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Twenty-four Fellows begin the program in Washington,
D.C. for a 10-day orientation and training session, and are
then placed for six months with community-based organizations
involved in direct anti-hunger efforts, such as food banks,
local advocacy organizations and economic development agencies.
Each host organization identifies specific goals and objectives
for the Fellows and provides the supervision and resources
necessary to accomplish them. In mid-February, the Fellows
move to Washington, D.C. and regroup for another week-long
training session before starting their policy placements.
Policy placements are with national organizations involved
in the anti-hunger and poverty movement. These placements
give the Fellows insight into the process that shapes policy
on the national level. The program ends in early August.
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Fellows begin the program with a comprehensive
10-day field training session that explores the reality of
hunger in the United States, while building a sense of team
identity and developing various professional and leadership
skills. Training includes introductory sessions on most of
the federal programs Fellows will work with on a local level
in the field, including Food Stamps, Special Supplemental
Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC),
School Meals and other Child Nutrition programs, Temporary
Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), The Emergency Food Assistance
Program (TEFAP), and Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP).
Skills trainings in advocacy, leadership, organizing, and
conflict resolution are provided at this time as well. The
field training is also a time for community building among
the Fellows.
Mid-way through the field placement, Fellows
come together again for a Mid-Field Retreat focused
on sharing experiences among Fellows and following up on ideas
and skills introduced at field training.
Field Debrief and Policy Training is held in
February as Fellows transition from field to policy work.
At this time, Fellows process and evaluate their field experiences
and participate in an intensive policy training. Here, Fellows
learn how public policy is formulated and about the
roles the government, advocacy groups, lobbyists, the faith
community, think-tanks, and other organizations play in the
process. Fellows are also briefed on the status of current
policy issues in the anti-hunger, anti-poverty realm by experts
involved in the process.
During the second half of the fellowship, Fellows
meet regularly for professional development days (PDDs), to
facilitate ongoing learning. Fellows design many
of the PDDs around issues and skills that the Fellows community
decides are important.
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Fellows receive a living allowance of $12,500
for the year. They are also provided with health insurance,
relocation stipends, and an end- of-service cash award of
$3,500. Fellows do not pay for housing in the host community
during the six-month field placement, and a $3,500 housing
stipend is provided by the Congressional Hunger Center to
offset the cost of housing in D.C. during the policy placement
segment of the program. All program-related travel expenses
are covered by the program.
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The Hunger Fellows program is open to any US
citizen or permanent resident with a bachelor's degree. The majority of candidates
who apply and are accepted for the program are recent college
graduates. Fellows typically bring a variety of academic backgrounds
and life experiences to the program, but all have leadership
experience and a firm commitment to social justice. Most Fellows
have been involved in service or advocacy work,
but there is no specific anti-hunger service criteria required
for selection. For more specific information about application
criteria see Application Information.
For information on current fellows, please see Fellow
Profiles.
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The type of work activity varies depending on
the needs of our partner agencies at both the field and policy
level. Examples of past work activities include:
Field Sites
- Assessing local participation in federal
programs like Food Stamps and school meals, reporting both
best practices and barriers to participation, and disseminating
information and recommendations to community advocates
- Creating job-training programs for low-income
or at risk groups
- Building links between local farming systems
and emergency food providers
- Developing Kid's Cafe after-school feeding
programs
- Starting and coordinating participation in
community garden projects
- Designing and implementing nutrition education
and hunger awareness programs
Policy Sites
- Researching the impact of major policy initiatives,
including welfare reform, WIC, child nutrition programs,
and Food Stamps
- Organizing conferences and Congressional
roundtable discussions to disseminate information concerning
just policies
- Writing reports highlighting best practices
for including federal nutrition programs in children's after-school
and summer programs throughout the country
- Providing information on federal food programs
and national advocacy strategies to grassroots organizations
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Field Sites:
Various anti-hunger organizations working at the community
or state level all over the country are invited to apply for
a Fellow by submitting work plans to the Congressional Hunger
Center. Program Staff prefer to place fellows
at agencies with varied approaches to hunger, including food
banks, community action agencies, and local advocacy groups,
but also select the partner sites based on the quality
of the work plans. Staff then consider Fellows' topical
interests and geographic preference for their field site placement
when assigning placements.
Policy Sites:
While Fellows are in their field placements, program staff
shares with them information about the policy site options
throughout the D.C. area. After representatives from policy
placements conduct phone interviews with Fellows, Program
Staff get feedback from fellows and policy organizations,
and then match fellows with organizations.
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Fellows in the Emerson Program are given a unique
opportunity to exchange ideas focused around a specific social
issue through the development of a "fellows community." A
major strength of the program is the diverse experience and
viewpoints within a class of Fellows. The program creates
an environment of community where open discussion and learning
is fostered. This community, a major source of support during
and after the fellowship, is created at field training in
August, cultivated throughout the year, and continues on in
many forms after the class graduates.
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During the field component of the fellowship, Fellows design, create,
write, and/or produce a Hunger Free Community Report (HFCR).
Following broad guidelines established by the USDA's Community
Food Security Initiative, Fellows work with their community
to produce a report or project that will be beneficial to
that specific community. Fellows' HFCRs have taken on many
forms depending on the community and the fellows' workplans.
Past projects included a mapping project
illustrating existing elderly services and unmet needs of
the elderly in Western Massachusetts; a Food Stamp Toolkit
distributed to service providers in Ohio to assist them in
simplifying the application process for Food Stamps; and a
promotional video (now shown to recipients of social services)
advertising a new program allowing WIC dollars to be used
at Arizona farmers' markets. Once complete, the HFCR is a
tool that can strengthen a community's existing network of
resources by facilitating relationships among community leaders
in the public and private sectors, and by raising awareness
in the community about the availability of resources and the
extent of need.
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Upon
completion of the program, Fellows bring their hunger-fighting
expertise to various fields. Many Fellows stay and work in
D.C.; in the past some have received offers to stay at their
policy site organizations or found other opportunities at
non-profit organizations or Congressional offices. Often Fellows
go on to pursue an advanced degree in a variety of academic
fields, the most common being public policy, social work,
law, medicine and public health. Others typically choose to
work in local grassroots organizations throughout the country,
take part in another domestic or international service program,
or gain experience in the business arena.
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The Fellows community stays connected to each
other and to the Congressional Hunger Center. The Fellow Alumni
have a listserv that provides alumni access to continued social
contact, an informal career network, a connection to Fellows
Program news, and practical skills sharing. The CHC also encourages
former Fellows to participate in the training and professional
development of future classes of Hunger Fellows. Alumni assist
program staff with recruiting new Fellows and occasionally
by acting as field or policy site supervisors of Fellows.
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