When school ended last May, senior Dina Vaynerman's work was just beginning. With exams out of the way and final papers passed in, the Minnesota native packed her bags and headed south to begin a summer internship with Share Our Strength (SOS).
SOS is a national hunger issues non-profit organization based out of Washington, D.C. - which Vaynerman was made aware of through the University College of Citizenship and Public Service (UCCPS).
"UCCPS put us in touch - it was basically all set up," said Vaynerman, who received a UCCPS Active Citizenship Summer grant that provided her with a living stipend so that she could pursue an unpaid internship serving the community.
A political science and Russian double major with an interest in event planning, Vaynerman's decision to work for SOS may seem a little surprising. But to her, it made perfect sense: "I really like non-profit work," she said.
She added that this is not her first volunteer opportunity. "I worked at Project Bread - they do the Walk for Hunger," she said. "I also worked for the Massachusetts Cultural Council. They do arts education, like Somerville Art Beat."
As a conference intern at SOS, Vaynerman was able to pursue her interest in event planning while working for a non-profit organization that has played a major role in the fight against hunger in the United States.
"Their mission right now is to end childhood hunger in the U.S. in 20 years," Vaynerman said. "They've raised over $180 million since 1984."
SOS was founded in 1984 by Bill Shore, now the organization's executive director, as a response to the Ethiopian famine. For the past 20 years, Shore has fought hunger through a creative campaign to raise awareness and generate funding.
"He has a very controversial and innovative way of raising money," Vaynerman said of Shore. SOS has created various programs dedicated to ending hunger in the U.S. by inviting members of the community to "share their strengths."
One of the organization's best known programs is "Taste of the Nation," which features food and wine tastings in 55 cities all over North America. Various restaurants volunteer to provide food, and tickets are sold to people in the community with the proceeds going to benefit SOS and local groups working to end hunger.
"Everybody wins: restaurants get good publicity, people get good food and the non-profit organizes the event and gets the proceeds," Vaynerman said.
SOS also runs a community outreach initiative called Operation Frontline, which is sponsored by Tyson Foods, Inc.
"Chefs teach low income people how to cook healthily on their budget," Vaynerman said. "It's chefs sharing their strengths."
While working as an intern at SOS, Vaynerman coordinated a service project. "We fixed up an after-school center for kids that is also a feeding site," Vaynerman said. But her main responsibility during the internship was helping to organize a conference titled "The Next Generation of Leadership: Creating a Hunger-Free Generation in America." The conference brought together leaders from all over the country who have worked to end hunger and promote hunger awareness.
Vaynerman helped plan entertainment for the conference and developed a new program called "Students on the Cutting Edge."
"In a partnership with Henckels Knives, we were able to bring around 20 culinary students to the conference to show them ways that they can give back after they are done with school," Vaynerman said.
The internship culminated in October, when Vaynerman returned to Washington D.C. to attend the conference that she had worked so hard to plan.
At the conference, she learned "how many people are committed to such a great cause, and how many different ways people are getting involved."
Vaynerman also admitted that working at a well-known, national non-profit has its perks. When the movie "The Sentinel" was filming near the SOS office, Vaynerman, digital camera in hand, was sent to recruit the help of some big-name celebrities.
"I got on set, and I took pictures of the director, Kiefer Sutherland, Eva Longoria and Michael Douglas holding a sign that read, 'I'm creating a hunger-free generation,'" Vaynerman said.
When Michael Douglas posed for his shot, he made her retake the photo. "He said my hand was shaking," Vaynerman recalled, laughing.
With or without the celebrity sightings, Vaynerman enthusiastically recommends the internship to other Tufts students. And now, back on campus, Vaynerman - a former business manager for the Daily - is continuing to work for hunger awareness in between playing for the Women's Ultimate Frisbee Team and working in Harvard Law School's Office of Public Interest Advising, where she helps to plan events related to public interest law and pro bono work.
"I have to do something that brings what I did this summer to Tufts," she said.
As a result, Vaynerman chose to set up two displays that highlight the issue of hunger in the U.S. and show how Tufts students are getting involved. The displays will greet students as they enter Carmichael or Dewick dining halls this week, and they will feature "pictures of people on campus who have done something, like people who've put on the hunger banquet or people from Oxfam."
Each picture will be accompanied by a short explanation of how the individual has worked to fight hunger and demonstrating the many ways that students can participate in anti-hunger efforts.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2004, 37 million people in the U.S. were in poverty - an increase of 1.1 million from 2003. It is statistics like these that SOS, Vaynerman, and the Tufts students featured on her display are working against.
"Just working [at SOS] made me really passionate about helping [others] - it makes you really want to do something," she said. "You can't just sit there."
