“It’s so easy for us in North America to take for granted having three meals a day,” Sandilands said. “But it’s not the reality of many people in the world.”

Sandilands was to be joined by close to 300 students from the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario on Nov. 19 at the North Grenville Municipal Centre in Kemptville, Ont., where she was to deliver the keynote address for the board’s third annual Just Us Youth Day.

The focus of her talk was to be the recent world food crisis which has had its greatest impact on the global South. Sandilands was to look at the example of a community of farmers in Vietnam where CHF has begun a project on food security.

Tom Jordan, the board’s principal of religious education and family life, said the full-day event will feature other speakers who will talk about how economic decisions can affect others, especially marginalized groups around the world.

The board’s social justice committee introduced the idea of having a social justice day for all Grade 10 students, he said.

Among the day’s list of sessions are presentations on fair trade and how students can “make poverty history.”

Jordan said there will also be an environmental theme for the event.

For instance, water bottles won’t be allowed, but the board will provide water for students who have been asked to bring their own drinking container. And students will be able to make a donation to one of the social justice projects featured during the event.