Posts tagged hunger
From Detroit to DC
An Emerson National Hunger Fellow's 11 month Food Justice Journey
26 notes &
“So… what are you doing again?”- My attempt to explain the Emerson National Hunger Fellowship (what I’m doing)
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.
