Over the past few months, I have had the opportunity to work at a grocery store in Wellfleet working the cash register and stocking shelves, overseeing curbside pickups at a farmers’ market, running errands for older residents of my apartment building and cooking for my family. I have seen first hand the fear in the eyes of someone trying to checkout without enough money to pay for their complete order as well as the concern caused for neighbors who cannot safely go to a store to purchase essential items. This has given me a new experience in the food industry.

Building on this interest, I would like to find work directly with organizations that are addressing these issues to learn more about the approaches they are taking and solutions they are developing. My hope is to gain a clearer understanding of how people and companies are addressing issues relating to food.

To make this project a reality, I would like to reach out to gro ups like World Central Kitchen (an important hunger relief organization), the Food Bank of New York City and, perhaps, a cutting edge local food producer like Bowery Farming (a New York City-based urban agriculture organization) to inquire about opportunities for short internships or job shadowing assignments in which I could get a more in-depth look at their work. I would then envision producing a report or multi-media presentation on this work as well as suggestions for workable solutions to share with — and hopefully inspire — the LREI community.