My Position As A Greenspace Director

School lunches are often unsung heroes of many modern American households. Frequently overlooked and disregarded because of their stigma, school lunches are a key ingredient that may help make the world a better place. Unknowingly, great numbers of individuals in our communities deal with food insecurities every day of their lives. It baffles me that in an advanced society many people do not have the resources to provide food for themselves or their families. Until it affected me personally, I was unaware nor passionate about the struggles of food insecurity. My passion for solving food insecurity in my local community has led me to gain both experience and leadership through understanding and advocating for those around me.

I can still remember coming home from school after an exciting day in the first grade. I would go straight to my room, line all of my dolls up in the floor, and “teach” them everything I had learned earlier that day. But of course, not every child who pretends to be a teacher in his or her early years actually becomes a teacher. So although I enjoyed “teaching,” I never really considered it as a choice for my life-long career.

In South Central, Los Angeles, there is a food epidemic taking place among the population. For miles and miles, the only easily attainable food source is fast food; causing the overconsumption of un-nutritious, greasy, and fattening food. This is the problem brought to the public’s attention by speaker Ron Finley in his Ted Talks speech, “A Guerilla Gardener in South Central L.A.” Finley explains how everywhere he looks in his native South Central, all he sees are fast food chains and Dialysis clinics opened due to the lack of nutritious food. Finley views the lack of a healthy food source as a serious problem, and brings up

Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve known what I wanted to do. I am one of those people who was blessed enough to realize my passion at an early age. As far back as I can remember, I’ve wanted to become a teacher. I can remember as a child sitting in my room, surrounded by my stuffed animals (or students, as I saw them) and forcing my younger brother to sit still and quietly do the work I assigned him. I even had two baskets which I kept on my little wooden desk; one for my “students” to turn in work, and the other for more work which needed to be graded. I spent many afternoons

Fixing food deserts is about more than just building grocery stores in low-income areas. There is much more that can be done in communities to build a strong food system. It is challenging, nearly impossible, to state the be intervention practices for food deserts. It is difficult to implement the same intervention in all communities, because no two communities are exactly the same. Nevertheless, interventions and policies of the past give other policy makers ideas for intervention in their own neighborhoods; an intervention built on the community’s

Hunger… this affects an estimate of 13 million children in America and about 795 million people worldwide. Hunger is a severe crisis that has been continuously growing in many homes throughout our community. Children and families in Laredo are suffering from this epidemic and it is important to spread awareness to end it. Personally, I believe that when you help one person, you are one step closer to changing the world. As a human being, it is our duty to recognize the struggles our community faces and help people from our community surpass these problems. A way I would help with humanitarian efforts in our community is by volunteering and sharing the stories of the people whose lives were affected. Around our city of Laredo, in the county of Webb, we have many people that would go hungry if not identified. Many of these people in our community do not qualify for social services due to the family’s being undocumented. It is the community’s responsibility to educate and find these people who might otherwise go hungry. It is a challenge where our border community needs to help and provide the basic needs for children and families in our area. I would like to work hand in hand with local foodbanks and begin to expand a community garden which would provide vegetables to people in need of food. If the community comes together to motivate our population to be aware of hunger in our community, we would all be better because of the help that we may provide

everyday, you are probably wondering why nationwide hunger is an issue. Families that are subject to poverty generally have little money, goods, and don’t often have much support. Economic income does determine if a child is more likely to go hungry or not. Right here in the Central Valley and Imperial County have the highest percentage of child hunger. Due to high unemployment rates, people are having harder times to feed their families. Because of this Feeding America discovered that these families are forced to make the choice between feeding their household or paying bills and rent to provide a roof and warm bed. Even with organizations such as Hungry Harvest, Feed the Children, Meals on Wheels, Feeding America and No Kid Hungry, studies continue to show that nationwide hunger is still a serious issue in the United States. In order to solve this problem more people need to be made aware of how important it is to help those that don’t have the same luxuries and to create new organizations and programs that lower income families can benefit

Last summer I volunteered at our local Planting Hope event. We distrituted food products from the Maryland Food Bank to people of lower-income in my local town. We also gave shoes and clothes to those who needed them. What I learned after this experience is the realism of poverty and hunger in our country and even my hometown. What may seem to be a prevalent idea for third-world countries far from our homeland, the reality is that poverty and hunger are located closer than we think. Over thirteen percent of Americans are food insecure which seems untrue, but in fact it is a reality that sometimes we ignore. Planting Hope has not only signalled this issue into me, but has allowed me to want to learn more about other issues and rising issues

