“During the first semester, I really enjoyed the opportunities to volunteer at the organizations in Durham that we studied. When diving into the operations and logistics of Root Causes, I already had the background knowledge and firsthand experience of volunteering there as well as seeing Duke Campus Farms, so I feel like the entire experience was full circle and allowed me to truly understand the food systems network in Durham.” – Jordan Troob

“Engaging directly with community partners and stakeholders has been incredibly insightful, allowing me to gain a deeper understanding of the complexities surrounding this issue. I found the volunteer activities at Feed My Sheep and Root Causes to be my favorite aspects of the class as it allowed my peers and myself to really interact with community members and organizational leaders. The opportunity to contribute to real-world projects and initiatives aimed at addressing food insecurity has been both rewarding and meaningful.” – Deven Gupta

“My favorite part of the class was definitely designing the survey and even more so looking at the results as it allowed us to put everything, we had learned to create a tangible product. It was also interesting to think about the importance of using precise speech in wording the survey questions to try to make them as fair and neutral as possible. It was also satisfying to look at the results, even though they were not as many as we had hoped, particularly the qualitative responses to the open-ended questions we had asked at the end.” – Husna Khan

“We were able to learn outside of the classroom the second half of the semester, which I truly appreciated. It’s one thing to learn through textbooks and readings but another to observe and interact with the communities our research focuses on.” – Habiba Koureichi