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Oberlin College first-year student Ana Santos worked with our Food Policy Council as part of their internship with Green Umbrella over the college's Winter Term in January. Ana split their time between the Food Policy Council and the Climate Action program.
For the Food Policy Council part of their internship, Ana set the following learning goals:
gaining a greater understanding of the policy process, and
translating community needs into policy recommendations.
To achieve these goals, Ana researched the concepts of food sovereignty and food as medicine, and put together communication materials explaining these topics and how they relate to each other for multiple audiences, including the general public and our new Council Members. Ana also did some landscape analysis about our ten-county region to create a foundation for our shared understanding about food issues across our regional food system and a benchmark that coincides with early implementation of our new strategic plan.
Take a look at the slides for Ana's scripted presentation, created for our Council Members:
Ana shared that they came into the internship a little unsure, because they had never done anything related to food policy before, but the experience furthered their interest such that they are considering continued involvement in food justice work.
Ana reflected:
This internship was a valuable learning experience that allowed me to gain hands-on experience working towards sustainable food systems and climate action.
Ana and the other interns working with Green Umbrella wrote a blog post over on the Climate Action blog about their experiences.
💡 Learn about opportunities to get involved with Green Umbrella and the Food Policy Council yourself, or contact us to discuss collaboration with your group!