The SNAP Gap in the South

Ashlyn is a native of Franklin, Tennessee, and a senior Haslam Scholar at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. She is designing an interdisciplinary major titled “Food Security and Public Health Nutrition” with minors in Spanish and International Agriculture. As a food justice advocate, her passion for anti-hunger work manifests on the local and federal level, with an emphasis on building sustainable food systems and policy infrastructure in the U.S. South. Ashlyn is the President of the Student Basic Needs Coalition, leads community cooking classes for elementary youth, and is an active leader in addressing college student food insecurity through SNAP advocacy and research. This summer, she is interning with Operation Food Search in St. Louis, Missouri, to lead the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) and emergency food distribution. She plans to learn about the charitable food system and ways to equitably address food insecurity in the wake of COVID-19.

Eboni Bright, a native of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, currently resides in Olympia, Washington, with her husband and four children. She attends Kansas State University through their Global Campus, where she studies Dietetics and Health & Human Sciences. At K-State, Eboni is a Kansans Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Scholar, a member of Kansas State University Honor Society of Kappa Omicron Nu, serving as Corresponding Secretary, and an active volunteer for the American Diabetes Association's Project Power Camp as a Group Lead Counselor. Eboni is very passionate about ending food insecurity, and she feels working on policies and government programs to aid in bringing an end to these issues is vital. She believes wholesome, nutritious food is a fundamental human right, and no person should ever go without it. Eboni will be interning at the Good Samaritan Center, Inc. in Jackson, Mississippi.

Delanie Vinzant is from Maryville, Missouri, and attends the University of Missouri in Columbia. She is studying Biological Sciences and Economics and is involved in the Honors College as a Stamps Scholar and Programming Board executive. Delanie does microbiology research and serves as an Undergraduate Research Ambassador. She became interested in anti-hunger work when mentoring youth in her hometown and has continued her anti-hunger work throughout college. She is interested in health policy and hopes to learn more about social welfare policies and food assistance programs this summer. She is interning with the Montgomery County Food Council in Bethesda, Maryland.