From Detroit to DC

sigh long days at the office.. This is what happens at the...

taviaintransition — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 21:26:00 -0400

*sigh* long days at the office..

This is what happens at the DBCFSN office when we need to decompress

Featured in video:

Malik, Executive Director of DBCFSN aka my supervisor

Lesha, Office Manager/Accountant aka The Conqueror

Nameless, Lesha’s trusty guitar

Videographer: Me, myself, and I

$8 or $9? they’re being kind… i made $7.50 this...

taviaintransition — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 01:10:25 -0400

$8 or $9? they’re being kind… i made $7.50 this summer slinging shoes. thank goodness i didn’t have kids and only two bills. and that was above minimum wage.

buttahlove:

thepoliticalnotebook:

Could you live on $8 or $9 dollars an hour? A new computer game made by the Urban Ministries of Durham in North Carolina and an advertising firm called McKinney lets you play out life with a low-wage job as a single mom. The objective is to make it a month, juggling getting a job, rent, a place to live, food and coping with the costs of repairs, things for your child, insurance, etc.. Actually a very hard game to play and full of reminders of the difficulties of life on that kind of salary.

Play the game.

*Currently “playing”*
This game is no joke, mayne!

jayparkinsonmd: Food stamps are now worth double at farmer’s...

taviaintransition — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 01:05:55 -0400

jayparkinsonmd:

Food stamps are now worth double at farmer’s markets in Michigan. Lovely. Congrats to the Fair Food Network for spearheading a pilot in Detroit, successfully executing, and then expanding the program to the entire state. That’s hard work, especially politically hard work.

Finally found my ticket to Cali!! So, back when I was filling...

taviaintransition — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 13:02:13 -0400

Finally found my ticket to Cali!!

So, back when I was filling out my input survey for Emerson (basically a survey asking us what skills we wanted to learn, regional preference, if we would bring a car, etc) I listed West as my first regional preference because I desperately wanted to go to the Bay Area and work on food issues. plus Nikki Henderson works there, and although she’s only 4 years older than me, I want to be her when I grow up, but I digress. Needless to say, when I got the call that I’d be going to the Midwest, I completely changed my attitude and knew I’d be in Detroit (and thankfully I was) and now I’m more than happy to be here, but I still want to go to Cali and see the food activities there. Well, low and behold the Community Food Security Coalition, who puts on this bomb annual conference about basically ALL the issues I’m interested in and pick amazing places (they were in New Orleans, LA last year) is having their 15th Annual conference in Oakland, CA… and the theme is Food Justice. So yeah, who’s got two thumbs, can’t stop smiling, and is literally jumping for joy? this girl *pointing my thumbs at my gigantic smile*

plus my organization is presenting, sooo gotta go and rep/cheer them on. woot.

"So... what are you doing again?"- My attempt to explain the Emerson National Hunger Fellowship (what I'm doing)

taviaintransition — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 00:07:00 -0400

Since I’ve had to field this question so many times, I figured it would be worthwhile to make a post about it.

Ever since I accepted this opportunity, I’ve had to explain at LEAST 3+ times to people who actually love and may care about what I’m doing, so I can only imagine what people I meet once and explain it to must think or feel. In fact, explaining this experience to people is a bit of a running joke at the Congressional Hunger Center. It also is really hard for me, because even though I’m laid back, when I get an opportunity or achieve something that I think is important, I want people to know it’s important (personal struggle, i mean, we all have our crosses to bear). Of course, to some, this might not be important, but in the end, what is important is that I am passionate about this fellowship and am excited for the opportunity. So… let’s try to get to explaining, shall we?

The full name of the fellowship is the Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellowship and it is under the Congressional Hunger Center in Washington, D.C. I can be referred to as an Emerson Hunger Fellow or Emerson Fellow. I only say this because I told someone that it was with the Congressional Hunger Center, and they started calling me a Congressional Hunger Fellow… but I later found it explicitly states in our manual that we should not refer to ourselves in that manner (I totally have t find that person, and correct them… oops). But back to the topic, the slogan of the CHC is Fighting Hunger by Developing Leaders, which it does domestically and globally through this fellowship, and another called the Micky Leland International Hunger Fellowship. CHC mainly works through on leadership development through these two opportunities, but also keeps a few people on staff to directly work on policy back in DC.

