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FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
What is the structure of the fellowship program?
Twenty-four Fellows begin the program in late August 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 and anti-poverty 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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What kind of training is provided throughout
the Fellows Program?
Fellows begin the program with a comprehensive 8-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 weekend long 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 about 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 are able to design many of the PDDs around issues and skills that the Fellows community decides are important.
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How much are fellows paid?
Fellows receive a living allowance of $11,000 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 $3,000 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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Who is accepted into the program?
The Hunger Fellows program is open to any US citizen 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 some type of 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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What type of work do Fellows do?
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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How are field and policy placements determined?
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. Emerson Program Co-Directors prefer to place fellows
at agencies with varied approaches to hunger, including food
banks, community action agencies, and local advocacy groups,
but they also select the partner sites based on the quality
of the work plans. Directors 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 Directors get feedback from fellows and policy organizations, and then match fellows with organizations.
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What is the "fellows community" and why is it important?
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, and 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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What is the Hunger Free Community Report?
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.
The 8th class of Fellows 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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What do Fellows do after completing the program?
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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How do Hunger Fellow Alumni stay connected to the program?
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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