You helped provide a golden opportunity for 11 new graduates from the Food Bank’s Community Advocates Training Program to put their skills to the test over the summer.
First, five members made live presentations during a graduation ceremony and spoke of the hardships, perseverance, and inspiration that led them to participate in the program.
Another graduate recorded her speech for the large audience to watch. They had an opportunity to connect with Congressman Marc Molinaro, who also spoke at the event, sharing his own story of growing up with food insecurity.
The Food Bank’s Community Empowerment Coordinator, Jackie Bogart, along with four graduates, attended the Feeding America Elevating Voices Power Summit in Washington, D.C. The event brought together individuals with lived experience of food insecurity from across the nation to hear from, learn from, and connect with each other in advocating for a stronger tomorrow. There were also opportunities to meet with elected officials.
“The trip itself was a wonderful experience, meeting people from all over the country who were experiencing some of the same experiences that I have encountered being on benefits, and supporting others receiving benefits,” says Nordia Hoff, Pantry Coordinator at the Friendship Seventh Day Adventist Church in Elmira. “It was also a wonderful opportunity for us to network and meet others who might have ideas of how best to manage our different pantries and other businesses.”
For program graduate Dawn Tallett, the conference had an even deeper meaning.
“Calling this last trip to D.C. and the Feeding America Elevating Voices Power Summit an incredible experience would be an understatement,” she said. “The first thing I felt was important. This doesn’t happen often and when it does, I must stop myself from feeling like I don’t deserve it.”
“It was exciting for me to see Feeding America employees from the Anti-Hunger Policy Conference, and I was surprised when they remembered me. Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, CEO of Feeding America, called me ‘her Dawn,’ and as silly as it sounds, it lifted me up and made me believe that all my lived experience of the last 18 years IS important. I am important.”
