“If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.” Thomas Jefferson

Like AmeriCorps, FoodCorps volunteers will work in communities identified as having a pressing need, but in the area of school food systems. The recent college graduates will build and tend school gardens and help schools procure more fresh foods from local farms, especially in communities where it’s difficult to find fresh vegetables and unprocessed foods for sale. “We want them to work where child obesity has hit the hardest, and where food access is the toughest,” says Curt Ellis, one of the founders of FoodCorps and co-creator of the documentary “King Corn.”
Not only will the program work to solve childhood obesity, but it also will give young people an avenue into farming, says Ellis, who grew up in the Portland area and now lives in New York. “There’s a growing community of young people entering the work force right now who want to reconnect with agriculture, find real and meaningful work with their hands. … We think (FoodCorps) can be a gateway into careers in food and agriculture.”