So, more about what the Emerson Hunger Fellowship looks like. Much like the motto of CHC, it trains leaders to DOMESTICALLY fight against HUNGER and POVERTY through SERVICE and POLICY. If you don’t get ANYTHING from this, just remember that line.

Each year, they pick 20 fellows from all across the nation. We have to apply online, and some have a phone interview, but everyone has an in person interview in Washington, D.C.

What makes this program so unique, and partly why I loved it and applied, is that it allows you to focus on both actual in the field, on the ground work AND policy work on the Capitol. Now that is a rare opportunity to get such an in-depth look into both worlds, but imperative because few actually get to see how what goes on in communities can actually become policy, and many times it seems that legislators are disconnected from their communities. But luckily, Fellows help bridge that gap. The structure of the program is that it is 11 months, with us spending 6 months in the “field” doing direct service work, and 5 months in DC doing policy work. We start off the 11 month experience with a 10 day training experience, after which we are dispatched to our various field sites. Since they understand we may be going to places we’ve never been and most likely working with people we don’t know, they like to ship us in pairs so at least we have someone on the ground to talk to that understands our experience.

What can our field sites be, you ask? Well field sites are usually doing on the ground work combating hunger and poverty. Most are related to hunger, and can be Food Banks, Hunger Task Forces, or other grass roots organizing organizations, although this year we have a pair working in Cali on affordable housing, so really, the site just has to be doing direct work with poverty issues. My field site is the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, which would fall under a grass roots organization. Field sites are not picked at random. Shortly after we find out we’re fellows, our field sites are busy sending in their applications and preliminary work plans to the Emerson staff. They then have the difficult task of looking through the different field site proposals and matching our interests and skills as fellows to sites that would be the best fit for them. This usually takes all summer, but to their credit, they were spot on with my placement and I am incredibly pleased.

While we’re in our field sites, we complete our workplan which could be directly tied to researching an issue for our organization (like mine), capacity building for them by creating a curriculum or tool kit around a certain issue, or working on outreach and connecting people with state or federal services they’re entitled to (Food Stamps, WIC- although WIC is not an entitlement, meaning the gov’t doesn’t HAVE to provide it… more on that later) So, our projects take on many forms and are varied. While we do our projects in our respective communities, we have to do a Hunger Free Community Report, which is basically like our own research report about hunger or poverty in our field site. The topic is completely at our discretion, but sometimes it folds in nicely with your project, which can lighten the workload.

Sooo the field is what I know the most about, since I’m about to start it, but it’s not the end. Come February, once our work plans are completed and hopefully our Hunger Free Community Reports, we’ll come back to DC to start our policy sites. Policy sites also submit work plans to the Emerson staff, and while we’re out in the field they accept them and provide them all to the fellows, and we then pick three that we’re most interested in and interview with them. Both the fellows and the Policy sites send their top picks to the Emerson staff, and they pair from there.

Policy sites can range from activist organizations, think tanks, or even departments of government (think United States Department of Agriculture, woot). Plus a direct way our work (at least in my opinion) reaches the ears of legislators is that we brief the representatives of our states and respective districts on our findings when we reach DC. Talk about legit.

So yes, in the end, this is an 11-month leadership development program targeted towards eliminating hunger and poverty by developing fellows who can understand both sides of social change, merging fieldwork and policy. If you ask me, that’s pretty awesome. And if you need to ask me to clarify anymore questions, feel free… There’s a “Ask me Anything” button on this page somewhere.

In other news, still processing training, which is an amazingcrazyintense 10 day experience where 20 strangers strangely become 20 friends. It’s like the Real World for Social Justice… so yeah, expect that soon. :)

TOO LEGIT! I’ve been ghost, cause training is REAL and...

taviaintransition — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 00:26:42 -0400

TOO LEGIT!

I’ve been ghost, cause training is REAL and rough, but an amazing experience. About to start the move to Detroit, so I’ll follow with a solid update once things slow down… but until then, check out more Free Emerson Hunger Fellow Swag.

HA, I love my mom

taviaintransition — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 10:51:26 -0400

Mom: Yeah, we have Tavia for a few more weeks before she heads out.
Me: More like a few more days...
Dad: Yeah, it's days.
Mom: Days? I thought you were here for two more weeks.
Me: Nah, mom (pause)... I leave next Tuesday. I set the flight and everything...
Mom: Next Tuesday!? Lord, I start teaching next week, y'all know I forget...

