What we’ve learned
“Food is a prism. Peer into it and you see America’s greatest challenges refracted: health, sustainability, equity. Solving these challenges in food is a momentous task. But do it there, and we can do it everywhere.” …Curt Ellis, FoodCorps
Inspired by the legacy of Jamie Kirk Hahn, the Jamie Kirk Hahn Foundation exists to empower and motivate emerging leaders to lift up their communities, their state, and our world.
Over the past thirteen months dozens of community leaders have engaged with the Jamie Kirk Hahn Foundation to begin to build an organization that will have a positive impact on an entire region.
We knew that we wanted to instill Jamie’s values in to our work which meant a few things to us:
- It is best to lead with humility and give others a platform — in other words, help the helpers find their voice and guide their own community.
- We must not just discuss change, we must act — even in small ways.
- Bringing people together matters — particularly if you are able to bring diverse voices to the table.
- We are stronger when solutions emerge from within the community.
After thirteen months we wanted to share what we’ve learned as we begin to look ahead at the directions that we may take in 2015.
Lesson #1: Service inspires
Action matters. It isn’t enough to just talk about change so we began the Foundation with a day of service in partnership with our friends at the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle. Over 150 people participated in the first service project with many of them coming face to face with hunger as they distributed food directly to communities in need. We heard from many people that when faced with the fact that one out of five North Carolinians face hunger they felt as if the problem was too large to grapple with, but that the day of service gave them a sense that each of us could in our own small way begin to have an impact on the problems that we face.
Since that time we have held nine formal days of service, with a litany of other service projects along the way, and more than 700 individuals have joined us. We believe that we’ve begun to build a culture of participation around the Triangle and we look forward to extending that in the years ahead.
Lesson #2: We must avoid volunteer tourism
In one of the first meetings of 2014 one of our committed volunteers spoke up and told us that, “We have to avoid the trap of poverty tourism where well meaning folks come in to a community once a year, work for a few hours, and then depart until the next national volunteer day.”
The moment that she spoke up every head nodded in assent.
With this in mind, we have been working to identify a structure that will promote service while working alongside communities across North Carolina as a true partner, returning time after time.
We are particularly proud of our work with Inter-Faith Food Shuttle and local entpreneurs Will Jeffers and Lee Walker on what used to be a vacant lot on Camden Street in Raleigh.
This previously vacant lot, overgrown with weeds and brush, now has row upon row of soil and a group of community members ready to turn it in to a flourishing garden come spring. It happened because volunteers returned month after month.
Lesson #3: People are craving the space to discuss ideas and create change
After the first large scale weekend for Jamie’s Foundation Gary Pearce reflected on one of the things that stood out — the unique nature of people of all ages joining together, enjoying themselves, and even envisioning themselves as change makers. We began to consider what giving people the space to meet as equals might look like and so we launched a series called Gathering for Good.
We have held more than a dozen Gatherings with more than 400 people participating in the events and many, many more joining in the conversation thanks to social media, follow up events, and traditional press coverage.
The Gatheirng for Good model is built on an “unconference” format where speakers provide inspiration and context to guide the conversation, but ultimately it is up to the participants to truly lead. The first Gathering, held at Ashley Christensen’s Joule Coffee + Table in Raleigh, began with the question of what could lead to a healthier, more vibrant community. The answers really centered on food. Food as a tool to engage the public, the possibility of urban agriculture as both a tool for community economic development and to improve the nutrititon of community residents, and what would happen if we invested in placemaking by turning vacant lots that serve as barriers and boundaries in to flourishing gardens, spaces with public art, and hubs for entire neighborhoods.
Let’s connect the dots. We have vacant lots (and rooftops) that can be gardens. We need markets, but the big commercial grocers aren’t interested. Southeast Raleigh lost two grocery stores last year. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, much of East Raleigh is “food insecure,” meaning it lacks accessible, healthy food at affordable prices.
The food corridor idea suggests that solutions might be within our grasp. — Bob Geary, “Community groups in Raleigh band together to fight food insecurity”
Accomplishments that grew from Gathering for Good this year include:
- Second Saturday: Second Saturday is an open celebration of food and community along the Raleigh Food Corridor every second Saturday of the month April-November. Through pop-up markets, city walks, urban farms, community gardens, food installations, local artisans and local businesses, Second Saturday is an all-day showcase of new and exciting food-related projects occurring along the Corridor. The idea for Second Saturday really originated with entrepreneur Will Jeffers who attended the first Gathering for Good.
