Julie Coen first post

Hello all! My name is Julie Coen, and I am a rising sophomore considering a major in either business or international studies. From birth until this past August, I lived in Kingston, Tennessee, a small town near Knoxville. When I first came to Memphis, I was most impressed by the sheer number of restaurants and local businesses but most surprised by the lack of a distinct center of the city and the way everything is so spread out. Now, I continue to be surprised by the remarkable juxtapositions that Memphis maintains. I can see beautiful houses right next to fractured roads and individuals asking for money, conventional shopping malls peddling brand names not far from cute stores selling everything from yoga mats to homemade candy, and even upscale restaurants mere minutes before the end of my drive each day to a church that daily gives food to individuals in need.

I am working at the First Congregational Church’s Food Justice Ministries. This is a set of programs which attempts to alleviate current hunger as well as take a holistic approach to understanding the systems that affect what and how we eat and especially to breaking what my supervisor Molly calls the cycle of food insecurity. I chose this organization for that very reason, because it acknowledges individuals and their diverse experiences related to food but also emphasizes the bigger picture of food availability or lack thereof in Memphis and even trends at the societal level.

Each day has been a different adventure so far! I have worked in the community garden, prepared and served meals, interacted with volunteers and clients by listening to their backstories and current opinions, distributed typical canned food as well as fresh greens and bread, researched refrigeration options, created a printout to improve how we record attendance, and met with a number of people to discuss the future of the organization as it moves into an entirely new area in a different part of the building. And this has just been the first week! Later this summer, I expect to cultivate relationships with repeat volunteers and clients, learn about a cool new software which will hopefully simplify current methods of keeping up with information, participate in training by the Mid-South Food Bank from which we buy much of our food, work at the farmers’ market and Global Goods store, and especially assist with moving to the new space and take part in conversations about this organization in the long term.

I think service is partly about contradicting the theory from international studies and other disciplines that interactions can be understood as a zero-sum game, meaning that a country or person can only be gaining and winning while another one is losing. The first article that we read points out, somewhat facetiously, that equality is threatening because it can rob us of our security and freedom. However, as my supervisor Molly has said, the problem is definitely not that there is too little food in Memphis. I think service is about suppressing our own fears and desires in order to disbelieve the idea that making sure everyone is fed will ultimately turn us into losers in some hypothetical game and increase our own hunger. I am motivated to serve because I think we all benefit from trying to improve the social organization of our civilization. Maybe I am overly ambitious and too influenced by recent classes in international studies and sociology, but I see service as the unique act of helping individuals in a way which goes beyond individuals to change systems and perceptions and benefit society at large.