The Post In Which It All Got Real... well, almost

taviaintransition — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 20:29:00 -0400

In a week from today, I will be in DC.

In fact, at this exact moment a week from now, I will be surrounded by 19 other Emerson Fellows ending our first day of training.

How did time move so fast? It feels like just yesterday, it was March and I was in the throes of my senior year and being all angsty and annoying, freaking out over whether the CHC would offer me this opportunity. Now I’m here, months later freaking out about whether they made the right choice and if I’m up for the job. Funny how things change.

It’s not that I’m not accustomed to being away from home or challenging endeavors, but there are quite a few reasons why this new journey is psyching me out a bit more than most. Let’s delve into this a bit. For now, there are three main things that are causing me to be apprehensive, and they are as follows:

Farthest I’ve been away from home… with no safety net

I’ve been consistently living away from home for about 6 years now (going to a residential high school does that) and while I’ve been halfway around the world before, I had the support of one of my best friends and 16 other students, 4 of which I already knew, in an study abroad program ran by our school. The second time I went abroad, I went through another school program, and while I didn’t know anyone right out, I got stuck in the DC for a week (long story there) and ended up getting to know other participants and having a bit of a support system there. Plus I knew I’d be home in roughly 6 weeks, so I wasn’t too worried. This time, I’m heading about 10 hrs away from home to a place where I know ABSOLUTELY NO ONE! Sure, I’ve met my field site supervisor and field site partner over email, but that’s not the same. And while I get to have 10 days of training with 19 other fellows starting next week, I’m sort of heading out into the unknown without a partner by my side, or the crutch of my family being a short 1.5 hr drive away. While this isn’t crazy scary for most, and I consider myself to be adaptable and flexible, I can’t help but notice this will be my first time doing this.

There’s REAL winter up there

I know down in the South, at least where I’m from, public schools used to close at the sight of even an inch of snow, but from what I hear, they run things differently up north. To be perfectly honest, while we do experience snow in the South, and have had a few “White Christmases” here and there (sometimes we don’t get snow that early, that’s why I mention it), I’ve survived quite well these past years on my hoodie, jacket, and scarf combo which means I haven’t purchased or worn a real coat in YEARS. After people hear that I’m moving to Detroit, after they tell me there’s “nothing up there” and I should invest in mace, you better believe the next topic is winter and how I’ll be shocked by the cold. My dad is even telling me to “winterize” my car. Yeah, that’s a new word to my vocabulary.

This is my real life “step.” like… by myself, forreal.

Very informal, and sort of what I went over with my first point, but this could be the last time I’m really home for a long time. Of course my permanent address is still my parents house, since this fellowship will cause me to travel quite a bit… but after it, there’s nothing tying me to my hometown besides my family, and I really don’t see any promising opportunities tying me to my hometown. I’m not saying NC as a whole is out of the question, but even now as I’m considering next steps after Emerson (I like to plan ahead), none of them include me coming back home. Which is what I want, but in a sense makes me sad, because I remember growing up and seeing my grandmother and cousins everyday. And I know my mother treasured being able to see her mother everyday, and at the rate I’m going, I’ll be seeing my mother a few times a year. It’s really weird when you realize you may never really go home again. And not just being away from my family, but this is a first step into my professional career. I’d like to think my experiences have prepared me, but every once and a while when I read over my work plan, I wonder, “Did I send them the right resume? Are they really sure I can do all this?” To me, this is a position that comes with a lot of responsibility, and I don’t want to let anyone down… and I definitely don’t want to be the reason why people aren’t getting access to healthy foods (of course, I can blame most of that on structural oppression, but still) At times, it all becomes a bit overwhelming.

Alright, let me stop being so melodramatic for a minute, just to say that today it’s hitting me that this is a big step and will put me on a course that I didn’t expect to be on this time last year and really, at this moment, have no idea where it will lead. I’m not careening into the unknown completely unaware, but its interesting taking the time to realize what this next step could mean. Of course, I could finish Emerson and end up sitting back in my room this time next year, blogging about how the economy sucks and I spoke way too soon last year when I thought I’d never be back. Who knows. But I do know this much, next Tuesday at 2pm in Washington, D.C., I will officially have begun my journey as an Emerson National Hunger Fellow.

