Feeding Philadelphia: The Risk
of Food Insecurity in Philadelphia
This is a mock Crisis Communications white paper based on evaluating the risk of food insecurity in North Philadelphia. I was tasked to create a strategy and action oriented campaign to combat this risk, based on real facts and information. This paper was written with the intention of using the City of Philadelphia as a mock employer for this proposal.
Click on the image to read the full paper
From Point A —> to Point B
Although, this was an academic project, we were to treat it as a professional project.
We were asked to pick a topic we could perform a risk assessment on and a corresponding action plan. This meant the topic needed to be something that was a “problem.”
I chose the the rising epidemic of food insecurity and food deserts, especially during and post, Covid-19. Further, I decided to focus on North Philadelphia as it was a core pillar in my life.
I then needed to choose a lens to evaluate this topic under. I chose a care and consensus lens.
“In care and crisis communication, The audiences closest to the center are those most at risk. In consensus communication – the audiences closest to the center are those who want to be the most heavily involved in making the decision” (Lundgren & McMakin, 2018, pg. 194).
From there I needed to evaluate the risk, meaning what impact does the lack of accessible food and grocer options have on the North Philadelphian Community?
I primarily relied on resources like Feeding America (The largest charity working to end hunger in the United States), Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) local studies, and the City of Philadelphia’s recent citywide evaluations.
Once I located reliable and accurate sources, I started to create my paper, including a handful of custom graphs and figures. I focused on major impacts such as life expectancy, incarceration rates, education levels, and health/disease variables.
During the writing process I also had to come up with an Action Plan to “pitch” to the City of Philadelphia. Based on the information I knew about the targeted community (in this case predominantly black and brown low-income inner city communities) I needed to come up with a marketing plan that would help them in this epidemic/crisis.
The goal of my action plan was to create more accessible options for North Philadelphians, as well as provide healthier options, without asking the local community to spend more time or money. the idea was to create healthier and more accessible options, while using the resources the community already had access to.
I then created a variety of visual assets as well as created a budget for the cost of advertising and implementing this plan.
