This past week during my Senior Project, I had the opportunity to interview several Hunger Project investors and staff to learn about what keeps them engaged. I also wanted to gain a deeper understanding of how THP has changed over the years and how it has changed lives and perspectives. I found the interviews to be moving and deeply interesting since many of the people I spoke with have been investing, volunteering, and working at The Hunger Project since its founding in 1977. One of my major takeaways from these interviews is the  value of human dignity in ending hunger sustainably as well as the true meaning of the word “partnership.” Many of the people whom I interviewed talked about how working with The Hunger Project has not only transformed them into global citizens who are aware of issues of chronic hunger, poverty, and the marginalization of women, but it has also allowed for the realization that we are all the same. We, as humans, are all deeply interconnected. In order to truly solve hunger, we cannot pity those who are poor or hungry. We cannot treat them as “beneficiaries” or “the other.” Instead, we must partner with those living in hunger and implement grassroots, community-led programs. These interviews have also reinforced how The Hunger Project is not a relief organization. It does not hand out food like many NGOs do. Instead, THP provides rural communities across the globe with leadership training, empowerment, and financial resources that will empower women and mobilize rural communities into ending their own hunger. Through my interviews, I have realized that when communities are mobilized from the bottom up,  local people have the ability and power to create their own solutions to ending hunger in their communities. We are sidekicks and partners in the fight to end hunger once for all. We are not “donors” or “saviors” who are providing food for the hungry.