Join Hunger Free America in creating a people’s movement to end hunger and push for the economic and public policies needed to eliminate domestic hunger and ensure that all Americans have sufficient access to nutritious food. Working directly with the Advocacy, Policy, and Research Department volunteers will play a crucial role in researching, communicating and promoting HFA’s policy positions. The activities for this volunteer role depend on current legislative priorities which is ideal for someone who is flexible and wants to take initiative to accomplish our goals.

**This is a virtual role which can be flexible to your schedule**

We have several projects running simultaneously and we want to make it easy for you to get involved. Our two projects areas are the following:

The Advocacy Team works on expanding our organizing efforts and legislative priorities and pushing for improvements in safety net programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Women, Infant, and Children (WIC) program, and school meals. These roles involve public speaking and outreach to lobby state and federal officials. Our Advocacy Team is ideal for someone who is flexible and dedicated to ending hunger in the United States of America, and we also seek to identify volunteers with leadership potential and provide trainings in the necessary skills for effective project management.

• HOPE Advocacy Project: The HOPE Act of 2020 is HFA’s signature policy recommendation for federal and state government to significantly reduce hunger and expand economic opportunity. Volunteers will assist in mapping out and developing relationships with federal and state legislators and administrators that could champion HOPE accounts and begin to take steps towards implementing this policy. Volunteers can choose from among several targets for policy advocacy at the state and/or federal level and will work to connect our evidence and policy recommendations with relevant legislators and administrators.
• National Community Organizing of Low-Income Communities: For this project volunteers will connect with low-income community members to understand their barriers to accessing nutritious food and public benefits. Volunteers will look for community organizing groups happening throughout the United States and inform our public policy positions and the expansion of our Food Action Board (FAB) program. Our FAB program leads grassroots organizing sessions for low-income communities in NYC, and we expand to more communities throughout the country to build the grassroots movement that will end hunger in America. Volunteers will begin by surveying their state for community organizers to report back on. Volunteers will be added to our Hunger Advocates’ Listserv to keep up to date. Our Community Empowerment Manager will be coordinating this project with support from our Director of Advocacy, along with ongoing Advocacy Team meetings to provide guidance. The ideal volunteer for this project should feel comfortable meeting new people, contacting government offices, and sharing information.

The Research Team monitors and seeks to add research on effective improvements for safety net programs – like a boost to SNAP benefit levels, universal school meals, and online access for the application and management of social programs – by publishing evidence of policy changes that reduce poverty, hunger, and homelessness. Our research projects vary based on current legislative priorities, and involve data collection and writing to build on existing research. We are currently recruiting volunteers for the following projects:

• COVID-19 Best Practices (National Focus): For this project, volunteers will assist with research and writing Hunger Free America’s COVID-19 Best Practices (unofficial title) report. The USDA passed many legislative waivers that allowed for state agencies to operate nutrition programs more easily due to COVID-19 restrictions. Each state’s administering agency then applied for the waivers that were relevant to their programming. This report will assess how each state’s unique combination of waivers impacted rates of hunger across the country.
• Food Secure 2025 (NYC Focus): Volunteers will assist with the research and writing of Hunger Free America’s Food Secure 2025 policy platform, an update from a version published in 2018. This document will be our vision for what food policy could look like for an incoming mayoral administration of New York City and how they could eradicate hunger throughout the five boroughs. Many things have changed since 2018, so in anticipation of the upcoming mayoral election in 2021 we want to and publish a new version of this document. Volunteers will familiarize themselves with the Food Secure 2018 document and then research which policy recommendations have/have not been implemented, and to what extent we have more progress to make.

Qualifications:

• An Associate’s Degree or 1-2 years related work experience in social work, education, public health, public administration, nutrition, public policy.
• Knowledge of federal nutrition programs like SNAP, WIC, and/or the NYC School System
• Willingness/experience working with non-profit organizations and government agencies
• Excellent writing, communication, research, and analysis skills.
• Strong interpersonal, collaborative, and relationship-building skills.
• Positive, self-starter attitude; ability to take initiative, think creatively, and work independently.
• Commitment to Hunger Free America’s mission to end hunger in the United States.

Training/Support Provided: The Advocacy, Policy, and Research staff support Hunger Volunteers by providing background and materials on our previous body of research and technical instruction for any task assigned. You will be added to a community of passionate Hunger Advocates that will organize opportunities for emotional support and collaborative brainstorming.

To get involved, please register for a Hunger Advocate event using the link below, and send a basic resume describing work experience and relevant interests to lharris@hungerfreeamerica.org. We will then set up a chat to learn more about which team and project would most suit you.

https://hungervolunteer.volunteerhub.com/event/8f00b1c1-9340-483d-b055-a30236312135