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Co-taught by Lauren Guilmette ’08 and Laura Huang ‘11
(Please contact 08leg or lh1 for details)
This experiential course will focus on food insecurity in our local community
surrounding Williams, as well as local grassroots activism to approach these
issues. The shift in the northern Berkshires away from an industrial economy
has rendered hundreds of local residents unemployed, underemployed, or at best,
leashed to minimum-wage jobs with neither benefits nor security. In our local
community, the hunger rate is six times greater than the local average, and one
out of every three children lives in a family struggling to put a meal on the
table.
In this Free University course, our “class” time will be spent mostly at the
Berkshire Food Project in North Adams (transportation will be provided). The
BFP is a community-run free lunch program (started by Williams students!) which
continues to serve food to low income local residents. Volunteers serve lunch,
eat and talk with the clients, and clean up afterwards. But here the word
"serve" is used advisedly, as the BFP is emphatic in its determination not to
be a soup kitchen. We have no "chow line" where globs of unidentifiable stuff
are plunked onto paper plates; rather, the set-up is restaurant-style, with
students and others volunteers as servers. This program simultaneously works to
create a sense of community in North Adams because, while most clients are at
or below the poverty line, many others show up too because the food is
delicious. The BFP recently moved to serving lunch everyday, and we plan to go
two-three days a week from 11:15 to 12:45, depending on the schedules of those
who sign up!
In addition to time spent at the BFP, talking with the local activists who keep
it in operation, we will investigate other local groups and hopefully bring in
some evening speakers to discuss food issues in our community.
If you are interested in grassroots activism and/or hunger issues, please join
us this January!