Above: 29th Class Emerson Fellow Lauren Drumgold. Food sovereignty – a new word added to my vocabulary during my time with the Chicago Food Policy Action Council (CFPAC). I describe it as one’s agency in food; what foods are grown, … Read more
Finding a Foundation: Anti-Hunger Policy in Boston and Washington
Above: Gabe Hafemann (right) with colleagues at Boston’s TD Garden, January 2023. This past fall, I had the distinct pleasure of being the debutante Emerson Fellow at the Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB) in Boston, Massachusetts. GBFB has embraced the … Read more
The Process is Just as Important: Community Engagement in Ohio
Above: 29th Class Emerson National Hunger Fellow Jazmyne Brooks (right) As a Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellow, during my field placement I worked alongside Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio (SHFBNCO) staff to create a community engagement plan … Read more
Fighting Invisibility: SNAP Access for Immigrant Households in Maryland
Above: 29th Class Emerson Hunger Fellow Bea Dresser (left) with field site partner Maryam Taysir. The dictionary defines invisible with the phrase: “not openly acknowledged or made known.” Invisibility is the burden many food-insecure immigrant families face in the United … Read more
A Spectrum of Diverse Experience: Nuance in Data Collection in North Central Ohio
Above: Taylor Unoki at the White House, March 2023. When friends and family from my hometown heard I was headed to Ohio, I got a mixture of the same reactions: eyes widened, mouths gaping, screams of excitement, or all of … Read more
A Right to Live: Connecting with Lived Experience in Boston and Washington
Above: Akeisha Latch with About Fresh colleagues and a harvest of greens in Boston, Massachusetts, January 2023. “Everybody’s got a right to live”- a bolded message that I came across one afternoon while working in the MLK Jr. Memorial Library … Read more
Cultivating a Multi-pronged Perspective of Opportunities and Challenges of the Emergency Food Assistance Program
Above: Bea Dresser and Clara Pitt at the Feeding America Office in Washington, D.C., February 2023 Prior to my policy placement, I had never heard of the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), let alone read its codified regulations in the … Read more
29th Class Emerson Fellows Bring Community Perspectives to Policy Placements
The Hunger Center is pleased to announce the policy placements for the 29th Class of Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellows. From February to July, 2023, each fellow will be placed with one of 14 different host organizations, working on projects … Read more
Join Us for The State of U.S. Hunger 2023
A briefing featuring field work presentations from the 29th Class of Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellows, will be held online on Wednesday, February 15, 2023 from 10:00 a.m EST to 3:00 p.m EST. This is a great opportunity to learn … Read more
29th Class of Emerson Hunger Fellows Prepare for Orientation, Community Placements Across the U.S.
Next week the 29th Class of Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellows will gather for their orientation at our offices in Washington, D.C. This new cohort of 18 change-makers will spend the next year supporting anti-hunger and anti-poverty work at the … Read more