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In the summer of 2006, the 12th class of Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellows organized and facilitated a poetry and art contest for D.C. youth entitled, “Healthy Food Makes Me Grow Strong and Smart: Involving D.C. Children in Summer Meals Outreach”. The contest served as the Capstone Project of the Hunger Fellows and was coordinated in partnership with the District of Columbia State Education Office (SEO) as a way of increasing participation in the DC Free Summer Meals Program.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) operates in Washington, D.C. as the DC Free Summer Meals Program (FSMP). This critical program provides funding for over 400 sites to supply free, nutritious meals and snacks to D.C. youth under the age of 18. Summer meals deliver the nutrition that youth need in order to learn, play, and grow during
the long summer months when they are not in school.
When school is out, kids lose access to the meals served as part of the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs. For children living in families with limited budgets or other challenging circumstances this may mean that that they can no longer get a healthy meal. The DC Free Summer Meals Program fills this gap. Parents also benefit from the program, both from help in stretching their food dollars and by knowing that their children are eating healthy food in a positive and safe environment.
The Project
The Capstone Committee of the 12th class of Hunger Fellows began meeting in March of 2006 to develop ideas for a potential Capstone Project. These conversations, along with input from the entire 12th class, helped the committee produce goals for the project. The yet-to-be-designed Project would enable the Congressional Hunger Center and the Fellows to interact and build relationships within the D.C. community while simultaneously advancing the food justice work, on a local level, that the CHC is committed to. “Healthy Food Makes Me Grow Strong and Smart: Involving D.C. Children in Summer Meals Outreach” was conceived to meet these aims while also fulfilling an intention of the Fellows to work with D.C. youth. Working closely with the D.C. State Education Office, the Fellows facilitated a print and radio outreach campaign featuring drawings and poetry created by children at Summer Meals' sites and selected through a contest process. The outreach campaign aimed to encourage all children to access DC Free Summer Meals and to raise the public’s awareness of this important nutrition support program and its significant role in ending childhood hunger.
Building Bridges
The Fellows first met with the D.C. State Education Office on May 24th 2006 to pitch the project. The SEO staff was very excited about the idea of giving youth the voice to tell other kids about the program through their artistic abilities. The project also fit in nicely with the SEO’s existing goal of advertising the DC Free Summer Meals Program to more youth throughout the summer. The SEO quickly agreed to send out a flyer to all the DC Free Summer Meals sites, provide materials for the contest, and carry out the advertising campaign. The Fellows agreed to design the flyer and the prompt for the contest, and visit eight DC Free Summer Meals sites to engage the youth in the contest and collect the drawings and poetry.
The SEO and the Fellows came together again to present the project at the DC Free Summer Meals Kickoff event on June 19th at Turkey Thicket Recreation Center in Northeast D.C. Emerson Hunger Fellow Lauren Forbes opened the contest to an excited crowd of youth and DC Free Summer Meals sites sponsors.
Preparing for the Contest
With support from the State Education Office, the project was up and running and the Capstone Committee welcomed the complete 12th class of Emerson Fellows into the fun of the contest. On a Friday afternoon in late May, the Capstone Committee convened all Fellows in a LeDroit Park Row house with the goal of creating a prompt for the contest. What makes a good prompt? We wanted something that was catchy and would inspire kids to “draw the connections” between summer meals, health and social mobility. Through a lively facilitated debate the Fellows landed on the following prompt:
"Healthy food makes you grow up strong and smart. When you grow up you will do amazing things. Write a poem or draw a picture telling us what you can do when you eat a healthy meal.” Now that the prompt was created, the capstone project was truly on a roll!
The Contest
By late June all of the pieces were in place and it was finally time to begin the contest. Let the artwork begin! With the SEO’s help, the Capstone Committee contacted 8 sites and scheduled times for Fellows to meet young p eople at summer meal sites and help with their contest submissions. The Fellows had amazing experiences. One group went to a summer school housed in a church in Anacostia. In a room decorated with Gye Nyame, a West Ghanaian symbol meaning “with god all things are possible”, three Hunger Fellows spent 1 1/2 hours working intensively with a small group of kids who became thoroughly engrossed in drawing their dreams of becoming veterinarians, artists, fashion designers and more.. On their way out, school staff informed the Fellows that they had not had such a quiet classroom all summer. The kids let their creative art pieces do all of the talking! Across town a different pair of Fellows worked at a summer program housed at Howard University where the atmosphere was decidedly less serene. Four full classes of boisterous teens and pre-teens submitted entries, translating their exuberance into another set of excellent submissions. One poem declared,
When I eat good foods I get big and strong
It helps me have energy all day long
Evidently these youth had been eating healthfully because they had energy to spare; needless to say, those Hunger Fellows got quite a workout! Throughout D.C., Fellows had many more experiences like these. Fellows met vibrant young people, helped them to produce art and had fun the whole time.
Judging The Contest
One short week after visiting the summer meal sites, the Fellows trooped up to Columbia Heights to meet and pick winners. The Fellows split up into four groups to judge the four different categories: Poetry ages 5-12 and 13-18, and Art ages 5-12 and 13-18. Given the high quality of the submissions, this was a difficult task, but after an horu of intense deliberations Fellows chose three finalists from each category. These exepmlary pieces of work were then packaged for delivery to the SEO, to be used in the marketing campaign.
Tying it all Together
Upon receiving the artwork and poetry, the SEO staff was thrilled with the pieces  and excited to get them out to the public. From the three finalists in each category, the SEO selected one winner, whose work will be used to advertise the program all over the city. The SEO has plans to use the winning poetry in upcoming radio ads and the drawings in upcoming newspaper ads. They are also advertising the program by using the artwork and poetry in a calendar. These efforts will not only show off the amazing artistic ability of D.C. youth, but also help to create awareness about this great program. Included are the drawings and poetry of the twelve finalists. Enjoy!
Thank you, from the fellows: Heartfelt Appreciation from the Capstone Committee
The “Healthy Food Makes Me Grow Strong and Smart: Involving D.C. Children in Summer Meals Outreach” contest was a collaborative project that could not have been accomplished without the work of many dedicated individuals and organizations. We would like to extend our deepest gratitude to all involved and especially to those who made exceptional contributions to the project such as:
Partnering Organizations
- The State Education Office, especially Dr. Cynthia Bell, Renee Evans, George Ferguson, Sarah Latterner, and John Stokes
- The Congressional Hunger Center
- Staff of D.C. Hunger Solutions, especially Shana Mc-Davis Conway (former Emerson Hunger Fellow)
Summer Meal Sites which Hosted Fellows
- Lincoln Middle School
- Union Temple Baptist Church
- Howard University Upward Bound Program
- Beacon House Community Ministries, Inc.
- WVSA Arts Connection
- Department of Parks And Recreation
- Albright Church
- Paul Public Charter School
And Finally
- The 12th Class of Emerson Hunger Fellows whose work made our project a reality
- All of the amazing DC youth whose artistic vision and voice made this experience a joy
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12th Class Emerson Hunger Fellows |
Click here to read the remarks about the Capstone Project from the 12th class Commencement Ceremony
Click here to view some of the artwork submitted.
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