Around the State: Grant funds food security chair at Baylor

The Baylor seal is seen at the quadrangle on campus. (Photo / Baylor Marketing and Communication)

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A $1.5 million gift from Jim and Tammy Snee of Minnesota will enable Baylor University to establish an endowed faculty chair position to lead research efforts addressing food security through the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty. The Jim and Tammy Snee Family Chair in Food Security, which will receive matching funds through the Baylor Academic Challenge, will provide endowment support for research and will attract a faculty scholar who will foster collaborations, partnerships and academic programming that attract food companies, food justice advocates, nonprofit leaders and other high-impact partners in the effort to end hunger in the United States and around the world.Jim Snee is chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer of Hormel Foods. Tammy Snee is a public health advocate and has been a nurse for more than 20 years, including at the Mayo Clinic. “Food security is critical to building a more equitable and inclusive world where all children and their families have access to the food they need to flourish. We are grateful for the Snees, who have taken on a calling to combat world hunger as a personal area of concern for their family, and we look forward to seeing the impact the Snee Chair will make on our work and in the lives of the individuals, families and communities in the United States and around the globe,” said Jeremy Everett, executive director of the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty.

Cindy Liebrum
Ben Delgado

Fifty years after she was crowned Homecoming Queen at Howard Payne University, Cindy (Hughes) Liebrum will be recognized as Coming Home Queen during the HPU Stinger Spectacular on Oct. 1-2. In the years after she graduated, she led and organized children’s choirs in four Texas Baptist churches. She is married to Chris Liebrum, vice president for external affairs at HPU. HPU also will present the José Rivas Distinguished Service Award to Ben Delgado, educator and minister. During a more than 40-year career, Delgado taught in public and nondenominational schools located in Menard, Hondo, Edinburg and Fort Worth, as well as the Ron Jackson State Juvenile Correction Complex in Brownwood and Agape Christian Academy in Uvalde. Since his retirement in 2009, Delgado has ministered to indigenous populations and Anahuac Indians between the Nueva Apolonia municipality of Ciudad Mante, Tamaulipas, and the Petatillo municipality of Xilitla, San Luis Potosi, Mexico. Other alumni who will be recognized at HPU are Distinguished Alumnus Tim Viertel, former Secret Service agent and vice president of global security for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse International Relief Distinguished Alumnus; Outstanding Young Graduate Bridget (Wells) Jones; Grand Marshals Terry and Robin (Quinn) Chumbley, missionaries in the Czech Republic; and Medal of Service recipient Bill Taylor, veteran minister of education, former leader at LifeWay Church Resources and founder of Unlimited Partnerships. Honorees will be recognized during the HPU Alumni Banquet on Oct. 1 at 5:45 p.m. in the Beadel Dining Hall of the Mabee University Center. They will also be included in the Stinger Spectacular Parade on Oct. 2 at 10 a.m. that will travel from the Brownwood Coliseum to the HPU campus on Fisk Street.

The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor recently received a $40,000 grant from the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation to continue program support for the UMHB Conservatory of Music. Past grants from the Carpenter Foundation have made it possible for many students to participate in the program through scholarships and strategic funding initiatives. “This grant allows us to provide music to children and youth in the Central Texas community who might otherwise never have these enriching experiences,” said Jonathan Gary, director of UMHB’s Conservatory of Music and department of music chairperson. “We are grateful to the Carpenter Foundation for its long-standing support of our public service programs.”

Clayton Bullion, evangelism discipleship and multiplication catalyst for the Texas Baptists’ Collegiate Ministry, spoke in Wayland Baptist University chapel. (WBU Photo)

Clayton Bullion, evangelism discipleship and multiplication catalyst for the Texas Baptists’ Collegiate Ministry, challenged Wayland Baptist University students to be rooted in God, not spiritual tumbleweeds. “Tumbleweed students are easy to spot,” Bullion told students at a chapel service. “They put their trust in themselves, they reflect the environment around them, then they wither and don’t stick.” In contrast, individuals who trust in God are like a tree planted by the water with a root system that feeds it and keeps it strong even in times of heat and drought, he explained. “When we put our roots in Jesus, we are satisfied. We provide shade and we never cease to bear fruit,” he said.

Keith and Kristyn Getty (Courtesy Image)

Modern hymn writers Keith and Kristyn Getty will present a concert at Dallas Baptist University at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 27. The event in Pilgrim Chapel is part of the Gettys’ fall concert tour, “Christ Our Hope.” Keith Getty will receive an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from DBU at fall convocation that morning. For ticket information, click here.

The East Texas Medical Center Foundation awarded East Texas Baptist University a $100,000 grant to help meet the growing need for mental health care in Smith County and greater East Texas region. ETBU opened the Community Counseling Center in 2020 at the ETBU-Tyler site and launched a Master of Arts in clinical mental health counseling degree program in January 2021. Both the counseling center and classes for the degree program are designed with flexibility and working professionals in mind. This is the second year in a row the ETMC Foundation has provided support to ETBU’s Community Counseling Center and Master of Arts in clinical mental health counseling program.

Zac Harrell, director of the Heart of Texas Baptist Network and JAM member, places a Bible for an incoming student in a room in Taylor Hall on the Howard Payne University campus. (HPU Photo)

Howard Payne University’s Jacket Alums in Ministry raised $2,000 to purchase Bibles for incoming HPU students this semester. The Bibles were delivered to university’s three residence halls for students to receive as they moved in on Aug.19.JAM is a chapter of the HPU Alumni Association designed to foster fellowship and networking opportunities among the university’s alumni who serve or have served in Christian ministry. The organization’s work includes prayer for HPU, promoting the university to others and helping provide resources for the university’s operations and development.

Mission Waco’s annual Jubilee Food Market Health Fair is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Oct. 23. The fair will be held inside the Jubilee Food Market at 1505 N. 15th St. at Concord Avenue in Waco and under five large tents in the parking lot. Ascension Providence and Baylor Scott & White Health are among the more than half-dozen underwriters of the event. More than 80 sponsors and exhibiters are participating in the health fair.

Retirement

Richard “Rick” DuBrock Jr., after 42 years as senior pastor of First Baptist Church in El Campo and 50 years as a Texas Baptist pastor, effective Sept. 30. A special worship service at the church is planned for 11 a.m. on Sept. 26. A churchwide luncheon is scheduled for 1 p.m. at The Rustic Chandelier at 5472 N FM 441 in El Campo. A reception for the community will follow from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the same venue.


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