Food For All Chalking

Andreas Wenzel

Soc. 122: Social Movements

Chalking

On Monday, February the nineteenth, our Food For All social movements group took part in a sidewalk chalking exercise on the Fresno State campus to help spread awareness about food insecurity on the local, state, national, and international levels. It was a great hands-on experience that really resonated with me, my classmates, and also many students walking passed. The sight of our group writing in giant, bright colored letters seemed to catch the immediate attention of students walking by, repeatedly taking pause to read the statistics of who and how much people are affected by the issue at each individual chalking.

It was a great feeling to take part in such an instantly effective, hands-on tactic. We were essentially constructing instant billboards, advertising not a product, but awareness of an issue that is silently experienced by millions (of Americans at least) every single day, yet keeping tools and costs to a minimum. These billboards filled large, approximately 8'x8' or larger slabs of concrete on walkways that are located in a major hub of the campus (near the library) frequented by thousands of students daily, analogous to that of a major arterial conjunction. Feeling the grittiness of the chalk on my fingertips followed by the view of dozens taking the time to read the passages was such an instantly gratifying experience. I had a front-row seat to witness the transfer of such thought-provoking knowledge here in the wealthiest, most profitable of nations, and got to see facial expressions change from that of curiousness to that of concern, question, and disbelief.

Based simply on what I observed within the hour of our chalking event, I know it was an effective tactic, and probably one of my favorites. I don't think anyone walking passed the chalkings who wasn't already in the middle of an important conversation could have gotten by without notice and having the information imprinted within their psyche. A few things I would do differently, however, would be a little more pre-planning for creative phrases and art to attach to the information to make it that much more difficult to miss or forget, as well as more time spent chalking itself to have even more, larger, and more detailed individual chalkings. Also, I think multiple locations receiving consistent chalkings over a longer span of time, similar to that of urban-tagging, could increase the effectiveness of the tactic in bringing more attention to the issue. All in all, it was a great experience to take part in, and I hope to have the opportunity to do it again in the future.