FoodCorps Service Member Lauren Burke won the 2017 FoodCorps Victory Growers Award “for a compelling account of hunger and food insecurity,” winning a $5,000 prize for her service site, Moencopi Developers Corporation in Tuba City, AZ. The award, sponsored by C&S Wholesale Grocers, highlights that many children struggle with hunger and food insecurity, and that the food they receive at school is the most important meal they will get all day.

Out of all the areas of FoodCorps service, serving in cafeterias and promoting healthy school meals has always been my favorite. Maybe it’s because, in accordance with the unspoken prerequisite of being a FoodCorps service member, I love food and will sprint at any opportunity to surround myself with as much of it as possible.

The collective power generated in the room through the sharing of stories was palpable. That day, silences were broken. Issues were identified and examined. And a group of emerging leaders claimed their agency as the telling of stories segued into a brainstorming of solutions and actions.