Our Impact »
We create a lasting community of anti-hunger leaders who act as change agents…
An independent evaluation of the Emerson National Hunger Fellows Program found that “the Emerson Program has survived the tests of time, evolving into a unique, highly-regarded, and sought-after leadership development opportunity.”
Perhaps the greatest impact of the Emerson Program has been the fostering of an understanding of the connections between hunger, poverty and oppression during the fellowship. The 2011 Program Evaluation reported that “almost all of the alumni surveyed (88%) indicated that their current position had some level of involvement with poverty.”
The Emerson Program has more than 350 alumni currently employed in a wide variety of government and non-profit organizations, including:
- U.S. Department of Agriculture
- U.S. Department of Justice
- U.S. Treasury
- The White House
- U.S. Congress
- Food Research and Action Center
- Feeding America
- Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
- Bread for the World
- Center for Community Change.
“I have the Leland Fellowship to thank for shaping how I view development….the field and policy placements expanded my knowledge, skills, and abilities within a development track that is at the core of my development ethos: the multilateral approach to development. [The Leland Fellowship]…has prepared me to take further risks in my career of service.”
—Hakeem Johnson: 2003 Leland Fellow, 1st class
The Leland Program has more than 70 alumni currently working on critical agriculture, nutrition, and food security programs and policy at non-governmental organizations, United Nations agencies, private sector cooperatives, and government agencies such as:
- Catholic Relief Services
- International Relief and Development
- Mercy Corps
- Save the Children
- World Vision
- Land O’Lakes
- Millennium Challenge Corporation
- USAID
- USDA
- International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
- World Food Program (WFP).
Here are just 5 examples of committed Emerson and Leland program alumni:
- Heidi Hattenbach: 1995 Emerson Fellow, 1st class. Heidi’s field placement was at a food distribution center in rural Oklahoma, working for the Cherokee Nation. The experience she gained led her to stay an extra year after the fellowship at USDA where she led the effort to move the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations from all-canned foods to healthier, cost-effective fresh fruits, vegetables and meats.
- Michael Manske: 2007 Leland Fellow, 3rd class. Mike works for Save the Children in Mali, providing direct support to their health and nutrition programs. After completing the fellowship, Mike accepted a position as a Food Security Health and Nutrition Specialist with Save the Children in Washington D.C., where he provided technical support and program development in child health and nutrition programs. During the field year of the fellowship, Mike was placed in Senegal with Counterpart International, where he focused on providing nutritional and organizational support for people living with HIV/AIDS. For his policy year, Mike worked at Counterpart International’s Washington D.C. headquarters, where he provided technical and logistical support for Counterpart’s HIV/AIDS, nutrition, and food security programs.
- Eric Steiner: 2003 Emerson Fellow, 9th class. Eric is currently a professional staff member of the Senate Agriculture Committee working for the ranking member, Senator Pat Roberts (KS). His responsibilities include work on the 2012 Farm Bill and policies implementing the 2010 Child Nutrition Reauthorization. As a Hunger Fellow Eric worked with the Hunger Task Force of Milwaukee (field placement) and Population Action International (policy placement). Eric employed the skills he received through Emerson Program training and his field and policy placements when he administered the USDA child nutrition programs during the second Bush Administration.
- Amanda Rives Argeñal: 2007 Leland Fellow, 3rd class. Amanda works on policy and advocacy issues for her job with World Vision International (WVI), where she serves as a Senior Advisor for Public Policy and Advocacy, covering WVI’s Latin America and Caribbean offices. Amanda coordinates communications and advocacy campaigns, helping to build the advocacy capacity of 14 WVI national offices. In the first year of the fellowship program, Amanda worked with Christian Children’s Fund (CCF) in Honduras where she developed a community food security strategy which included a participatory rural appraisal with elected community representatives. For the policy year, Amanda worked as a Policy Advisor with CCF in their Washington D.C. office, representing CCF in their advocacy efforts around children and families.
- Allegra Cira Fischer: 2004 Emerson Fellow, 10th class. Allegra is currently a legal services attorney in Chicago using state-level advocacy and community education programs to boost the impact of litigation on behalf of low income families involved in the child welfare system. Allegra believes that her experience as an Emerson Fellow was instrumental in her development as a leader in the fight to end poverty. She captured the essence of the “Emerson training experiences” in a 2011 letter of support for the program: “The combination of exposure to local field work and national policy training, together with the opportunity to build a host of tangible skills, including public speaking, meeting facilitation and interviewing techniques, is unparalleled by any other program.” Allegra’s field placement was with Chicago’s Center for Economic Progress. Her Washington, D.C. policy placement was with the Center for Community Change.
We help shape the anti-hunger agenda, and provide a global and national perspective…
Fellows have a positive impact on the organizations and communities in which they work. The 2011 Emerson program evaluation concluded that fellows “increase the capacity of their placement organizations by creating systems, designing initiatives, and contributing to organizational strategy. Many of the projects that fellows work on have far-reaching effects long after the fellowship ends.” Additionally, the combination of field and policy experience allows the fellows to “connect” these two often disjointed components of the anti-hunger community.
“One fellow’s experience working with low income people enabled [them] to tell our staff ‘this doesn’t make sense in terms of policy’. So from working with low income families and studying program literature, the fellow brought the field to [our organization in] D.C. It really makes a difference to be grounded in those field issues.”
— Supervisor, Emerson Program Policy Site
Additionally, CHC’s coalition, advocacy, and policy work help shape the anti-hunger agenda, for both domestic and international efforts. By partnering with allied NGOs, government agencies, corporate partners, and elected officials CHC leadership has helped shaped the development of major new policy initiatives.
In 2008 and 2009, CHC cooperated with over 40 organizations to help write The Roadmap to End Global Hunger. This seminal vision document influenced the Obama Administration’s current strategy to end global hunger, the Feed the Future (FTF) initiative. Through Feed the Future, the Obama Administration is demonstrating strong U.S. leadership in confronting global hunger. Feed the Future will enable poor farmers to produce more food, increase their household income, and improve the nutrition of their children in critical growth years.
Additionally, CHC partnered with the National Anti-Hunger Organizations (NAHO), a coalition of the leading secular and faith-based organizations working to end hunger in the United States, to publish The Roadmap to End Childhood Hunger by 2015. The Roadmap recommends nine essential steps to end childhood hunger by 2015, an ambitious goal set by President Obama. Because the solution to child hunger in America, “requires economic opportunity, income supports, and a nutritional safety net” the Roadmap proposes “an approach that involves multiple federal, state and local agencies, nonprofits, private and individual efforts.”
Please read more about CHC’s advocacy and policy work.