5 Questions with Hannah Segelnick, Island Harvest
Hannah Segelnick is a No Kid Hungry Youth Ambassador working this summer at Island Harvest. The Youth Ambassador program is a ten-week paid internship program for undergraduate students to help end childhood hunger in their communities. Learn more about No Kid Hungry’s youth engagement here.
No Kid Hungry New York spoke with Hannah about the challenges, opportunities, and impact of feeding kids through summer meals.
Can you describe your community? What do you love about it?
My community is caring and thoughtful. I truly love to be part of it. Everyone is supportive and helps with any problem that may occur. Everyone at my company has a passion to help others in need. The sites that I visited were underserved communities. These communities took advantage of the summer food service program and always were so happy to receive free meals for the teens and kids. I loved all the communities I visited, I got to see a range of ages of kids and underserved populations. The sites were always so grateful and thankful. With the help of my community at work and the communities of the sites I visited we were able to be successful in feeding many kids/teens throughout the summer, who may have not been able to receive such nutritious meals to help them grow and have the energy kids/teens need.
How did you decide to become a Youth Ambassador? What have you learned from the experience so far?
I knew I was graduating undergrad in May and was looking for a unique summer opportunity. I came across an advertisement for the youth ambassador internship job. I read the description and knew this was the perfect fit for me. The perfect opportunity for the summer before I start grad school. As I graduated with a BS in Nutrition and Dietetics and will be continuing my education in grad school. This opportunity helped me learn so many new things that I truly believe helped me further my education in food insecurity and nutrition. I was privileged to work with Island Harvest Food Bank, they are a leading hunger relief organization. The mission of this company is to end hunger and reduce food waste on Long Island. Thanks to No Kid Hungry I got to be a part of helping with their mission this summer. I learnt how many little details go into one program (Summer Food Service Program). I am a monitor for 10 sites that Island Harvest sponsors. I helped to make sure that these sites were following all the regulations and food safety requirements, by having this job I learnt for my self what regulations and food safety rules were required and together with my sites I helped to make sure they were able to serve the kids free summer meals.
What are the most memorable parts of your experience as a Youth Ambassador?
The most memorable and fun part of my experience as a youth ambassador is being able to give nutrition education sessions. When a kid said, “I have never tried an apple before” and we were able to show her how tasty an apple is, that was just so memorable and made me happy to be a part of teaching nutrition education. At a lunch session at one of my open sites the mom said that her child tried carrots for the first time because the other kids were eating them. Now, he loves carrots! I was so happy to hear this.
What are some of the challenges you or your organization are facing?
The challenge we faced during the summer food service program was making sure in the beginning that all the sites were trained on the regulations that had to be followed such as eating the full meals together and not letting the kids take the meals to go. For one of my open sites the children did not want to sit together and eat the meals
If you could tell everyone in America something about childhood hunger or summer meals programs, what would you tell them?
I would tell them that summer meals programs are very important and so many kids benefit from this program by getting the correct nutrients needed. During summer, kids/teens that rely on school for free meals benefit so much from this program. Children face food insecurity everyday – with the summer food service program this stress is reduced. Kids are at the age where every meal counts and missing meals can have a negative effect on growth, learning, and social situations.