"Food is Fuel. It is the number one priority here. Half of everything you earn is just to get food, so you have enough food for yourself and your family.…. It is the central factor of life.” Said Dr Merry Fitzpatrick, A senior researcher at Tufts University who has devoted her life into solving livelihoods and food security in conflict and post-conflict settings. A past air force and NGO (non-governmental organizations) member, she was dedicated to help NGOs to learn more efficiently with a bigger impact, and went to Tufts to work at the Feinstein center, “I had used their reports a lot, and thought “Wow, If I could ever produce reports like that and help NGOs the way I was helped, that would be a great thing- a new way for me to help people." Dr Fitzpatrick has over 20 years of field experience in humanitarian responses. To her, “Hunger is very different in the world, and the causes are very different in the US. There are some policies that are difficult for some to get out of hunger and poverty, but they are social issues. Here, it's much larger economic.”

 

While US has a completely different representation of what food insecurity looks like, she stated, “…I don't expect people in the US to understand and capture what hunger is. Even me, I don't fully understand or experience it, because I know at the end of day I will get my food, passport, and leave. And get on an airplane that costs as much as they will earn in 10 years.”

 

Maslow's hierarchy of basic needs clearly states humans need food, drink, shelter, sleep and oxygen to survive. If any of those needs can't be met at a basic level, one's health is in jeopardy. But for Dr Fitzpatrick, she sees jeopardy every day. “I see children starve to death. And seeing the look on a mother's face as her child dies of lack of food, such a basic thing, it stays with you. But even so, I don't experience what she is experiencing, I am never going have that worry for anybody I love.”

 

“It is a universal problem,” she added, “and sometimes I wonder why God created us so we need food….Why didn't he create us so we are self-contained?” Questions like these motivates Dr Fitzpatrick to know the background, situation, people, priorities and reasons behind why certain things are the way they are. “Having worked so long at lively hoods, I can see the assumptions and build the research around it,  and then build a methodology to get evidence.” At World concern, she supervised and coached people who were working hands on, which gave her a bigger picture and ways to explain activities or different concepts to people.

 

Reminiscing why she started the mission, she said,” I used to have long conversations with God in the Shower. At one point I realized I had everything I had asked for- A job that paid well and I enjoyed- it was meaningful…But something missing. So I choose to rededicate my life and said "Everything I have asked for you have given me, so I must have not asked for the right thig, you know better. You can just take my life and send me the direction I should go.” Not even two weeks later, I was deployed on a humanitarian mission, and it really became clear to me that this was my calling." She added,” I felt like I had insights that people around me didn't have, that I had something to offer.”

 

She emphasized, “While we bring influences on the areas we work, we also become shaped by these places.  I get so much more out of these experiences than others have benefitted from me.” High schoolers like us can really be the driving force to better our society today. Dr Fitzpatrick suggested reading assessed reports or understanding and talking to people about their experiences. She stated, “a good story is much more informative than research on the internet, attend marches, or going on a mission trip. Have an interest in their stories, and they are living all around us.”

 

We are honored to have someone like Dr Fitzpatrick who actively research for solutions regarding food insecurities,  and we hope to see more contributions in the world.

 

As an intern for World Concern, I was honored to interview Dr Merry Fitzpatrick on Oct 11th.