The Gainesville chapter of the United Nations Association (UNA) is set to host a celebration of the United Nations’ 79^th anniversary. 

The celebration is set for 9:45 a.m.- 1 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 19, at the Oak Hammock, 5100 SW 25th Blvd. in Gainesville.  

 This year’s theme is “Global Food– Feeding the Present & the Future,” with Dr. Adegbola Adesogan, professor and director at the UF Institute of Food & Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) acting as keynote speaker. 

The event will also feature as a panelist Delaney Zambrano, a UN Fellow at the World Food Program in Nicaragua and a graduate of UF College of Communications. Zambrano was also one of last year’s recipients of the Gainesville UNA’s Distinguished Service Award. She will be joining the event via Zoom from Nicaragua. 

Elise Mills, a Political Science student at the University of Florida and programming coordinator for Project Downtown Gainesville, will also speak at the event. 

Barbara McDade Gordon, secretary for the Gainesville UNA, said other local organizations that combat food insecurity were invited, but have said they will not be able to participate with the event due to extra work from Hurricanes Helene and Milton. 

The anniversary event will also feature a time for public comment on food security that McDade Gordon said she is hopeful will come up with programs and suggestions. 

“That’s one thing that’s great about living in Gainesville, and with the University of Florida and Santa Fe College, there are so many people who are interested in these things. The faculty, the administrators and the students. So we do have wonderful resources to call on for these types of things,” McDade Gordon said in a phone interview. 

This year, the Gainesville UNA will honor Richard MacMaster and Eve MacMaster with the Distinguished Service Award, for their work on immigration rights. 

The UNA USA was formed in 1943, and helped create the UN Charter and ratify it in the United States. Gainesville’s UNA chapter is one of over 200 chapters in the United States, with about 80 paid members and 20-30 members on its youth council. 

McDade Gordon said global issues like hunger are important on a local level both out of compassion and because if problems are not addressed and people keep suffering, they will emigrate, making the problems much more immediate to Americans. 

“It is just amazing to me how people will struggle to do better, to have a better life for themselves, and especially for their children. That’s usually the crux of it,” McDade Gordon said. “So that’s a reason why we should think about it, not only because we’re all in this together. We’re all human beings. But also, because if there’s a problem somewhere else, it’s going to be over here as well.” 

Usually, the UNA USA issues a theme for the anniversary celebration in June, but this year it was late and McDade Gordon said the local chapter needed to come up with a theme to begin preparations, so it looked to the UN’s 17 development goals, and landed on food security, which McDade Gordon said is heavily impacted by current conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan, though there are also other reasons countries may struggle with food security. 

“Human beings, we’ve been doing [agriculture] for a million years, at least 40,000. And you know, we know how to grow food, even in very difficult situations. So generally speaking, when there are food shortages, it is often because of conflict where people cannot produce their food.” 

The United Nations Association of the United States was formed in 1946 to build understanding and support for the UN’s work and ideals in the US. UNA Gainesville’s vision statement is, “A peaceful, secure, just, and sustainable local and global community.” 

From April to June of 1945, delegates from 50 nations gathered in San Francisco to draft the United Nations Charter, which they unanimously passed on June 25, 1945, and signed the next day, according to the United Nations. 

Even after the charter was passed and signed, many countries still needed their governments to approve the charter. The countries had decided the charter would come into effect when the governments of the “Big Five” (China, USSR, United States, United Kingdom and France), and a majority of other signatory states, had ratified it. 

On Oct. 24, 1945, the condition was met and the UN’s existence became official. 

Today, the United Nations includes 193 member states, still guided by its founding charter. 

“The UN has evolved over the years to keep pace with a rapidly changing world,” the UN website states. “But one thing has stayed the same: it remains the one place on Earth where all the world’s nations can gather together, discuss common problems, and find shared solutions that benefit all of humanity.” 

Those interested in attending the anniversary celebration can register here. Tickets are $25, and each includes a buffet lunch.