What was seen:
Chicago has always been a city with a rich sense of community engagement. In anticipation of the building of the Barack Obama Presidential Center, the Obama Foundation began to identify how it wanted to amplify that activity. Part of that included the creation of the Community Leadership Corps, an effort to invite young minds with new ideas into the mix. As part of the 2019 cohort, my team and I identified food insecurity as a challenge we were motivated to affect with innovative program designs.
What was hidden:
Conversations with key impact partners across the city revealed that families of small children are the demographic most likely to be relying on food pantries. But, beyond just physical availability, families of small children have unique logistical hurdles to accessing food support programs, like long wait times and no child-friendly activities.
What was unlocked:
We found a community market that happens at The Hatchery, and we set up a booth with a mix of activities for kids, like pumpkin decorating, and make your own trail mix, as well as some informational cards and resources for people about cooking healthy foods and where they can go if they need help getting food for their families, like discounted goods at Imperfect Foods.