Internship Reflections: Exploring the Right to Food Advocacy Landscape in the United States
- Photini Kamvisseli Saurez
- Jun 13
- 4 min read
By Peppi DelliQuadri, West Virginia University
Today’s guest post is from Peppi DelliQuadri, a student at West Virginia University who took part in a collaborative internship this spring between WVU’s Center for Resilient Communities and the National Right to Food Community of Practice. Peppi shares his reflections on the work he and a fellow intern, Andrew Indomenico, undertook to help us reach out to members about their ongoing work, right to food priorities, and current challenges. Peppi and Andrew’s internship helped us as we prepared our submission to the UN Universal Periodic Review process and to think about how we can represent the breadth of work of our growing network.
We are grateful to Peppi for taking the time to share his reflections with the Community of Practice and to both he and Andrew for their contributions this spring.
As part of the Spring 2025 Resilient Communities Internship cohort at West Virginia University, Andrew Indomenico and I collaborated with the National Right to Food Community of Practice (CoP), a network of individuals and organizations across the United States engaging in efforts to recognize and codify food as a human right at local and state levels. Andrew and I interviewed CoP members around the country who are working to progress the right to food, spread knowledge about food sovereignty and food justice, and fight against the many food violations that are present in the United States today.
We wanted to hear from organizations working to improve the food system about what they see as the biggest food violations present and about how improvements to the food system are being prevented. Our action research goals were to better understand:
The key right to food challenges members were working to overcome
The right to food resources members were using, and what other resources were needed
The current scope and reach of the network, including the places and contexts within which members were organizing around the right to food.
Although we learned about many issues and violations, it was encouraging to see individuals and organizations engaged in positive efforts.
Exploring key right to food concerns and priorities
With the help of the CoP, Andrew and I invited 41 member organizations to take part in an online interview. We completed 20 interviews over the course of two weeks, interviewing nearly 10% of the CoP membership. These 30 minute interviews offered valuable insight into the issues and violations different right to food organizations across the country are facing. The transcripts from these interviews were analyzed by the project team, and key quotations and themes were used in the CoP’s joint submission to the United Nations Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process.
Andrew and I also sent out an online survey to CoP members to understand more about their priority issues, partnership working, and challenges. These surveys asked members to rank how well the right to food was being realized in the geographic area in which they worked based on a series of statements about the five dimensions of the right to food (availability, accessibility, adequacy, sustainability, and agency). Members then were asked to reflect on these rankings and share any final comments. Of the 225 CoP members who received the survey via email, 54 responded, resulting in a 24% response rate.
Mapping the Membership
A map was created to better showcase the geographical reach of the CoP and to offer more insight into each of the CoP member organizations. We included information shared by the members through online surveys, such as mission statements, geographic reach, beneficiaries, and funding sources.
We found that the CoP member organizations are largely concentrated in the Northeast, Upper Midwest, and Western states, and there are far fewer present in the Southeast, Lower Midwest, and Great Plains. There has been agreement throughout the CoP that the map will help bridge the gap between organizations and be a useful tool for connecting those that would otherwise have difficulty finding each other.
Key findings
Andrew and I found that there is large agreement throughout the CoP about major right to food issues and violations in the United States, and the diverse approaches to progressing and increasing interest in the right to food across member organizations and geographical locations.
While there are many violations of the right to food in the United States, the most common our research uncovered was the simple fact that many people suffer from food insecurity in this country. The issue does not lie in the production of food; the United States is a powerhouse in the agriculture industry. Global agricultural systems produce enough food to feed every person on earth; if it were equally distributed, we could feed an additional billion people (Kummu, 2012). A lack of food is not the root cause of hunger, it is a lack of access to available food, and a food system that is not designed to benefit people and the planet. We interviewed several right to food leaders and advocates who do not believe food can be realized as a human right in a country that prioritizes profit in the food system.
Lessons learned
Our research revealed not only widespread right to food violations across the United States, but the critical role that grassroots organizations and community advocates play in fighting these injustices. While structural barriers such as corporate control over the food system, inequitable subsidy distribution, and the criminalization of poverty continue to impede progress, the commitment of right to food advocates across the country offers a positive vision for a healthier and equitable future for food.
