Delta Grassroots Caucus Events

Credit Michael Hibblen/ KUAR News, Arkansas Public Radio; Former President Bill Clinton speaking to the Delta Grassroots Caucus on May 2, 2013, at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service, Little Rock

U. S. Senator John Boozman, Arkansas, at a Delta Grassroots Caucus meeting at the US Capitol

Brad Cole, Executive Director of the Municipal League of Illinois; previously a senior aide to former Republican US Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois, earlier Mayor of Carbondale, Illinois, veteran Delta regional advocate, speaking at the Delta regional conference in West Memphis, Arkansas on April 26, 2019.

President Bill Clinton makes a comment to Delta Caucus Director Lee Powell at a meeting in Blytheville, Arkansas (in the northeast Arkansas Delta) on Nov. 2, 2014

The Delta Caucus would like to pay tribute to the late, great U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, a powerful force in the US Senate for decades and a champion for the Delta. Sen. Cochran passed away on May 30, 2019. He spoke to the Delta Caucus on many occasions over the years (he is pictured above speaking to a Caucus event on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC) and his thoughtful, courteous and bipartisan leadership will be sorely missed.

Marcie Lawson, Executive Director, Sikeston, Missouri Regional Chamber and Area Economic Development Corporation, speaking at the Delta regional conference in West Memphis, Arkansas on April 26, 2019.

Alan Gumbel, Greater Memphis Alliance for a Competitive Workforce, Memphis, Tennessee, speaking at the Delta regional conference in West Memphis, Arkansas on April 26, 2019.

Mayor Shirley Washington of Pine Bluff, AR, speaking to the Delta Caucus at the Arkansas Capitol Rotunda in 2017.

Opportunity: Hunger Free America's Summer Associate Program 2021 on Hunger, Nutrition and Poverty

Posted on March 08, 2021 at 04:32 PM

Hunger Free America to Host 10-Week AmeriCorps VISTA associates this Summer for Hunger, Nutrition and Poverty Issues

March 8, 2021

The Delta Caucus would like to make our partners aware of this great opportunity presented by nationally recognized hunger and poverty expert Joel Berg, CEO of the national Hunger Free America organization:

Hunger Free America’s Summer Associate Program 2021

Hunger Free America is now recruiting sites to host 10-week AmeriCorps VISTA associates this summer for outreach and site work for summer meals programs, as well as other appropriate summer anti-hunger and anti-poverty activities.

Nonprofit groups (including food banks, soup kitchens, food pantries, gleaning groups, etc), tribal governments, state child nutrition agencies, and school districts, all could be eligible to host VISTAs over the summer.

You can type in the link here to use if they are potentially interested in applying to host one or more VISTAs this year: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdxQ0C38fwbORI6-rS-HwrynKSIeOKvgDYclt3QJLGGta8ctw/viewform (PLEASE NOTE—this is not a direct link so you will have to type it in manually)

If you have any questions about this, please do not hesitate to reach out to CEO Joel Berg at(718) 362-0471 at his New York headquarters or the Hunger Free America VISTA Director, Ms. Vicky Dumbuya: VDumbuya@hungerfreeamerica.org, 212-825-0028 x 219.

The Hunger Free America website is at www.hungerfreeamerica.org

More information on Hunger Free America’s Summer Associate Program 2021

The Summer Associate program is a short-term, summer-only complement to our full-year VISTA program. Through this program, we place 80 members nationwide at organizations for 10 weeks.

You can request as many members as you feel you have the capacity to support. While in the program, members will receive a bi-weekly living allowance from the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS).

After successful completion of the program, members will receive an education award, that can be used for future schooling or to pay of past loans, or a cash stipend.

Members will focus primarily on strengthening the capacity of the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) by enhancing awareness and educating families. Members will also focus on the following tasks:

• Summer Meals outreach (street canvassing)

• Directly serving summer meals

• Researching ways to promote summer meals

• Provide education for and increase access to security resources, including SNAP, WIC, and other local resources

• Recruiting volunteers

• Improve access to nutritious food options by building the capacity and sustainability of farmers markets, community gardens, and/or nutrition education programs.

• COVID-19 response, which will include helping staff hunger hotlines, help collect data on food availability for hunger hotlines and web listings, help struggling families access food benefits via phone and by computer and/or smart phone.

Given the current COVID-19 crisis and the uncertainty of how long it will continue, VISTA positions may need to be altered to meet stay-at-home and social distancing orders. Depending on where we are when members begin their service, they might have to serve remotely so have a plan for that.

Cost Share

We ask that partners pay a cost share for members, if they are able to, based on the following:

Org. Budget: Match for 1 summer associate: Match per subsequent summer associate:

$0 - $250K: $56.78 $42.59

$250,001 - $500K: $289.58 $217.18

$500,001 - $1M: $579.15 $434.36

$1,000,001 - $5M: $868.73 $651.54

$5,000,001+: $1,158.29 $868.48

If you are interested in applying to host one or more summer VISTAs, please complete the short application you can find on the Hunger Free America Link by March 12th.

If you fill out the form you will need to fill out the following information on the Hunger Free America link: Organization name and address

Name, email address, and phone number for the contact person

How many members are you requesting? Please provide details about the key objectives of the position and the tasks that will be assigned to the member(s).

If your member(s) will serve onsite, please provide details about the safety precautions you have in place for COVID-19.