As a public entity, the City of Greenville plans to address food insecurity. We strive to educate families about various ways to acquire healthy foods to promote a more healthy and active community overall. As a result, the City of Greenville has distributed over 1,000,000 pounds of food to residents. The City of Greenville also partnered with Joel Berg, CEO of Hunger Free America, to provide information to residents regarding how to get government assistance to receive access to healthy foods. We strongly believe that FoodCorps’ mission and programming will bring value to our broader work because if the youth are educated about healthy foods, they could educate their families. Thus, increasing the likelihood of healthy food acquisition.

The City of Greenville FoodCorps program encourages students to try new things. From taste-testing to gardening, every student who participates in the FoodCorps program will be immersed in a hands-on experience that they will remember for a lifetime. Our program’s goal is to create a domino effect of change in our community: Students will learn about nutrition, gardening, and healthy lifestyle choices from the FoodCorps service member. The same students will go home and educate their families about what they learned. The students’ family adopts the lessons taught by the FoodCorps service member. Thus, increasing the occurrences of healthy lifestyle changes in the city of Greenville and surrounding areas. The City of Greenville FoodCorps program includes four service members who teach nutritional lessons to public school students. Each service member is assigned two schools in each of the city’s two public school districts. Every school has its vision for the program. Therefore, the FoodCorps program in one school may look slightly different from the program in another school. Regardless, all service members strive to cater to the desires of the school while also working towards the FoodCorps organization’s overall mission-connecting children to healthy foods. As a program governed by a local government entity, the City of Greenville FoodCorps program is highly visible in the community. Along with their daily school visitations to instruct students, service members are required to assist with numerous community events. A few examples of the City of Greenville FoodCorps program’s community outreach include: Helping with food giveaways. Serving plates in a soup kitchen. Organizing canned goods in the local food pantry. Distributing nutrition material at health fairs. The City of Greenville FoodCorps program is always willing to serve. This program has certainly made a name for itself! Service members have access to limitless opportunities. Besides receiving the education award given after serving two service terms, service members are often acknowledged for their hard work. For instance, all service members were introduced to the community during a City Council meeting, which many citizens view virtually. In addition, service members make numerous appearances on the City of Greenville Facebook page to showcase the positive things they do in the community. Service members also participate in fun out-of-town FoodCorps conferences, which provide an opportunity for networking and memory-making. Overall, becoming a FoodCorps service member will open the door to a world possibility!