My AmeriCorps Story

People and communities are not waste.

Yesterday, I became one of the estimated 32,000 people who lost their AmeriCorps positions. AmeriCorps is, per its website, “the federal agency for national service and volunteerism.” AmeriCorps members provide disaster relief, plant trees, restore habitats, rehabilitate animals, build hiking trails, fight food insecurity, tutor school children, and mentor teens. That’s just the beginning. The sum of it is that AmeriCorps programs invest in people and in communities.

What the cuts to AmeriCorps communicate is this: people and communities are not worth investing in. They are “waste.”

The organization that I worked with as an AmeriCorps member fights food insecurity while working with families to build resources for the future. It collaborates, listens, and responds.

My role as a health advocate focusing on diabetes came about because families were asking for recipes that were diabetic-friendly. They wanted resources for preventing and living with diabetes. In my position, I developed those resources, worked with other community organizations, and helped with a high school cooking club that introduces students to cooking and nutrition. They, and I, tried our hands and taste buds at sushi, cottage cheese chocolate chip cookie dough, Boba, and matcha; we tried leeks and new veggies, and learned how to safely extract pomegranate seeds.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

It is honestly one of the most rewarding roles I have had.

It was also one of the most humbling.

It’s so easy to say, “just eat healthy” or to claim that it costs the same to eat healthy as it does to eat less so. That’s not true. It’s especially difficult in rural America, where transit can be tricky and the grocery stores are few. The reality is that eating healthy costs more in terms of time (planning) and money.

Whole grain pasta, quinoa, whole wheat bread and fresh veggies and fruits—those things that don’t spike blood sugars and crash them again, and that have actual nutritious value?

They aren’t cheap. They cost more than the super-processed foods that are major contributors to diabetes and heart disease.

And they’re not easy to find at the dollar stores that comprise the most convenient or only place to shop for a lot of people. (Trust me. I did my shopping at such a store one day. There was no whole grain pasta to be found. The whole grain bread was over twice what the white bread was).

I got to see these challenges first hand. And in a small way, I helped people see how small changes can have a big impact on their health now and in the future.

I was angry yesterday—sick—to receive notice. These cuts are so short sighted. AmeriCorps members fill in the gaps in a society that leaves so many behind, and focus on neglected and undeserved rural communities. AmeriCorps also helps people like me grow as they deepen their understandings of themselves and how they want to engage as citizens in their community and the world. There is nothing wasteful about that.

That’s my AmeriCorps story.

I’d love to hear yours.