The Hunger Project
SEMESTER 1:
First semester, students conducted ethnographic field work to learn about food access issues in San Diego's neighborhoods (Hunger 'n the Hoods - see below). These studies are currently being used to determine the location of an event students are hosting in May 2015 to bring awareness to these issues. The event will feature the Reel Delicious Food Truck, a student run, non-profit food truck started by students during the Food Truck Project last year.
As part of this project, students also completed short films about a hunger that they have for themselves, their communities, or the world. Working with local filmmakers, students went through the process of making a film from creating a logline and script or treatment to completing final edits. Their films address their hunger for things such as the hunger for acceptance, happiness, and gender equality. Links to videos below.
LINKS: (click on hyperlinked film name)
1. Detached. A film about acceptance of people with learning disabilities.
2. Suzuki in America. A film about an international student
3. :). A film about happiness.
3. Vice Versa. A film about gender inequality.
Unedited (in the process of changing to reflect process now complete).
Aug 25th - September 25: Hunger 'n the Hoods
During the first month of school, students explored the relationship between food and the development of social class by reading works by authors such as Jared Diamond's "The Worst Mistake in the Human Race." Then they explored factors that influence whether an individual or family have access to quality food today. With a better understanding of the issue, they designed research questions and turning their attention to San Diego's neighborhoods to look at the intersection between access to food and the various factors of influence. These studies will be used to inform where we will host our first exhibition: A Reverse Pop-Up Restaurant. What does this mean? It means that we will sell plates of food to donors who will be donating so that a member of the designated community can have a free meal. This meal will be held in late October.
September 26 - November 21st: Hunger: The Film
During the next eight weeks, students will engage in a series of workshops facilitated by the San Diego Film Festival in order to become critical consumers of media and to learn how to create a short film of their own. All students will be tasked with creating a 2 minute film on the theme of hunger, be it social, emotional, political, or biological. The hope is to screen these films on the U.S. Mexico border with either collaborators in film creation in Tijuana or an international audience that encourages future collaboration with other filmmakers in Tijuana.
Ongoing: Throughout the semester, we'll be exploring theories on social stratifications and analyze class systems found, historically and in present day, throughout the world. Students will examine at slavery, the caste system, apartheid, and even the American Dream and how they intersect with theories, such as Marxism. Lastly, they will read Nickel and Dimed, a book about (not) getting by in America.
Spanish: Over the course of the first semester, students will be learning acting skills for their hunger films in Spanish. They will learn the basics of acting and put them to use as they work through new language and cultural concepts.
SEMESTER 2:
Reel Delicious 2.0
Second semester, we continued the Hunger Project, but we turned our attention to the Reel Delicious food truck to put on a community meet & greet, a free dinner for members of various San Diego neighborhoods to talk about and problem solve around issues they face in their own communities. In order to do this, students worked in one of eight different committees: finance, legal, truck, audio-visual, events, public relations, development, and cooking. Over the course of the semester, these committees worked together to put on a large event. The cooking team worked independently and with local chefs to develop and refine menu items for the event. The development team worked to raise funds to carry out the event and to move the mission of the truck, to promote cultural understanding through food and film, forward. The public relations team, for example, worked to promote the event using social media, creating digital designs, and connecting with new community members.
Community Eat & Greet
On May 21st, 2015, students hosted the first HTH Community Eat & Greet. Over 50 members from 18 different San Diego neighborhoods joined together to interact with students about their learning from Semester 1, including their neighborhood studies and movies, but also presented a new "process" film about this project, a food demo that showed the thought behind students' culinary creations, and an interactive, student facilitated, collaborative discussion and problem solving session around hungers participants have for their own communities over a carefully prepared meal created by students. The event required a lot of planning, collaboration, and coordination. Each student committee was integral to the success of the event, and students planned an executed an amazing experience.
First semester, students conducted ethnographic field work to learn about food access issues in San Diego's neighborhoods (Hunger 'n the Hoods - see below). These studies are currently being used to determine the location of an event students are hosting in May 2015 to bring awareness to these issues. The event will feature the Reel Delicious Food Truck, a student run, non-profit food truck started by students during the Food Truck Project last year.
As part of this project, students also completed short films about a hunger that they have for themselves, their communities, or the world. Working with local filmmakers, students went through the process of making a film from creating a logline and script or treatment to completing final edits. Their films address their hunger for things such as the hunger for acceptance, happiness, and gender equality. Links to videos below.
LINKS: (click on hyperlinked film name)
1. Detached. A film about acceptance of people with learning disabilities.
2. Suzuki in America. A film about an international student
3. :). A film about happiness.
3. Vice Versa. A film about gender inequality.
Unedited (in the process of changing to reflect process now complete).
Aug 25th - September 25: Hunger 'n the Hoods
During the first month of school, students explored the relationship between food and the development of social class by reading works by authors such as Jared Diamond's "The Worst Mistake in the Human Race." Then they explored factors that influence whether an individual or family have access to quality food today. With a better understanding of the issue, they designed research questions and turning their attention to San Diego's neighborhoods to look at the intersection between access to food and the various factors of influence. These studies will be used to inform where we will host our first exhibition: A Reverse Pop-Up Restaurant. What does this mean? It means that we will sell plates of food to donors who will be donating so that a member of the designated community can have a free meal. This meal will be held in late October.
September 26 - November 21st: Hunger: The Film
During the next eight weeks, students will engage in a series of workshops facilitated by the San Diego Film Festival in order to become critical consumers of media and to learn how to create a short film of their own. All students will be tasked with creating a 2 minute film on the theme of hunger, be it social, emotional, political, or biological. The hope is to screen these films on the U.S. Mexico border with either collaborators in film creation in Tijuana or an international audience that encourages future collaboration with other filmmakers in Tijuana.
Ongoing: Throughout the semester, we'll be exploring theories on social stratifications and analyze class systems found, historically and in present day, throughout the world. Students will examine at slavery, the caste system, apartheid, and even the American Dream and how they intersect with theories, such as Marxism. Lastly, they will read Nickel and Dimed, a book about (not) getting by in America.
Spanish: Over the course of the first semester, students will be learning acting skills for their hunger films in Spanish. They will learn the basics of acting and put them to use as they work through new language and cultural concepts.
SEMESTER 2:
Reel Delicious 2.0
Second semester, we continued the Hunger Project, but we turned our attention to the Reel Delicious food truck to put on a community meet & greet, a free dinner for members of various San Diego neighborhoods to talk about and problem solve around issues they face in their own communities. In order to do this, students worked in one of eight different committees: finance, legal, truck, audio-visual, events, public relations, development, and cooking. Over the course of the semester, these committees worked together to put on a large event. The cooking team worked independently and with local chefs to develop and refine menu items for the event. The development team worked to raise funds to carry out the event and to move the mission of the truck, to promote cultural understanding through food and film, forward. The public relations team, for example, worked to promote the event using social media, creating digital designs, and connecting with new community members.
Community Eat & Greet
On May 21st, 2015, students hosted the first HTH Community Eat & Greet. Over 50 members from 18 different San Diego neighborhoods joined together to interact with students about their learning from Semester 1, including their neighborhood studies and movies, but also presented a new "process" film about this project, a food demo that showed the thought behind students' culinary creations, and an interactive, student facilitated, collaborative discussion and problem solving session around hungers participants have for their own communities over a carefully prepared meal created by students. The event required a lot of planning, collaboration, and coordination. Each student committee was integral to the success of the event, and students planned an executed an amazing experience.