Immaculate Heart Students Explore Food Insecurity Through Service Learning Course

This summer, 13 Immaculate Heart students immersed themselves in the course, From Hunger to Hope: Food Insecurity in Los Angeles and the United States, a weeklong Service Learning experience that combined critical inquiry and hands-on volunteer work to better understand one of our city’s most pressing challenges.

Throughout the five-day program, students examined the causes and consequences of food insecurity through data analysis, guided discussions, and other sources while engaging directly with organizations working to combat hunger across Los Angeles.

Each day centered around encouraging students to think deeply about issues of access, equity, nutrition, public policy, and community responsibility. They explored the effectiveness of government and nonprofit initiatives, and innovative approaches to creating a more food-secure future.

The week began with visits to local grocery stores, where students compared food costs and availability, then created meal plans based on limited budgets, gaining firsthand insight into the difficult choices many families face every day.

Students then volunteered at the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, sorting fresh produce destined for community pantries and kitchens throughout the region while learning about the organization’s large-scale efforts to address hunger.

At Project Angel Food, they stepped into the kitchen to prepare and package medically tailored meals for neighbors living with serious illnesses, experiencing how nutritious food functions as an essential component of healthcare.

The course concluded with a day of service at St. Francis Center, where students served breakfast to unhoused community members and learned about the organization’s comprehensive support programs. Back on campus, they next prepared a homemade meal to deliver to the women and children of Alexandria House as part of the organization’s Top Chef program, continuing a longstanding relationship between the Immaculate Heart school community and the ministry.

More than an academic exercise, the course embodied Immaculate Heart’s enduring values and the school’s motto, Maria Immaculata Nostra, with students bringing hope to those in need while embracing the call to be women of great heart and right conscience by serving others.

Connecting scholarship with service, IH’s From Hunger to Hope class challenged students not only to understand food insecurity but also to recognize their own capacity to make a meaningful difference.