collaboration with stakeholders. with the Institute. Whether it be through his ongoing passion to understand the co-evolution of cognitive and socio-cultural “mis-adaptations” or his experience founding his own non-profit, what fascinates him about socio-environmental issues and specifically food security, is how despite every stakeholder’s best intentions, one so easily and unwittingly becomes part of the problem. His non-profit has been dedicated to solving eye-care issues in marginalised slum areas of North-West India for four years in collaboration with local hospitals and foundations. This has led him to learn about and apply forms of collaborative action-based research anchored in systems-thinking. Concretely this has translated into stakeholder maps and community audits ultimately catalysing adapted prevention programs, local cross-sector partnerships and organising eye-camps in five different communities. At McGill he has participated in the Building 21 Fellowship where his research focused on finding methods to overcome cognitive obstacles in understanding systemic social issues. Today he holds a special place for sustainable food systems and hopes to learn more from his peers at the Margaret A. Gilliam Institute for Global Food Security.