- Momentum for the Raleigh Food Corridor concept: The concept is described by our partner Erin White and his firm Community Food Lab as a, “brand new, community-sourced project along two miles of Blount and Person Streets, linking diverse communities through local food. The food corridor is connective tissue in our city, designed to link diverse parts of the city around the common economic, social, and ecological benefits of local food projects. Imagine neighborhoods full of food: green growing spaces, vibrant restaurants and small businesses, and easy, equitable access to healthy food. Now imagine how neighborhoods like that could help eliminate childhood hunger, build strong social connections, ease poverty, and help us all make positive change in our communities. The Raleigh Food Corridor makes that vision an achievable reality.” The concept is now turning in to a full fledged campaign.
- Our partners at various hunger-fighting organizations would tell you that the conversation around hunger in our community has begun to shift towards solutions and system change. Gathering for Good has only been one part of this equation, but every event and conversation is pushing our region towards a tipping point that could serve as a model.
- Working groups have emerged that are taking on critical issues including activating vacant lots.
Lesson #4: Collaboration is the way to go
Jamie hated the concept of duplication — the very idea of replicating the work of others which would lead to the dilution of resources and, in turn, the dilution of impact irritated her. Therefore we resolved to identify community partners and collaborate with them.
The first impact investment of the Jamie Kirk Hahn Foundation was with the Hope Center at Pullen to launch the Jamie Kirk Hahn Career Development Program. Jamie’s parents made an initial large investment as individuals which we matched in order to create the program which is focused on placing the foster youth that the Hope Center serve in opportunities that will allow them to learn real world skills. The youth have been placed with organizations ranging from Stop Hunger Now to the North Carolina Theatre Conservatory.
The second was with Inter-Faith Food Shuttle to create a program focused on urban agriculture and backyard gardens in Southeast Raleigh. More information on the program will emerge in early 2015, but we’re excited to see it come to fruition.
We believe that the model of investing resources, time, and energy with direct service providers to create innovative partnerships will continue to be part of our path.
Lesson #5: Food can change the world
The legendary James Beard once referred to food as our universal experience. After all, everyone eats. It also happened to be the issue that Jamie was becoming most motivated by in her own life. She believed that when you have enough food to feed everyone, and yet people go hungry, that is immoral. She understood that proper nutrition and a focus on health could help us tackle some of our most pressing societal changes. She was inspired by something as simple, yet powerful, as growing a tomato in your own backyard.
When you are trying to build a movement you want to find common access points and across the world food remains the great connector. We’ve begun to say that if you eat, you can join our movement.
We’ve seen the power of food to inspire, to shape conversations, and to improve a community.
Final Lesson: You are the Army of Jamies
At one of the first gatherings of Jamie’s close friends to discuss what we might do we pretty quickly landed on the idea of investing in individuals who might become leaders. One dear friend spoke up and said, “It sounds like we are going to build an army of people like Jamie who will change North Carolina for the better. People like her who are committed to service. Right?”
We realized pretty quickly that people like Jamie were spread throughout our community so we were not building an “army” from scratch. Rather we realized that what we must attempt to do is breakdown silos, promote the idea that our problems can be solved when we begin to treat them as challenges beyond just single issue descriptions of poverty or hunger or education, and provide the space for people to work together.
Jamie was an optimist, even in dark times, and we hope that we can inspire people to choose optimism. Our problems can seem large and intractable, but the truth is that solutions are within our grasp if we choose to work together. We understand that we do not have an “education problem” in North Carolina as much as we have a problem that too many children show up hungry and too many children are plagued by poverty. But we know that we have enough food to feed the hungry. We believe that solutions to poverty exist and that we can end poverty as we know it in our lifetime.
Anything is possible when people resolve to work together. The essence of a movement boils down to committed individuals who are inspired to believe that tomorrow really can be better than today and that the solutions to our most pressing issues lie within our grasp. The final success of a movement, however, comes from those same people understanding that success doesn’t come in a day, or a week, but rather it comes from a lifetime of dedicating ourselves to improving the lot of our fellow men and women.
We are committed to building a movement dedicated to change and we hope that you will join us.
You may support the Jamie Kirk Hahn Foundation by clicking here: https://jkhf.nationbuilder.com/donate
A note: This was written by Jamie Kirk Hahn Foundation Board Chair Nation Hahn and Executive Director Alexis Trost. The Jamie Kirk Hahn Foundation is in the middle of a strategic plan process which will determine the path for the work in 2015 and beyond. If you have opinions please weigh in via Facebook or Twitter.
