LEARNING CAPSTONE PROJECT Victoria Hernandez Jadon Rodriguez Ismael

LEARNING CAPSTONE PROJECT Victoria Hernandez, Jadon Rodriguez, Ismael Gomez, Jose Flores

Overview ■ World Hunger is one of the biggest problems that many people face and in the Houston Community, many families cannot provide themselves with a fresh meal everyday. ■ The organizations that we are looking to partner with to tackle this issue are: ■ The Montrose Center ■ The Beacon Center ■ Star of Hope ■ Sarah’s House

Diving Deeper Into the Problem ■ These are some statistics that show prevalent homeless women and children are in the surrounding Houston area. ■ https: //www. chron. com/news/houstontexas/houston/article/houston-homelesscount-slightly-down-2017 -11149868. php

Root Problem ■ We believe that the root of the problem can stem from many different reasons. Unemployment is the largest reason that someone becomes homeless. Having children and a family to support can make the situation worse, adding to the “family” and “children” homelessness statistics.

What We’re Doing to Help ■ Currently, we as a group are contacting different Houston organizations to find out more information and to possibly partner with these organizations and create steps to assist in this epidemic of homelessness in our city. ■ We hope to eventually partner with The Mission of Yahweh and assist women and children with taking their first steps out of homelessness. ■ We are currently in contact with: – The Montrose Center – The Mission of Yahweh – The Beacon**

CHECKPOINT #2

Group Members Problem Addressed ■ Jadon Rodriguez ■ Many families in Houston do not have a fresh meal everyday or cannot afford fresh produce, leaving them without nothing. Founded in 1982, the Houston Food Bank is a certified member of Feeding America, the nation’s food bank network, with a fourstar rating from Charity Navigator. They distribute fresh produce, meat and nonperishables and prepare nutritious hot meals for kids in their state-of-the-art Keegan Kitchen. ■ Jose Flores ■ Victoria Hernandez ■ Ismael Gomez

Proposal: ■ We believe that access to nutritious food is a basic human right. We are committed to responding to the needs of our community through food distribution and support services. We want to create access to good, healthy food in every community. In a land of abundant food, there is also abundant waste. In fact, 40% of the food produced in the United States goes uneaten.

Houston Food Bank: ■ Founded in 1982, the Houston Food Bank is a certified member of Feeding America, the nation’s food bank network, with a four-star rating from Charity Navigator. They distribute fresh produce, meat and nonperishables and prepare nutritious hot meals for kids in their state-of-the-art Keegan Kitchen. In collaboration with a network of 1, 500 community partners, they provide assistance to thousands of individuals each week through their innovative programs and services.

Our Mission: ■ We are committed to maintaining efficient operations while adhering to the procurement requirements of food bank, local, state, and federal laws, regulations, policies and procedures. It is our goal to serve our people of Houston in the most timely, efficient and transparent means possible. We hope to amplify their work by showing eaters, farmers, policy makers, scientists, youth, and the funding and donor communities what is possible–and what is needed–to create a food system is safe, just, and economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable.

CHECKPOINT #3

Adjustments ■ Initially, we were targeting homelessness but we had to shift our focus because we were not receiving any volunteer opportunities from the several organizations we contacted. Our new focus is world hunger, and we will be focusing on our own Houston community and the people who cannot have a fresh meal everyday.

Meetings/Discussions/ Activities/Etc. . ■ We haven’t participated in any special events but we are signing up for them that we will be going to next week. The great thing about the Houston Food Bank allows us to interact with many different types of families, age groups, etc. . We’ve had phone discussions with the organization and its very easy to be able to contact them.

Documentation/Taking Action