UR Action is teaming up with Georgetown University in DC and Wilson College in Franklin County, PA this fall to implement a joint service learning course composed of students from Georgetown's Environmental Justice course and Wilson's Food, Culture, and Society class. Students will enhance their abilities to analyze social, environmental, economic, and political contexts and apply them to analyze their surroundings in DC and Franklin County, PA.

After conducting systems maps that highlight interrelated causes of food insecurity and environmental injustice, mixed Georgetown/Wilson student teams will use newly acquired project design skills to implement a food + environmental justice project in collaboration with a local community organization. Students will implement projects that fall into one of the following three categories:

• ​Restoration projects, such as organizing student participation in a hands-on activity such as trail maintenance, tree planting, trash clean-up, composting, food recovery, urban agriculture, etc.
• Advocacy efforts, such as aiming to influence local or university legislation on an issue that impacts food and environmental justice, such as re-distributing food credits to people in need
• ​Research, such as conducting focus group discussions / key informant interviews to understand food and environmental justice impact on different populations in DC and/or Franklin County

Franklin County, PA

• Population density: 168 people per square mile
• 89% white, 5% Hispanic, 4% black
• Median property value: $176,000
• President Trump won 71% of the vote in '16. 
• Includes Waynesboro, a borough of 10,568 people, and home to "Super Decathlon" event in Aug '18

Washington, D.C.

• Population density: 11,535 people per square mile
• 48% black, 40% white
• Median property value: $563,000
• President Trump won 4% of the vote in '16.
• Home to the first UR Action office (and White House and Congress)