At 5 p.m. on a Wednesday evening, when most would rush home for dinner, 150 people packed into a university auditorium to discuss the lack of nutritious, accessible food and what can be done about it.

During the three-hour South Coast Food Security Forum on February 1, 12 speakers talked about projects that are currently underway to address hunger on the South Coast. Organizer Deirdre Healy said the point of the forum was network, recruit volunteers, and brainstorm real solutions for defeating hunger in communities.

"One of the issues people are always concerned about is hunger," said Healy. "I'm not doing another canned food drive. College students should do more work than that. We should be more upstream."

Ellen Parker, executive director of Project Bread, was the first to take to the podium.

“Community food security is respect for the workers, respect for the animals…. To me, it’s just kind of basic equality,” said Parker. Her experience with the Boston-based anti-hunger organization shaped her presentation, and she listed education, food pantries, and advocacy as ways to help families now.

Parker admitted that she is still learning about the agricultural industry, but said her knowledge of the field has proven even moreso that local and sustainable growing operations are the way to go to not only bring healthy food to households, but also to support farmers and cure food insecurity in communities.

Dartmouth was represented at the forum by a few speakers. Dan King, from the YMCA's Sharing the Harvest Community Farm, brought his expertise to the forum. He explained that the community farm is able to give back to Wareham, Fall River, and New Bedford strictly through volunteer work. In 2015 alone, the farm donated 92,000 pounds of fresh food, and volunteers clocked 3,300 hours in 2016.

Recently, the YMCA added a mobile chicken coop — complete with chickens — to the farm to diversify its yields. King is the only full-time employee on the farm.

Shaktisingh Rajput followed, demonstrating a food finder prototype being developed at the university. It locates food access points, but can also specify which accept government credits such as WIC or SNAP. Check out thefoodfinder.org to see the progress.

Other speakers included Mass in Motion's Julie Kelly, the United Way's Victoria Grasela, and Terra Cura’s Adam Davenport.

“There’s a lot of different people who are interested in this,” said Parker, pleased with the turnout and breadth of the forum.

Attendees responded with questions about volunteering, getting food to low-income communities and clients, and addressing the bigger issue of poverty.