Last Random, but related thought: I’m also interested to see how it is up North, in the land where soda is referred to as “pop.” (not that I’ll be drinking much of it… kind of goes against what my fellowship is about)

Again, sorry for the melodramatic antics. There will be some real hardcore food stuff hitting this blog soon. I really don’t have a choice because in a week it will become my life, so therefore probably be the only thing I talk about. Get ready. It’s going to be amazing.

Part II: How Not Taking AP English Changed My Life

taviaintransition — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 01:18:00 -0400

Lesson Learned: don’t advertise that you’ll publish part ii a week later… and then wait three weeks to do it. Last time I make time sensitive promises.

So, where were we? Oh, yes, English 102I with Chapman Greer.

I loved (and still love) Chapman Greer, and my initial admiration boiled down to one surprisingly simple fact: she used profanity. The first day we had class, Chapman shared 3 things with us, 2 of which I can remember, and they were as follows: 1) She cursed, and it was a habit she was okay with, so she would do so in class and 2) She lied, and this was because, if I remember correctly, she wanted to be sure in our discussions we would always give our own opinion and not something that we thought would align with hers so that we could gain her approval.* Well, after this shocking, no nonsense introduction, I was hooked and knew this would not be a rehashing of my English 101 experience.

Chapman had a great appreciation for all of her students and their talents, and took a vested interest in my writing and aspirations, which meant, and continues to mean, a lot to me. One of the greatest truths she shared with our class was that many of us were in these majors and desiring specific careers paths and goals because our community’s notion of our intelligence dictated them to us, putting us in a certain box that we may not have wanted. For me, all my life I was told, “Oh, Tavia, you’re smart. You should be a doctor” so, when I came to college, I just knew that I wanted to be a doctor and erroneously started down that path, when what I was really passionate about and interested in wasn’t fulfilled in the field of medicine. This isn’t an earth shattering truth, it’s just the way of college. Many first years choose to major in Biology and are on the Pre-med track in the hopes of becoming physicians, and some will achieve that, but a good number of them will have a moment, like I did in Chapman’s class when I realized that it’s not what I wanted but was told that I should be. And this isn’t just regulated to people finding out the don’t want to be physicians, but other aspects of self as well. College is just a breeding ground for self discovery. And I think that was really what I admired and took from Chapman when I first met that I attributed to her use of profanity, I loved how she encouraged us to think independently and develop our own identity, and then accepted and encouraged us regardless.

But back to the English class, Chapman taught in her distinct, exciting style. Not only did we focus on writing, but she also assigned readings from contemporary authors on an array of topics, and this, THIS is how I came to read the book that would forever change the way I thought and felt about food. The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan altered my whole life’s path. From that moment on, I was “Pollan-ated” (I give credit for that wordplay to “Big Meat vs Michael Pollan”). This book led to my first eye-opening revelation that I had no earthly idea where my food came from… or even what was in it. The biggest shock was the whole corn thing. If you don’t know, well now you know, if your diet is mainly composed of processed, packaged foods or fast foods, you’re basically eating corn. Let Michael break it down for you:

”Take a typical fast food meal. Corn is the sweetener in the soda. It’s in the corn-fed beef Big Mac patty, and in the high-fructose syrup in the bun, and in the secret sauce. Slim Jims are full of corn syrup, dextrose, cornstarch, and a great many additives. The “four different fuels” in a Lunchables meal, are all essentially corn-based. The chicken nugget—including feed for the chicken, fillers, binders, coating, and dipping sauce—is all corn. The french fries are made from potatoes, but odds are they’re fried in corn oil, the source of 50 percent of their calories. Even the salads at McDonald’s are full of high-fructose corn syrup and thickeners made from corn.” - “We Are What We Eat”**

So needless to say, that was when I discovered that, in my current state, I had very little power over what I put in my mouth, and this lack of power and lack of knowledge was leading to me interacting in a system that was very broken and harmful to the environment, the well being of people working within the food system (I’m mostly referring to low paid wage work, think farm labor and meat production), and even my health. This to me was unacceptable. After this book and this class, I became very interested in the connection between food and health, and not solely in the sense of nutrition, but also the culture around food and what this meant to overall wellness. This initial interest led to me intentionally (and sometimes, not so intentionally) build a life around food justice. It’s kind of funny, but after that book, almost everything I did tied to food, such as:

