Jobs/Roles in the ECE Community: National/Federal Level

This week, I explored the web to find three national organizations or federal agencies that work to foster the well-being of children, families, and the early childhood field. I chose them because I like and align with their vision and mission statements. The two last ones also align with the challenge I am addressing in the Capstone Project. They work with policymakers to establish positive changes that include plant-based food in schools and promote healthy eating in children.

National Head Start Association

The National Head Start Association's mission is to unite, inspire, and support the Head Start field as a leader in early childhood development and education (NHSA, n.d.). NHSA is committed to the belief that every child, regardless of circumstances at birth, has the ability to succeed in life. They are the voice for more than 1 million children, 275,000 staff, and 1,600 grant recipients in the United States. Since 1974, NHSA has worked for policy changes that ensure all income-eligible children have access to the Head Start model (NHSA, n.d.).

Zero to Three

Zero to Three provides professionals working with very young children and their families an extensive collection of resources aimed at supporting their work with infants and toddlers. Zero to Three’s website has a lot of valuable resources about different topics, including a section about Health and Nutrition that I found helpful for parents and caregivers. I even found a great article titled What can we do to prevent childhood obesity? (Zero to Three, 2005) that serves me as a resource for my Capstone Project challenge.

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

The Physicians Committee is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in Washington, DC. Their efforts are dramatically changing the way doctors treat chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and cancer. By putting prevention over pills, doctors empower their patients to take control of their own health. Their staff of physicians, dietitians, and scientists is working with policymakers, industry, the medical community, the media, and the public to create a better future for people and animals (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, n.d.).

Its mission is to save and improve human and animal lives through plant-based diets and ethical and effective scientific research. Their vision is to create a healthier world through a new emphasis on plant-based nutrition and scientific research conducted ethically, without using animals.

The website has a section, Nutrition for Kids, with info about plant-based diets for infants, children, and teens. They also provide information about healthy school food, the benefits of plant-based school meals, plant-powered school districts, and many resourceful articles about related topics.

Coalition for Healthy School Food

The Coalition for Healthy School Food (CHSF) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that introduces plant-based foods and nutrition education in schools to educate the whole school community about the health, environmental, and social justice issues of our food choices (Coalition for Healthy School Food, n.d.).

Part of what the CHSF makes include: support for school food change, developing and distributing plant-based entrees, helping schools market plant-based entrees, training for school cooks, participating in school health and wellness fairs, providing family dinner nights that includes plant-based meal, speaker, and children’s activities, produce conferences and workshops, and policy change.

I searched for job/career opportunities on the websites of the different organizations and found some positions that interested me. For example, I am intrigued by the Annual Fund Manager position at the Zero to Three webpage. It seems like an excellent opportunity to put into practice everything I have learned during my master’s degree in Administration, Management, and Leadership. This role requires strong organizational skills, oral and written communication skills, attention to detail, technical aptitude and proficiency with Microsoft Office, and a minimum of three years of experience. 

I also found volunteer and internship opportunities with the Coalition for Healthy School Food. The volunteer options include teaching, cooking, childcare to help with the Food UnEarthed Curriculum, Cool School Food in the Classroom, Family & Consumer Sciences Cooking Classes, After School Cooking Classes, and more during the school day. Also, administrative, tech, social media and marketing, and recipe development opportunities. I would love to participate as a volunteer with the Coalition for Healthy School Food. To serve as a volunteer, I need disposition, passion, commitment, leadership, strong work ethic, team player, interpersonal and communication skills, ability to learn quickly, and enthusiasm. I have all the skills to do a great job and do my bit. The Coalition for Healthy School Food is located in Ithaca, New York.

References

Coalition for Healthy School Food. (n.d.) About us. https://healthyschoolfood.org/wp/about-us/

NHSA. (n.d.). About NHSA. https://nhsa.org/about-nhsa/

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. (n.d.). About us. https://www.pcrm.org/about-us

Zero to Three. (2005). What can we do to prevent childhood obesity? https://www.zerotothree.org/resources/355-what-can-we-do-to-prevent-childhood-obesity