Gettysburg: Food Access and Immigration

Students at Gettysburg College

Overview

In addition to the central components of all CPS Summer Fellowships, the experience in Gettysburg is a unique opportunity to connect meaningfully to one of our local Community Partners. Because Fellows live together and connect outside of work, each Fellow will come to understand to intersectionality of social issues as well as multiple ways that organizations support each other and the community.

During the first week, all Fellows (Gettysburg and Tucson) travel to the border of Arizona and Mexico to learn about the intersection of immigration and food justice. Gettysburg Fellows return to Adams County for a second week of training to further understand how similar issues play out in the County. They visit agencies, speak with community members, and volunteer. By the end of the week, they will begin to understand the intersections between food and immigrant life in Adams County.

Once orientation is complete, Fellows begin working with their community partner. Each week there will be a some activities which Fellows will do together, such as gardening, preserving fruit, and tutoring adults in ESL. In addition, each Fellow will work with CPS staff to implement their learning project related to food justice, immigrant's rights, educational equity, and/or poverty eradication.

Fellows stay together in campus housing, which is paid for by the Fellowship.

This 9-week experience is fully-funded by a generous gift from Jim Heston '70. Gettysburg Fellows receive a stipend of $3,500.

Community Partners in Gettysburg:

Fellows work focus their work with one of our community partners in Gettysburg. Some examples include:

Painted Turtle Farm: PTF is a campus-community hub for food justice which brings students and immigrant community members together to grow and access healthy foods, share food traditions and create a pathway towards larger scale farming.

Campus Kitchen: The Campus Kitchen rescues food, repackages it into nutritious meals and delivers them to community member in need.

Casa de la Cultura: Casa de la Cultura promotes the cultural rights of immigrant communities through educational and cultural activities that explore the arts and healthy living, emphasizing Latino culture and its realities. Programs include adult English classes, swimming clinics, immigration reform, children's programming, and connection to food access programs.

South Central Community Action Programs: SCCAP empowers families and engages the community to pursue innovative and effective solutions to break the cycle of poverty. Programs that Fellows will engage with include Circles Initiative, the Gleaning Network and the Food Pantry.

Migrant Education Program: Migrant Education provide supplemental education for children of migrant and formerly migrant agricultural workers. Fellows will visit migrant campus on visits with Migrant Ed staff and assist in planning and implementing the summer school program.

Adams County Farmers Market: The Adams County Farmers Market strengthens the bond between agriculture and the community through a community-driven, open air farmers market each Saturday. Through strong community partnerships, the also facilitate many food incentive programs that assist lower income shoppers in buying locally produced food while promoting health and wellness in our community. Fellows working with ACFMA will help on Market Days, with research and assessment, and have room to design their own project.

Vida Charter School: Vida Charter School fosters success in a diverse world through holistic education encompassing literacy and numeracy, socio-cultural competence and wellness, in English and Spanish. The school has a garden that supports student learning, and which a motivated Summer Fellow could maintain and connect to youth programming around nutrition, gardening, and other themes.