This June, two of our Community Advocates had the chance to expand their skills and share their lived expertise at Feeding America’s second annual Elevating Voices Power Summit in Washington DC.
Dawn Manley and Willie Mendoza were among just 50 advocates who were awarded scholarships from Feeding America to attend this event. Both Dawn and Willie use their lived experience of hunger to advocate for better food access, and help guide the Food Bank’s policy agendas each year. Thank you to Feeding America for giving them this opportunity to learn and meet with their colleagues from across the country!
We asked them to share some of their experience with you. Here’s what they had to say…
Dawn’s reflection
I was honored, humbled and excited to represent the Food Bank at this important event. Just 50 neighbor advocates from food banks around the country were invited to attend, with the goal of lifting the voices, talents and expertise of those with lived experience.
I am incredibly grateful for my prior participation in the Food Bank’s Speaker Series, first as a 2023 participant/presenter, then as a 2024 mentor/presenter. This program, led by the Food Bank’s Advocacy Team, prepared me with a strong foundation that enabled high-level participation throughout the event.
Each of the three days was filled with hearty sessions designed to build upon the skills and confidence of participants: Advocacy 101, the power of storytelling, insights from coalition leaders, real time lobbying, networking, media 101 and Q&As with Congress and USDA staffers.
Peppered throughout these sessions were a powerful and dynamic mix of Feeding America leaders, consultants and government partners, including Feeding America CEO, Claire Babineaux-Fontenot. Overall, the agenda was thoughtful and empowering and the execution was seamless. Kudos to the entire advocacy and neighbor engagement team at Feeding America.
I returned to Concord feeling energized, hopeful and excited to continue our own work to identify and give voices and platforms to those in our communities facing food insecurity. Now more than ever, I see the importance of our role, and our potential to foster the change that is so necessary to fight hunger. I heard a powerful quote during the summit that continues to echo in my memories: “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”
I would like to give a special shout out and thank you to Cassidie Carmen-Bates, Hailey Solares and the entire Community Advocacy Program for your leadership, mentorship and support. You were right, (fellow Community Advocate) Jenny Berten, this experience has changed my life!
Willie’s reflection
I had the amazing opportunity to attend the Feeding America “ Elevating Voices” Power summit in Washington DC. Myself and coworker and Community Advocacy partner Dawn Manley joined close to 50 other advocates from all over the nation representing Food Bank, pantries, shelters and other non profits. We focused on a number of topics that included: Sharing your advocacy through media engagement, Building your media message and Delivering your message.
Once our message was built, we did speed legislative visit sessions using the tools we had been working on to influence policies that would better serve our community. We attended multiple question and answer sessions as well as mock interviews to give us examples of the type of things to expect during a media interview.
On day two we were joined by a staff member of an elected official in Washington DC who is actually from Contra Costa and very familiar with the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano! He shared with us how important it is that we continue to do this work and use our voices to share with Congress and their staff what we see through our work in the food insecurity field.
We also were joined by Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, the CEO of Feeding America, who really shared some inspiration with our group. She reminded us how powerful advocacy with lived experience is to the work that we do, and that we shed some light on the challenges facing our communities.
During dinner that night Kumar Chandran, Acting Under Secretary of USDA Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services, joined in to share about what they are doing to fight the cost of inflation and continue to get resources and food out into the community during these challenging economic times. He answered a lot of questions that the group had, and many of the same challenges are being felt across the country.
Day three we were joined by USDA staff to do a listening session where we shared the daily struggles that we hear and see for ourselves, and how we can better collaborate to make long-lasting change.
We heard on multiple occasions how impressed and appreciative people were of the Speaker Series that the Food Bank puts on annually, and how important the work we do is. Overall, this was an amazing experience and I’m honored to be able to share some of it with you all.
Use your voice to end hunger
Our advocacy work is critical to improving food access and making long term change to end hunger for good. If you’d like to get involved, sign up for The Brief. Our monthly advocacy update showcases opportunities to advocate for a hunger-free future like The Speaker Series, our annual advocacy training program.