There were neighborhoods throughout Philadelphia where residents couldn’t easily buy healthy foods like fruits and vegetables. And science shows us that people who live in these underserved neighborhoods are more at risk for serious diet-related diseases like obesity(Food Trust website). They began with one farmers market at Tasker Homes, a public housing development in South Philadelphia. Once a week, with the help of the Tasker Homes Tenant Council, they set up one long table overflowing with produce. It happened to be the only source of fresh fruits and vegetables in the community. The Food Trust works with neighborhoods, schools, grocers, farmers and policymakers in Philadelphia and across the country to change how we all think about healthy food and to increase its availability. The Food Trust efforts with its partners resulted in the creation of the Fresh Food Financing Initiative. It was the nations first statewide financing program to increase supermarket development in underserved areas. The Food Trust is a nonprofit organization that continues to ensure that all children who live in communities have access to safe, healthy and affordable food. Their key goal of this project is to stimulate the development of supermarkets in lower-income neighborhoods.

In honor of their missions to nourish lives this initiative meets urgent needs and identifies long-term, maintainable solutions in the areas of child hunger and nutrition education (ConAgra Foods, 2010/29/07).

Across the nation, students attending K-12 schools have extremely poor options when the bell rings for lunch hour. School lunches served in the cafeteria are not only commonly unhealthy and lacking nutritional value, but outright unappetizing. While the "empty calories" served contribute to the growing rate of obesity in America, poor nutrition also has a significant impact on student concentration and performance in school. According to the County of Los Angeles' Public Health Department, nearly 20% of children in grades 5, 7, and 9 are obese, and approximately 21% of adults are obese within the San Fernando Valley. For these reasons, I am proposing a program to offer a small farmer's market once a week at Verdugo Hills High School (a medium sized public high school located in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles) during lunch hour, selling both affordable and healthy food options.

The DC Central Kitchen is trying to solve the issue of food waste. Robert Egger founded this organization from past experiences of volunteering to help problems like hunger and homelessness. “DC Central Kitchen’s mission is to use food as a tool to strengthen bodies, empower minds, and build communities. DC Central Kitchen is committed to getting students excited about eating their vegetables.” They “transform 3,000 pounds of otherwise wasted food into 5,000 healthy meals.” The meals are cooked by chefs and not pre-packaged or canned goods and they distribute the food to 80 partner agencies that consist of homeless shelters, rehabilitation centers and afterschool programs. Last year they recovered 743,885 pounds of food from grocery stores

Metropolitan region are increasing simultaneously while donations to local food banks are decreasing. According to Federation of Virginia food banks, (2014) “Virginia’s 11.8% food insecurity rate means that over 912,790 people do not know from where their next meal will come. With the average cost of a meal in Virginia being $2.68, Feeding America ‘Map the Meal Gap ‘concluded that an additional $406,935,780 would be needed to meet the state’s food needs”(para. 1). The research further explains that “… With donations over the past years, decreasing by as much as 50% and food assistance requests increasing as much as 40%, our food banks are in crisis and need major support to meet the needs of Virginia’s food insecure” (para. 4). In addition, according to the Darden Foundation, (2014) “about 35 million tons of food waste reaches landfills and incinerators each year in the United States” (para. 1). Devising and implementing programs to reduce our food waste as well as a donation program, has multiple benefits for all stakeholders and the

When I was in elementary school I would spend most of the summer setting stuffed animals up on my bed to teach them all the math problems I had learned the previous year in school. In middle school my friends would come over and I'd teach them how to do cool tricks on the trampoline or how to draw bubble letters. Once I was in high school, I had more opportunities to work with children and I took them without hesitation. Since teaching is something I enjoy doing in my freetime I know it's something I would love to do as a career.

Organizations and movements like the Black Panthers have really shaped how people can really make a difference in helping to change the food system. There are various non-profit organizations that are working really hard to help feed people that have certain circumstances including low-income, unemployed, and various others. Helena Lyson conducted a series of interviews with a lot of different people that had various backgrounds and races, all located in the near area of Oakland, California. Her finding that there was a little group of activist that are a person of color and people that do not have some college experience or a high school diploma. The majority was white women supporting and working for these organizations and this is great that different people are getting involved and are participating to help people that need these resources and support to have a healthy meal for