Alternative Service-Learning Fall Break about Native American Health issues, which lead to an interesting paper on Type 2 Diabetes in the Lumbee Community (also written in Chapman’s Class)
Summer Health Justice Internship with Native Health Initiative where I worked with the Hawkeye Indian Culture Center researching how to start an effective, culturally appropriate childhood obesity prevention program
Studying abroad and doing original research and fieldwork in Tanzania about Food Security and the role of Women
Organizing Food Justice Events on my college campus
Leading container gardening workshops
Helping organize nutrition and cooking classes in communities vulnerable to food related illnesses
Leading a workshop about Food, Power, and Privilege in a Workshop series designed to educate people of color about Food Justice

I apologize if the list is boring, and seems like I’m laying all my business out there, but this is my way of sharing my story. When I’m asked about my journey to food justice and how I discovered it was my calling, after telling people about “The Book” (how I will refer to The Omnivore’s Dilemma from now on), I can only show my winding road though listing the common theme running through the activities I ultimately ended up being involved in during my college career. I just lucked out that the Congressional Hunger Center found this enough to add me to their ranks of amazingly talented fellows (I’ve read some of their bios, you should too) and are giving me an opportunity to grow as a leader in this field. There will be more entries to follow (I will not impose a deadline on those entries, as I did with this post) that will continually frame my idea of food justice and what drives me, and I hope that you will engage with me and these issues along this journey. Who knew skipping out on one measly standardized test would lead to all this?

*Chapman, if you’re reading this and I am mistaken, I apologize… I get a bit fuzzy on the details. Feel free to correct me.

**I provided a link to that article, because I don’t have the time to go into the rabbit hole that is our food system and corn, and there are so many other voices out there that say it better than I can. Simply google corn and michael pollan, and that’s a great start. Go forth, I believe in you.

Food Price Spikes- Oxfam

taviaintransition — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 12:46:35 -0400

“To shed more light on the impacts of food price spikes, Oxfam has created an interactive map of Food Price Volatility Pressure Points. This map shows the impacts of price spikes in some of the countries where food prices have complicated the lives of poor people and offers a chance to take action on to help address price volatility.”

Well, I tried to copy and paste the code to have the graph appear, but it didn’t work :( but the link is connected, and it’s a great tool to learn about these issues.

For now, I’m on family vacation right now, but don’t worry, Part II of How Not Taking AP English Changed My Life is coming up, as well as some other interesting posts. Just bear with me :)

Part I: How Not Taking AP English Changed My Life

taviaintransition — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 11:10:00 -0400

Yes, get ready. This is one of those meandering origin type of stories, and it’s all about how I came to learn about food justice. After writing, it got a little long, so I ended up splitting it into 2 parts. It’s a bit long winded, and I don’t expect you to read it unless you know me and care, or you’re just really really bored and have nothing better to do. In the future I plan to keep my posts whole, and a bit shorter than this.

Back in high school, before I took the AP English course in my regular public school, I was accepted into this amazing little public educational institution called the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM) (yay Unicorns!! no lie, that was our mascot). So, needless to say, this was an amazing opportunity, since the school I was coming from was one of the lowest and poorest performing in my home school district (lots of inequality going on there, but this blog isn’t about public education at the moment*). So yes, it was really tough leaving Carver High to go to NCSSM, but in the end, it was the right move for me and greatly prepared me for college. Attending NCSSM was one of the most challenging experiences of my life. It was basically college, but two years ahead of schedule. It was my first time living away from home at extended intervals. I had never had to work very hard in school, so going there and actually having to work… and on top of that only seeing a B (sometimes less) for that work, was a blow I am still recovering from. And I know for some, that seems silly, but I came from a place where making All As was common place, and yes, believe it or not, I used to be one of those people who would get pissed over a B+. Boy, I’ve come a long way. But overall, NCSSM was a real wake up call to how woefully unprepared i was, in some senses, and it helped me grow but let’s try to focus this back to AP English and food justice.

So, as I said, NCSSM was a public institution, but they did some things a little differently. For example, all juniors fulfilled their English requirements by taking this hybrid English Literature/History course called “American Studies.” It was a course taught by two instructors, one focusing on the English aspect of the course, and the other History. It’s been a while, so I can’t exactly remember, but I’m quite sure I would have taken AP English during my junior year of high school and then taken the AP, and hopefully scored high enough on the exam to apply it towards college credit. At NCSSM, since American Studies covered my English credit, and I definitely didn’t have the energy to put towards getting used to NCSSM AND studying for the AP English exam on my own, I decided to let that fall to the wayside. Little did I know this would oddly lead me to where I am today.

