Introduction
In my professional experience at Beaufort County School District, I had to face the problem of a lack of food resources in the community during the summer. During the school year, many participate in programs that provide children with breakfast and lunch at a reduced price or free of charge. But during the summer holidays, a serious problem arises in the lack of these resources. A community coalition can become an effective tool for solving the lack of food resources in the community during the summer.
Discussion
Children receive food aid through the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program during the school year. Many children are forced to go hungry throughout the summer because they do not have access to daily school lunches. The problem with summer meals is not so much the absence of such programs as the inability of children to access them. For example, small children with working parents may not be able to come alone because of the danger of heavy traffic, or the distance may simply be too great. The community coalition involving organizations, local companies, volunteers, and residents may help deal with this problem.
Many members of Beaufort County are stakeholders in this social problem. First of all, these are children who have serious problems due to the lack of food resources. Food insecurity in school-aged children has been linked to delayed development, an increased risk of chronic diseases, and behavioral issues such as hyperactivity, anxiety, and hostility. Other children and their parents are also stakeholders since youngsters facing this problem interact with other children and members of society. Their difficult behavior associated with malnutrition may harm others. Aggressiveness and hyperactivity can cause difficulties for teachers and interfere with other students and the learning process. Children’s food security is the key to a successful, prosperous, and healthy society.
Coalitions are an essential strategy for dealing with complex social problems such as food insecurity. Community empowerment is the process through which people of a community work together to gain more influence over their surroundings (Forenza et al., 2019). The coalition can help convey to the community the seriousness of the consequences of food insecurity. It may involve volunteers who will be involved in fundraising, purchasing, preparing, and serving food. Local companies such as food vendors can be engaged to donate and provide free or reduced-price products. Organizations in the coalition will be able to provide rooms and locations for preparing and serving hot meals in the summer. If it is possible to involve local transport companies, this will allow organizing a food delivery system for children or their safe transportation to the pickup point. As part of the coalition, food banks can be created where residents can donate food or money.
The community coalition may be assessed using the SWOT analysis. Strengths consist in getting access to the necessary resources for children in need of nutrition. Engaging the community will promote empowerment by fostering a sense of belonging, social cohesiveness, collective efficacy, social capital, and behavioral action (Rupp et al., 2020). Weaknesses are insufficient infrastructure for the development of a coalition and lack of time for members of the society. Opportunities are a healthy environment for all children and less stressful working conditions for teachers (Bornemann & Weiland, 2019). Threats are the possible reluctance of society to support the initiative and a discrepancy between the invested resources and the result obtained in the short term.
Conclusion
Various macro practice theories are used to implement such projects. A practice model of planned change is the most appropriate in this case. It shows how theories may lead to particular actions. It asserts that any entity, whether a group, an organization, or a community, has several pieces. The system requires resources to work – people, equipment, financing, expertise, legitimacy, or a variety of other things. Within the system, these resources interact to produce something that becomes the system’s product. To address nutrition, volunteers and employees, money from different sources, teachers from local schools, concerned parents, and the youngsters themselves may all join together.
References
Bornemann, B., & Weiland, S. (2019). Empowering people—Democratising the food system? Exploring the democratic potential of food-related empowerment forms. Politics and Governance, 7(4), 105-118.
Forenza, B., Lardier Jr, D. T., Reid, R. J., Garcia-Reid, P., & Bermea, A. (2019). Exploring community stress and empowerment among stakeholders and youth in an urban community. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 29(6), 705-721.
Rupp, L. A., Zimmerman, M. A., Sly, K. W., Reischl, T. M., Thulin, E. J., Wyatt, T. A., & Stock, J. J. P. (2020). Community‐engaged neighborhood revitalization and empowerment: Busy streets theory in action. American Journal of Community Psychology, 65(1-2), 90-106.