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In more than a decade of fighting hunger, the National
Hunger Fellows have amassed an array of significant accomplishments
in both the field and policy arenas. Fellows develop and enhance
programs that directly serve those in need of nutritious,
sustaining food, and they work with national advocates to
keep the needs of individuals and families at the heart of
important policy developments.
Emerson National Hunger Fellows are proud of
their accomplishments in field work
and in policy work.
In the field work of past years, National Hunger Fellows
have:
- Researched and wrote a Community Food Security
Needs Assessment for Hawaii, established a coalition made
up of various anti-hunger and poverty organizations throughout
the state, and coordinated the Hunger Summit Conference
for Hawaii's first-ever hunger summit.
- Conducted extensive interviews with low-income
Idahoans utilizing emergency food program, and completed
a video documenting their stories as well as general poverty
and hunger in Idaho.
- Developed and implemented a Women, Infants
and Children (WIC) Farmer's Market Nutrition Program for
the State of Arizona, whereby WIC recipients gained access
to the fresh produce of Arizona's farms.
- Developed a presentation titled "Hunger:
A Picture of Washington." The presentation is a statewide
educational tool kit that gives an understandable, digestible
overview of the state of hunger in Washington. It is an
all-inclusive presentation kit, containing a power point
presentation, presenter's guide, handouts, and technical
guide. The kit is designed as a tool for Washington anti-hunger
advocates to use in raising awareness about hunger and the
availability of resources, and is available online at: http://www.fremontpublic.org/hungerwa.html
- Co-authored a report on Food Stamp Program
participation in New York State, including a compilation
of data about responses to the emergency food system in
New York City following the September 11th disaster.
- Developed a hands-on "Gleaning Notebook"
to help Idaho food programs build more gleaning sources
and contacts and produced an educational twelve-part television
series on food recovery and gleaning in Florida City, Florida.
- Planned and facilitated the South Carolina
Anti-Hunger Network's statewide conference, "Hungry Children
Can"t Learn: Hunger Issues in Education," and developed
a local resource guide for Spanish-speaking clients using
Emergency Food Pantry clients in South Carolina.
- Published: One Day, One Pantry, One Life;
Hunger in Ohio: People, Issues & Solutions.
- Developed informational videos to serve as
educational and marketing tool for the Food Depot in Santa
Fe, the Idaho Community Action Network in Boise, and the
Hunger Task Force of Milwaukee.
- Developed hunger curriculum lesson plans
for grades 3-6 in Western Massachusetts.
- Established one of the country's first food
banks on a Native American Reservation in Lame Deer, Montana,
and organized the first conference addressing hunger on
Reservations.
- Organized a basket-weaving cooperative on
the Tohono O"odham Nation in Sells, Arizona.
- Initiated a Self-Help and Resource Exchange
(SHARE) network in rural southern and central Kentucky to
enhance the availability of low-cost food.
- Expanded a feeding program to include health
services for homeless men in Detroit, Michigan.
- Coordinated Operation Frontline classes in
partnership with Share Our Strength to educate young mothers
about nutritious cooking in Wilmington, Delaware and Seattle,
Washington.
- Assisted with the release of the 2001 America's
Second Harvest Hunger Study. Fellows were involved with:
compiling data from the national, state, and local reports,
writing area companions to the national study, serving as
organizers and Advisory Committee members for local release
conferences, and participating in the release of this information
to local agencies and the press.
- Conducted a food stamp participation survey
and a Food Stamp Toolkit distributed to service providers
throughout Ohio to assist them in simplifying the application
process for Food Stamps.
- Conducted a 71-county survey of Wisconsin's
emergency food pantries and meal programs to help the State
of Wisconsin increase participation in federal nutrition
programs.
- Conducted a study of senior food and nutrition
programs in western Massachusetts. The host Food Bank and
other service providers will use this report to improve
services to the elderly.
- Designed and conducted the first statewide
assessment of children's breakfast consumption in Wisconsin.
The report, The State of Breakfast in Wisconsin, will be
used to initiate a campaign to increase Wisconsin's participation
in the federal school breakfast program.
- Researched and helped to implement a more
efficient pre-order food delivery and distribution system
for the host Food Bank in Massachusetts.
- Developed resources of New York State's Farmer's
Markets so that they can utilize Electronic Bank Transfer
(EBT) food stamps.
- Designed and coordinated the Homeless Garden
Project's First Annual "Harvest Festival" in Santa Cruz,
California.
- Completed, distributed, and promoted The
Ohio Food Program and Ohio Agricultural Surplus Productions
Alliance Manual. This detailed manual explains the best
practices of the successful Ohio Agricultural Surplus program
so that it can be duplicated in other states.