So, NCSSM happened, I graduated and enrolled in UNC and started to pick courses and map out what was next. I soon found out that by not taking AP English, I would be stuck taking English 101 & 102 to fulfill one of the many graduation requirements that accompany attendance at a Liberal Arts School (gotta love that well rounded education). So there I was, first semester, stuck in one of the most dull, soul sucking English 101 classes of my life. And the messed up part was, I was a proficient writer and could be quite handy with words when I put my mind to it, but the work I was putting out in this course just wasn’t where I wanted it to be. And I mean, we were going over supremely basic things such as how to organize and write a paper. After barely surviving English 101, I knew I could not have the same professor or carry that same experience to English 102, so I began to look for ways to make it different. Luckily, UNC had English 102I classes, where the “I” stood for intensive, and you were able to pick classes that specialized in either Social Science Writing, Natural Science Writing, Business Writing, and I want to say Law Writing (maybe… I get a bit fuzzy with the last one). Although I was a Biology and Anthropology major at the time, and could have gone to either Social Science or Natural, I was still under the delusion that I wanted to be a medical doctor, so I chose Natural Science… and that delusion caused me to meet one of the most influential and inspiring professors of my undergraduate career, Chapman Greer.

This Post is continued in Part II: How Not Taking AP English Changed My Life. I may come up with a catchier Part II title… but i doubt it… and i didn’t.

“Detroit - Urban Agriculture Movement - Democracy NOW!...

taviaintransition — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 21:22:37 -0400

“Detroit - Urban Agriculture Movement - Democracy NOW! “

This video is amazing because Malik Yakini (my Field Site Supervisor at DBCFSN, who I’m incredibly excited to work with come September) articulates many of the reasons why food justice is near and dear to my heart, and how lack of access to nurturing food translates to a less than favorable health outcome. He also talks about how urban agriculture is a solution to this, and why it is important for communities, especially communities of color, to exercise their agency in becoming food secure.

Oh... so you're moving to... Detroit?

taviaintransition — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 10:00:05 -0400

Notable Responses I've received to my move thus far

Me: Hey, guess where I'll be come September, generic loved one (GLO)?
GLO: Where?
Me: Detroit!!!!
GLO: Oh (makes face).... that's.... nice. I hope you have some mace.

or

GLO: Be careful, girl. According to Forbes, Detroit's the most muderous city in the nation and...

or

GLO: Oh, nothing's up there... but they have a beautiful airport. You should check it out.

And, last, but not least

GLO: Yeah... you should move to Ann Arbor.

So it begins...

taviaintransition — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 02:29:00 -0400

I’ve decided to take another crack at blogging to document my experience as a Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellow. This move is motivated by a myriad of reasons, the chief one among them being that I had such a difficult time finding any sort of blog or social media about this fellowship from the eyes of a fellow. Not to say that there aren’t any out there, and it’s all on my shoulders to bring this special view to the public, because there are. For example:

If Your Knowledge Were Your Wealth- Current Emerson Fellow, Aisha, who actually recommended that I apply for the fellowship in the first place (good looking out. forreal)

Let them eat- Current Emerson Fellow, Marie

Guns But No Tomatoes- 16th Class Emerson Fellow, Danny

But for something that is such an amazing opportunity, and since knowledge and movements about food are starting to enter the mainstream, I figured it couldn’t hurt to add my voice to the blogosphere in a positive way. And trust me, this is not only for the interested potential Emerson Fellow who may search for blogs in the future (or do I just do things like that? ) or the person with a burgeoning interest in food security, but it’s for me as well. I’ve always been one to write my way through issues, and this will be the perfect forum for me to do so, since I’m sure this opportunity will have a profound affect on my life.

So, much like the title says, it begins. My first real step in the “real world,” and thank goodness I found an fellowship that works directly with an issue I’m passionate about, and also compensates me for it (you can’t begin to understand how happy this makes me) but it’s getting late, and there’s no way I can write anything coherent about anything this late, so there’ll be plenty more later on. Get excited.

First Look: The Field Site

taviaintransition — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 02:09:42 -0400

Detroit Black Community Food Security Network

First Look: The Fellowship

taviaintransition — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 02:09:23 -0400

CHC: FIGHTING HUNGER BY DEVELOPING LEADERS

Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellowship

On August 23rd, this becomes my life for the next 11 months.