Local and Regional Food Systems at Cornell: Heather Kolakowski
“If you have a concept of something you want to fix, how do you go about fixing it?”
In Hunger, Health and Nonprofit Social Enterprise (HA 4315), Heather Kolakowski’s service-based learning class, she designed the course to introduce students to food insecurity issues in the local community, and to challenge them to think broadly and deeply about opportunities to enact social change—for example, through the management of nonprofit organizations. The class focuses on identifying key elements of the food system and to consider why there are challenges to food access, especially access to healthy food, and to the nonprofit best management practices that support their mission to address these issues.
To create a grounded perspective on the challenges facing food insecure individuals and the food-focused nonprofit organizations that serve them, students are required to complete 10 hours of community service at a local nonprofit food service organization. By giving students on-the-ground, community-based experience, they can develop their own passions and creative ideas for solutions and projects. Heather hopes her class will inspire students to become involved in nonprofit food service work or other work aimed at addressing food insecurity and poverty.
Other HA 4315 class activities include organizing an event to benefit a local organization. This year, Heather’s students held a successful fundraiser for the Fresh Snack Program. Another was a Hunger 101 simulation led by the Food Bank of the Southern Tier where each student assumed the persona of someone involved in the food insecure distribution network, such as a SNAP representative, food pantry operator, mini-mart owner, or customer. In this activity, students faced the logistical challenges of navigating this complex system, an eye-opening experience to take on all the different, not-so-obvious factors that play into being food insecure. Through her class, Heather is cultivating more engaged students, who are passionate about community involvement and food systems issues.
In order to expand and invigorate Cornell’s food justice work, Heather feels it would be useful to increase connectedness across the Cornell community, to find out who is doing what and what opportunities are already offered on campus. When working with community organizations, it would be beneficial to communicate with other Cornell faculty, staff and educators about their experiences in maintaining good and productive relationships with these organizations. It is helpful and advantageous to everyone to have collaborations throughout the university and to draw on each other’s knowledge and experience.
Heather Kolakowski ’00 is a lecturer in food and beverage management at the School of Hotel Administration (SHA).