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Larisa Bowman
Commencement Remarks on the Capstone Project of 12th Class of Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellows
July 25, 2006
Thanks, Ed, and thank you, everyone, for coming this evening. We are very pleased that you all could join us. My name is Larisa Bowman, and I am one of this year’s Fellows. I would like to share a few words with you about our class’s capstone project.
Each year the Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellows undertake a capstone project, culminating the yearlong fellowship. The capstone is intended to be the Fellows’ crowning achievement, a representation of our collective experiences, accomplishments, and learning over the past twelve months. The Congressional Hunger Center gives us a great deal of flexibility and latitude in designing the capstone. One former class of Fellows went on a hunger strike, fasting simultaneously for several days, while another class commissioned a wall-sized mural for DC Central Kitchen that depicted hunger in America.
Since everyone here today is familiar with this year’s class of Fellows, it probably comes as no surprise that in developing our capstone we took very seriously the expectations placed upon us and the precedents set before us. We were determined, passionate, and ambitious. While attempting to remain humble, we’d like to think that we not only reached the bar but also raised it.
For our capstone project, we, the 12th Class of Hunger Fellows, facilitated an original outreach campaign that promotes greater participation of children in the DC Free Summer Meals Program. Our outreach campaign is unique in that it incorporates the words and visions of children themselves. Working closely with the DC State Education Office, we coordinated drawing and poetry contests for children ages five to eighteen at Summer Meals sites throughout the District. We asked the children to artistically express why healthy eating is important to them. After collecting the drawing and poetry entries, we as a class of Fellows then selected several winning pieces to be turned into print and radio advertisements by the DC State Education Office. Over the next few weeks, these ads will be displayed in local newspapers and heard on local radio stations across DC.
We believe that our innovative outreach campaign will appeal to children and encourage them to access the valuable nutrition support provided by DC Free Summer Meals. We also anticipate that the campaign will increase the general public’s awareness of the Summer Meals program and its significant role in ending childhood hunger.
In addition, the DC State Education Office, being very pleased with the outcome of our capstone project, plans to utilize the children’s artwork and poetry in their future publications. Currently, they are developing a calendar around twelve of the children’s submissions. It will promote not only Summer Meals but also the other federal food and nutrition programs, like School Lunch and Breakfast, which ensure good nutrition for millions of children nationwide. For this reason, we are both assured and thrilled that the positive impact of our capstone project will extend beyond our time as Fellows.
Our capstone project stemmed from our expressed interest in helping children to be seen and heard, taking steps to alleviate hunger and food insecurity, and connecting ourselves to our broader community here in DC. We met each of these goals, and in the meantime we grew as a class of Fellows. Highlights included our first meeting with the DC State Education Office to pitch the idea; an all Fellows’ barbeque to determine the prompt for the contest; group visits to the Summer Meals’ sites to engage children in the contest; and a final judging event to select the winners. Along the way, we were grateful for the support of the Congressional Hunger Center and the DC State Education Office, touched by the creativity and genius of children, and inspired by one another’s passion and hard work, even when the going got tough.
We believe that our capstone project exemplifies our commitment to collaborate and innovate as we work to end hunger and poverty in this country. We hope that it defines our leadership and represents our tendency to dream big. Who knew that twenty-four young people could successfully devise and enact a major outreach campaign for a major federal program in a major US city? I have to say that we, the 12th Class of Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellows, knew it. And not only that, but we did it.
Thank you, everyone, and congratulations, Fellows!
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