- Worked to establish "Kitchens In National
Cooperation," a web site dedicated to the free, open, and
deliberate exchange of information for community based training
kitchens, their clients, and their partners.
- Developed a central kitchen that supplies
sixteen feeding agencies with prepared meals in Santa Barbara,
California.
- Organized a Hunger Advisory Council in Grand
Forks, North Dakota, and 4 county-wide Agency Advisory Council
in Massachusetts, all of which were comprised of community
leaders that monitors food security issues.
- Established or enhanced Kid's Cafz¹ programs
in Lubbock, Texas; St. Paul, Minnesota; Hatfield, Massachusetts;
Missoula, Montana; and New Orleans, Louisiana.
- Created community garden networks in Seattle,
Washington, Portland, Maine, and Santa Cruz, California.
- Researched and wrote a best practices report
on Food Policy Councils in Eugene, Oregon.
- Designed and executed a survey to be used
by the New York State Department of Health to expand outreach
for the Child and Adult Care Food Program.
- Developed outreach and implementation of
Summer Food Service Program sites in Washington State.
- Connected after-school programs in the Greater
Pittsburgh area with the Child and Adult Care Food Program
and coordinated local efforts to implement the Commodity
Supplemental Food Program.
- Conducted a survey of Seattle-area Toddler
Feeding Programs and created a network between Seattle-area
universities and the Food Resources Department of Fremont
Public Association (FPA).
- Created and implemented a Senior Commodities
Home Delivery Program in Missoula, Montana.
- Created a 30-minute video outlining the realities
of hunger in Vermont and coordinated a statewide Hunger
Conference in Vermont.
- Established a satellite food distribution
site at the Missoula Indian Center in Montana.
- Prepared USDA Food Stamp Access grant for
a community agency in Washington, D.C.
- Established two new Food Drive coalitions
within the Health Care and Legal communities in Hawaii.
- Implemented food salvage programs in Binghamton,
New York; Grand Forks, North Dakota; Wilmington, Delaware;
Incline Village, Nevada; Santa Fe, New Mexico; and at Williams
College, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Mt.
Holyoke College in Massachusetts.
- Established a community kitchen in St. Paul,
Minnesota, a food pantry in Truckee, California and a mobile
food pantry in Raleigh, North Carolina.
- Created a cash donation coupon system
at supermarkets to benefit local area anti-hunger agencies
in Chicago, Illinois.
In the policy work of past years, National Hunger
Fellows have:
- Designed a Transportation Equity Scorecard
for the Center for Community Change to highlight the lack
of public transportation available in low-income neighborhoods
nation-wide.
- Conducted interviews with small family farmers
and wrote their stories in the Rural Coalition's monthly
publication, Food and Faces.
- Researched and wrote a report on the role
of micro-enterprise in welfare reform for the Corporation
for Enterprise Development.
- Drafted, finalized, and disseminated a nationwide
survey of state policy choices in the federal nutrition
programs, and analyzed Food Stamp Program caseload while
with the Food Research and Action Center.
- Co-authored A Guide to Federal Resources,
which provided communities affiliated with the U.S. Department
of Justice Weed and Seed Program with hunger and nutrition
resources.
- Developed a Civil Rights newsletter, assisted
with the development of a report on Police Best Practice
programs addressing homeless issues, and documented hate
crimes and the criminalization of homeless individuals for
the National Coalition for the Homeless.
- Created a database of state and local employment,
economic, and program data to support national efforts and
field activities on TANF and workforce issues, and established
an on-line clearinghouse of innovative workforce advocacy
information for the Workforce Alliance.
- Surveyed state WIC associations to assess
their capacity for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
- Assisted in editing and writing sections
of Bread for the World's Annual Hunger Reports.
- Organized a conference for Hispanic lay ministers
to learn about federal programs for immigrants for the United
Methodist Church's General Board of Church and Society.
- Surveyed Head Start programs in migrant communities
to analyze their nutritional component for the Academy for
Educational Development.
- Organized a national conference of street
newspapers for the National Coalition for the Homeless.
- Researched and wrote a report highlighting
model after-school programs that include federal nutrition
programs for the Food Research and Action Center.
- Created a fresh produce distribution program
for Indian reservations through the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
- Researched the effects of welfare reform
for the Urban Institute.
- Wrote speeches and press articles for the
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.
- Coordinated a Congressional roundtable discussion
on Hunger in Latino Communities that brought several Latino
leaders on hunger to Washington, D.C.
- Assisted in organizing the National Association
of Community Action Agencies" National Dialogue on Poverty,
a series of meetings across the country that focused on
innovative efforts to combat poverty.
- Organized two annual conferences for
Share Our Strength's Community Partners that provided a
forum for grantee agencies to share sustainable solutions
to hunger.
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