Today at noon, HUD's Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) will hold the first in a series of brown bag lunches called "Food for Thought." Today's kickoff, one day after the January 20th Martin Luther King, Jr. Federal Holiday, will include a video presentation of the first episode of "Eyes on the Prize," the award-winning documentary on the American Civil Rights movement.

The informal brown-bag luncheons will be held every Tuesday at noon in FHEO's conference room, Room 5202, and will feature a variety of thoughtful video programs, speakers, and discussion groups. The weekly luncheons are intended to inspire HUD employees in their roles as civil rights professionals and enhance the professional development of HUD interns and other new employees. Each Tuesday's brown bag lunch will take place at noon and last approximately one hour. All interested staff are welcome to attend.

At this first session, FHEO - HUD's fair housing/equal housing opportunity enforcer - will present the opening episode of "Eyes on the Prize, America's Civil Rights Years." The documentary was produced over the course of 12 years by Blackside, Inc., one of the oldest minority-owned film and television production companies in the country. The series received over 23 awards, including two Emmys (for Outstanding Documentary and Outstanding Achievement in Writing). Other episodes of the series will be shown at future sessions. The tentative schedule for upcoming sessions of these brown bag luncheons includes:

• Today, January 21st - The introductory installment of "Eyes on the Prize"
• Tuesday, January 28th - Presentation of HUD's 2000 Housing Discrimination Study (HDS 2000)
• Tuesday, February 4th - A salute to Black History Month: Next installment of "Eyes on the Prize"

Future "Food for Thought" events under consideration include: A Day in the Life of FHEO, where Fair Housing managers and staff will discuss the nuts and bolts of what their office does; discussion of Federal School Desegregation Efforts by Michael Maurer, civil rights attorney; a video presentation of "Who Can Ever Get Used to This," Howard Professor Ms Okianer Dark's personal story about dealing with housing discrimination, and much more.

All HQ staff are invited to attend these Tuesday events. The brown bag luncheon series is being held to meet HUD staff's professional interests and to engage employees - new and old - in a discussion of how fair housing/equal opportunity responsibilities are carried out at HUD. For further information or suggestions for future sessions, contact Bryan Greene at extension 7078 or Beth Frank at extension 4033.