Advocacy

Community Food Advocacy Fellowship

Food insecurity is perpetuated by inadequacies in the policies, systems, and programs designed to ensure that families have consistent access to healthy food. By and large, the individuals who control these initiatives have never had to worry that they couldn’t feed their families, and organizations charged with improving food access are often not sufficiently connected to the individuals most impacted by their actions.

The goal of the Feeding MI Families Community Food Advocacy Fellowship (CFAF) is to empower Michigan parents with lived experience of hunger to advocate for the advancement of policies, systems, and programs that support food security among Michigan’s children and their families.

Our inaugural CFAF cohort includes 19 Michigan parents with lived experience of hunger. Fellows participate in two group training sessions every month and participate in monthly individual coaching sessions that work to elicit their intrinsic wisdom and strength; clarify how their lived experience informs their advocacy motivation, focus, and story; and overcome obstacles that arise in the process of becoming an advocate.

Fellows are provided $2,500 to participate in the 8-month Fellowship.