 | Student Kathleen Taylor (l) conducts a survey.
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Feinstein Center for a Hunger Free America calls URI homeThe Feinstein Center for a Hunger Free America has become a permanent part of the University of Rhode Island and its mission, thanks to a recent $1.5 million endowment established by the Feinstein Foundation. Interest from the endowment will fund the center’s ongoing activities.
The Feinstein Foundation established the center at URI in 1999 with an initial contribution of $500,000. The center has offices at the Providence and Kingston campuses.
“With a permanent base of support established, the University and the Feinstein Foundation can look forward to a long-term partnership that will work to eradicate hunger in Rhode Island and America,” said URI President Robert L. Carothers. “I value the faith that Alan Shawn Feinstein has shown in URI as a vehicle for accomplishing social good.”
“One of the primary goals of the center is to develop lifelong anti-hunger advocates by exposing students to learning experiences both in the classroom and in the community,” said Kathleen Gorman, the center’s director. “By combining traditional education with opportunities to engage in service, outreach, and research, the Center hopes that students will develop the skills to contribute to improving the lives of others and to find solutions to the problems of hunger and poverty.”
The commitment to service learning fits with the larger mission of the University. The hunger issue has been embraced by many URI 101 classes, a mandatory one-credit freshman course with a service learning component. For example, during the fall semester 14 classes, representing approximately 280 students, participated in hunger-related projects, donating approximately 2,100 hours of service to agencies such as the Amos House and the R.I. Community Food Bank.
Among the center’s achievements is the creation of a new hunger studies minor that offers students exposure to issues of hunger and an opportunity for personal involvement through research and outreach. Interest in the multi-disciplinary nature of the minor is evidenced by the enrollment in the Introduction to Hunger Studies course, which each semester draws students from a wide range of majors. For example, this spring semester there are 18 students from 12 different majors.
Last spring, through the Center 15 students participated in a survey of clients of pantries, kitchens, and shelters as part of a nationwide study on hunger in America.
One of the students, Kathleen Taylor, was changed by the experience. “I’m ashamed to admit it, but before I took the hunger studies class, I profiled people who went to soup kitchens or food pantries. I thought they were low-income families and from certain ethnic groups,” Taylor said. “I came to realize that most of the clients I interviewed were hard working middle-class Americans from all races, religions, and creeds. Many were working, but they weren’t making enough to put food on their table after paying the rent and the utilities.”
Taylor found her class work and the survey to be a rich match. She experienced firsthand what she read in her textbooks.
This spring, the Center’s staff will be involved in local policy issues, providing testimony to state legislators on hunger-related initiatives.
By Jan Wenzel
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