SocMovments: TACTIC 4

Carlos Bazante

Soc. Movements: MW; Dr. Kubal

TACTIC (4): Chalking/ Flyer

Throughout the semester we (AHHH group) chalked parts of the concrete ground on campus to increase awareness about hunger and food insecurity.  I haven't chalked in a long time (elementary school) which is why I believe the chalking event, that addressed our group's selected issue, was a fun experience. On one event, on the last week of April, our group chalked in the free speech area and in other areas on campus.  We also tried to advertise our upcoming movie showing.  We felt is chalking our movie showing between the Social Science and McKee Fisk buildings was a good location.  We tried to create the chalking big enough so people can see it.  As a group we chose to chalk the most thought provoking findings.  We chalked that one in five children are at risk of hunger in the United States.  We also chalked about hunger on the local level.  In the free speech area we chalked the fact that, in 2012, Fresno was the fifth hungriest metro in the nation.  As well as drawing a pie graph to illustrate the amount of people who are food insecure in Fresno County. 

Our group, A Helping Hand for the Hungry (AHHH), also created flyers that would serve as a tool to help us spread awareness about who we are and what our focus social issue is.  We placed statistical findings on our flyers about food insecurity from FeedAmerica.org website and included other studies that showed, with slight different numbers, Fresno County as one of the top largest cities experiencing hunger.  Our group distributed these flyers over several days.   I have passed out several flyers the past month in between class breaks.  As I gave out these flyers there were many students who felt hunger/ food insecurity were serious social issue worth tackling.  Most students who accepted the flyer were too busy for a quick discussion but assured me that they would take the time to look at our flyer.  I felt that out of both these events, chalking was the most effective.  Chalking can stay at a location for a longer period and can catch the attention of many people at one time.   However, I could have reached more people if I would have chalked more and chalked in more areas.  In distributing the flyers, i would have made it more effective if I would have taken more time to figure out where students are more densely populated at a particular time.