
Vermont Foodbank is a member of Feeding America, a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks, 21 statewide food bank associations, and over 60,000 partner agencies, food pantries and meal programs. Feeding America works in many ways to support its network and neighbors who are experiencing food insecurity. One way they do this is by hosting the Elevating Voices: Power Summit. For this, Feeding America invites member food banks to nominate local anti-hunger advocates who have demonstrated experience with advocacy/organizing/education, and have also experienced the impacts of food insecurity in their own lives, to attend the Power Summit. Vermont Foodbank nominated two community members, Addie and Patricia. They were both chosen and attended the 2024 Power Summit in Washington, D.C. from June 11-13, 2024. We asked Addie and Patricia to share about their experience at the 2024 Summit, here is what they said:
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself, how you are connected to Vermont Foodbank, and why collaborating at the Power Summit appealed to you?
Patricia: I am an advocate for and supporter of the Spanish-speaking immigrant community in Addison County. These folks, largely from southern Mexico and Guatemala, are not only our neighbors but essential to Vermont’s economy. Primarily, they work as laborers on dairy farms, but increasingly in other sectors including construction, hospitality, food service, and retail. I volunteer with several Addison County-based secular and religious organizations to provide access to basic services like food, clothing, and household good distributions, ESL (English as a Second Language) classes, and support at English-centric institutions like banks, the DMV, and doctors’ offices. Through nearly six years of service with this community, they have taught me not only to speak Spanish but many of the facets of their unique and distinct cultures, food, dance, and more. They have profoundly shaped my values and understanding of my impact in our community.
Most recently, I’ve been collaborating with Vermont Foodbank, the Vergennes Congregational Church Community Food Shelf, and the Catholic Migrant Ministries of Addison County to provide monthly distributions of culturally relevant food both directly to worker housing and at Spanish-language Catholic masses. Vermont Foodbank selected me to attend the Power Summit as a representative of this community. While immigration status made most of the folks I work with ineligible to attend, it was an honor to use my privilege to lift up their voices on a national stage.
Addie: My primary role is as a support worker at a shelter for people experiencing homelessness in Burlington. I am a recent alumnus of Champlain College, where I worked in multiple social support and education roles, including as a food access and education assistant at the College’s food pantry. It was through this role that I connected with Vermont Foodbank as an advocate for students who experience food insecurity. I was excited to collaborate at this Power Summit because college students are an often-overlooked population when it comes to food insecurity, and I was honored to advocate for myself and my peers who have similar lived experiences.
In a few sentences, can you describe the general flow or schedule of the event and a few examples of who else was there?
Patricia and Addie: Overall, there was a good diversity of lived and professional experience among the Summit participants, with folks of many ages, genders, and races represented. There were people who work at state-level food banks, and the community partners, like food shelves, that food banks support. Participants provided context for what is and is not working on a systems level at organizations around the country. There were also folks who have experienced or are experiencing food insecurity and they spoke about accessing the current systems from that perspective. And there were people who run food bank-adjacent nonprofits/community groups, such as SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) outreach professionals and Covid-19 pandemic response groups. Several representatives from the Latinx community were present, and they largely worked at food banks (to our knowledge there was no one with lived experience from the undocumented community).
The summit was structured as a series of two-hour sessions. Sessions were designed to support us to define and pitch our individual and organizations’ work to advocate to legislators and communicate our efforts to the media. There were also a few opportunities for us to speak directly with decision makers in Washington, D.C., including a staffer of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the acting undersecretary of the USDA, Kumar Chandran, and employees from the US Department of Agriculture.
What was the most valuable experience or nugget of learning you received from the Power Summit?
Patricia: I particularly appreciated the opportunity to connect with folks from the Latinx community at the Summit. Those who work at food banks offered to share with me Spanish-language nutritional infographics and culturally relevant recipe cards to include in our monthly distributions. Other advocates shared templates for state legislations in California and Oregon that facilitate or plan to facilitate access to SNAP/EBT programs for all, regardless of immigration status. I look forward to working with the folks at Vermont Foodbank to explore how we might advocate for something similar in Vermont.
