Fighting Local Hunger and Poverty One Client At a Time

My plan of action is to continue helping out at the NSC through my ten week internship this summer. I am spending part of my time in the office helping prepare thank you letters to be sent out to our donors, helping with Capital Campaign projects, and doing other miscellaneous work to help the office run more smoothly. When I am not in the office, I can be found in the pantry, either behind the counter preparing food packages for clients, distributing Kids Summer Food Program packages (provides families with extra food if their kids normally receive free or reduced lunch during the school year), or pantry facilitating (stocking shelves, quality control of incoming donations, etc.). Lastly, I have been doing a lot of research and community outreach work on a variety of topics including Foodstamps and senior citizen coupons at farmers markets, community food education and the possibility of designing on-site workshops to teach our clients about food preparation, storage, and nutrition. I plan to further collaborate with Grow Food Northampton, a grassroots organization that is raising money to purchase and preserve local farmland, with the hopes of turning it into a community farm garden. I also hope to work more with Transition Northampton, another local group that is concerned with our local community transition into a more sustainable future in the face of the peak oil crisis. I aim to further promote the NSC services to local agencies, while helping to improve nutrition for client families by finding more sources of fresh produce in the local community and encouraging clients to take home the available fresh veggies. I would also help the NSC reduce plastic waste by finding more cloth and reusable bag providers, help supervise students working on the Kids Summer Food Program, and look further into USDA-related affairs.