Hopkins Students Take Classroom Lessons on Food Justice Into Greater New Haven

On a spring morning, Hopkins School students left their classrooms and headed into Greater New Haven carrying large blue bags filled with food. By the end of the day, they had helped deliver 500 pounds of rescued food to housing authorities, church food pantries, and other community organizations.

But the experience was about more than volunteering. It gave students an opportunity to better understand the social, economic, and environmental factors that contribute to food insecurity—and to learn from local organizations already working to address them.

The trip brought together students from three Hopkins courses—Nature Literature, Introduction to Economics, and Introduction to Social Justice—for an interdisciplinary exploration of food justice.

“The field trip left students with a great sense of community pride and a better understanding of the social, economic, and environmental gaps in our society that leave many at risk,” said Shanti Madison, a Hopkins English teacher who taught the Nature Literature course.

For Hopkins student Mikoto Araki-Siegenfeld ’26, learning alongside students from other classes added another dimension to the experience.

“I appreciated learning alongside students from other classes because we were able to open our discussions more and have opinions from a wider range of perspectives,” Mikoto said. “It was also fun to be able to volunteer with and work with students whom I don’t normally work with.”

Learning From Greater New Haven

Students visited two local nonprofit organizations working to address food insecurity: Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen (D.E.S.K.) in New Haven and Haven’s Harvest in Hamden.

At D.E.S.K., students sorted and prepared food for community members. At Haven’s Harvest, they learned about food recovery—the process of rescuing safe, usable food that might otherwise be discarded and redirecting it to people and organizations that can use it.

Students also helped transport recovered food to distribution sites throughout the area and spoke with staff members about their work and the communities they serve.

“Being able to see food justice in full stride and action was one of the pieces that made this trip successful,” said Hopkins teacher Dante Brito, who co-teaches Introduction to Social Justice. “The students got to literally see some of the things that they learn about happen in real time.”

For students, the day provided a chance not only to contribute, but also to listen and learn from people doing this work every day in Greater New Haven.

Connecting the Classroom to the Community

The collaboration began when Madison and Hopkins history teacher Edwardo Perez recognized connections between what students were studying in Nature Literature and Economics.

Nature Literature students were examining agriculture, food systems, and the relationship between people and the natural environment. Economics students were considering how economic systems can contribute to disparities in access and opportunity.

The following year, Hopkins Director of Equity and Community Becky Harper and Brito joined the collaboration, bringing students from Introduction to Social Justice into the project.

“There’s such an easy interdisciplinary connection between the three,” Perez said. “The collaboration was a no-brainer.”

Before visiting D.E.S.K. and Haven’s Harvest, students examined food insecurity through the different lenses of their courses, studying topics including agriculture and the environment, economic inequality, redlining, and unequal access to nutritious food.

The goal was to help students understand that food insecurity rarely exists in isolation.

“Going on this field trip took the concepts we taught in class and made them tangible and concrete,” Harper said. “There are so many organizations like D.E.S.K. and Haven’s Harvest that are trying to fix social problems within our immediate area. It’s much more important to actually meet those people instead of just talking about them.”

The experience also changed how Mikoto thought about food justice. Before the trip, she largely understood it as providing food to people who lacked access. Meeting local organizations and seeing their work firsthand revealed a more complicated picture.

“The trip expanded my understanding,” she said, explaining that people experiencing food insecurity are often affected by interconnected economic and social challenges.

Learning Through Service

For the Hopkins teachers involved, the experience demonstrated what can happen when students connect what they study in different subjects with what is happening in the community around them.

Students brought together ideas from literature, economics, environmental studies, and social justice while contributing to organizations serving Greater New Haven.

“The students seemed to have really enjoyed the field trip,” Perez said. “The smiles on their faces—they were doing something that really mattered.”

For Hopkins, experiences like this create opportunities for students to learn beyond the boundaries of a single classroom. For the students who participated, the day offered something equally important: the chance to better understand their neighbors, learn from local organizations, and see how issues discussed in class are playing out just a few miles from campus.

They returned to Hopkins with a deeper understanding of food insecurity—and the knowledge that their work had helped redirect 500 pounds of food to organizations serving their Greater New Haven neighbors.

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