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2025 Week 4 Session
Food Justice & Insecurity

Week 4 Curriculum

Welcome to Week 4 of the CoT Program. This page contains the program curriculum for the Week 4 session. 

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Objectives: The objectives of this session are to:

  • Describe food justice and its connection to social, economic, and environmental justice (affordability, access to nutritious foods, workers’ rights, and clean water).

  • Explore how systemic inequities contribute to food insecurity in different communities.

  • Understand how these issues affect people in their communities.

  • Empower teens to develop a plan to address food justice issues, focusing on identifying and addressing food deserts and food insecurity in their community.

 

Resources

 

  • Week 4 Facilitator Handbook Excerpt: Here​​

  • Feed America Map: Here

  • Finding a Local Food Bank: Here

  • Examples of Community Solutions: Here

  • ​Community Plan Submission: Here

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Center of Transformation

BGCGW CoT
Intro Video

Direct Link: â€‹

Duration: 14 min, 28 sec

Food Justice: Fixing Our Broken Food System

Learning Video

Week 4 Learning Moment Video.png

Direct Link: 

Duration: 4 min, 41 sec

Weekly Activities

Activity #1 Food Insecurity Mapping

Exercise or Activity

CoT Week 4 Feeding America Map QR Code.png
CoT Week 4 Find a Local Food Bank QR Code.png

Each Project Teams will work together using an interactive tool:  Feeding America Map the Meal Gap to identify food insecurity in the local community.

 

Feeding America has produced Map the Meal Gap and provided estimates of local food insecurity and food costs to improve our understanding of people and places facing hunger and inform decisions that will help ensure equitable access to nutritious food for all. The interactive map features annual food insecurity estimates by race and ethnicity for all individuals and children, as well as older adults and seniors, at the state level and below.

 

1. Find your state, county, or district from the interactive map and learn about food insecurity in your community and the food banks that serve them.

 

**If your area is not on this map, pick a location of interest or find another food insecurity map in your area.**

 

2. Collect the following data:

More facts: https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america​

Activity #2 Community Plan
CoT Week 4 Community Solutions QR Code.png

​Each Project Team should work together and create a Community Plan that addresses a food justice issue in their local community based on the food insecurity mapping from Activity #1. Only submit one community plan per project team.

 

** This Community Plan will be incorporated in the final project competition component in Week 9. **

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Identify the Need or Challenge:

Identify your community, where it is located, and the challenge or need your project team would like to highlight or address.

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  • Provide the food insecurity rate in your community.

  • Based on their findings, identify community needs or challenges to address (e.g., lack of fresh produce, no grocery stores, or transportation barriers).

  • Explore how this challenge has affected the community and why these challenges are important.

 

Find Solutions to Address Community Food Insecurity Needs:

  • Work as a team to brainstorm at least two (2) practical ways to take action and help with this issue.

  • Visit the Feeding America site and explore ways your project team can brainstorm actions to take: https://www.feedingamerica.org/take-action.

    • Some examples include:

    • Donating to a local food bank.

    • Partnering with local farmers for a mobile market.

    • Starting a community garden in a food desert area.

    • Advocating for city policies to incentivize grocery stores in underserved areas.

 

Develop a Community Plan:

  • Who: Who needs to be involved or partner with you (e.g., local government, nonprofits, schools, or other organizations)?

  • What: What steps need to be taken?

  • Where: Where will the solution take place?

  • When: Create a timeline to complete the solution?

  • How: How much funding is needed and how will this solution be funded (grants, fundraising, or donations)?

 

Submit your project team’s Community Plan (one person from each project team) online at: https://forms.office.com/r/f6LVmhEff9.

Wrap-up

1. Session Debrief Questions:

  • What food justice or insecurity issues did your project team discover?

  • What actions can your project team put in place?

2.  Teens:

3.  Facilitator:

  • Provide an Overview of Week 5.

  • Record attendance for Week 4.

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