Addie: For me, one of the most impactful sessions was a workshop about interacting with politicians and their staffers. I learned that face-to-face pitches with these decision makers are much more impactful than emails or phone calls, and it is important to make a strong and persuasive impression in a short amount of time. We discussed the structure of an effective pitch, which involves both personal anecdotes and data, while presenting it in a way that is relevant to the political leanings of the specific decision maker. We were even able to make a practice pitch and receive feedback from Capitol Hill staffers! The prospect of going in-person to speak with legislative staff can be very intimidating, so having this experience made me feel much more comfortable and empowered to share my voice with people in power.
Was there a moment you felt deeply connected with some of your Power Summit cohort? Could you share a little bit about this moment and why you felt connected?
Addie: I felt a deep sense of connection to some other attendees when we shared our personal lived experiences of hardship, especially when people shared difficult experiences that they had never shared out loud before. There was never any pressure on any of us to share these stories, but even after just a few days of getting to know each other, we had built a community where people felt safe and empowered to share their stories.
Were there hard or frustrating parts about your experience? If so, could you share a little bit about why they were hard and what would have been supportive for you in those moments?
Patricia: I struggled, once again, with being a privileged white person asked to speak on behalf of an underprivileged community that I am not a member of. I wish the organizers of the Summit were able to safely and legally include undocumented folks in the attendance selection process and had provided access for folks who don’t speak English as a primary language. These changes would ensure that more folks with lived experience were truly “at the table.” Similarly, I found it difficult that most of the programming was modeled around advocacy for federal programs and systems (like SNAP/EBT) that are largely inaccessible for undocumented folks. Beyond advocating for increasing access to these programs, there wasn’t much I could contribute to the individual sessions. That said, the networking connections I made with fellow attendees were promising and inspiring!
Addie: I struggled with feelings of imposter syndrome and wondered if I belonged at the conference. While there were adults of all ages in attendance, at 21 years old, I was the youngest person there. I am at a different stage in my career than many of our cohort were, some of whom have been in this field for decades. It was a challenge to walk into the Summit space each day; and yet when I did, I was rewarded with valuable learning and connections.
Did your understanding of advocacy and collaboration deepen because you attended the Power Summit?
Patricia and Addie: We were reminded that it is invaluable, in this often-draining field of work, to share space with each other and find comradery. Many of our fellow attendees agreed that this work can be difficult—hearing stories of systems failing and of personal and professional hardship, and addressing the seemingly insurmountable task of keeping our neighbors safe, supported, and fed. We discussed the importance of celebrating success as a tool to mitigate these struggles. Both large “wins,” like somebody gaining access to stable housing or a family accessing fresh fruits and vegetables, and small “wins” like a staff meeting running smoothly, are important to celebrate. Advocacy work is inherently difficult, and finding joy in it is essential to avoiding burnout.
Are there action steps that you feel more prepared or inspired to take?
Patricia: In the short term, I look forward to incorporating Spanish-language nutrition and recipe cards in our monthly food deliveries (these resources were shared with me by other attendees who work with Spanish-speaking folks). In the long term, I look forward to exploring ways that Vermont Foodbank and other partners might advocate for access to programs like SNAP/EBT for all Vermonters, regardless of immigration status.
Is there anything you learned from this experience that you would like other advocates or people experiencing food insecurity to understand or know?
Patricia and Addie: Whether you are actively experiencing food insecurity or working with people who do, it can be a struggle to stay motivated when our safety nets and food system are not always able to serve all the most vulnerable people, like undocumented folks and folks experiencing extreme trauma and overwhelming crisis. Meeting advocates at this Summit reaffirmed that there are strong, caring, passionate people working to make a difference. We encourage you to find your people, the people who can make this work energizing, sustainable, and effective…and to raise your voice together!
* Photo by Matti Blume, Wikipedia, used under the Creative Common CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
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