Students in a small group communication course are bringing to life a community service project called “Feeding Forward.” The initiative is a food drive intended to help high school students suffering from food insecurity through Emporia High School’s Spartan Stop. The drive started last Monday and will continue until Friday, April 4 with donation boxes throughout Memorial Union. The students are asking for canned food, dry cereal, unexpired and non-perishable items.

When they began the project at the beginning of the semester, senior Allison Mulder, junior Luke Grace, sophomore Lynna Storm and freshman Kandis Frydenall brainstormed different ways they could support their community. Storm says that some members wanted to focus on age and development, while others suggested food insecurity. Upon further research, they discovered that high school students have the highest rates of food insecurity in Emporia. Before starting the work, they completed a case study to figure out their group dynamic.

“(Small group communication instructor) Dr. Hughes has just taught us, like, how to work together and how to get things done efficiently,” said Storm. “And I think the course has, like, really helped us follow through with things.”

Once they developed their plan, the group created boxes, posted on social media and reached out to Spartan Stop. Throughout the process, they have demonstrated their progress to their classmates. 

“So, like, we’ve been giving presentations, like updating (classmates) on our progress,” explained Grace. “So we started with our, like, our ideation stage, and then our initial report, and now we’re starting initial findings.”

Any donations will benefit Spartan Stop, EHS’s free after-school program that provides food for students in need.

“It’s hard, like growing up in poverty, like I lightly experienced that, and it’s just embarrassing going to school and your one meal is lunch or breakfast,” shared Storm. “And, with all of these current changes, there;s no reason why that feeling should continue, especially in this day and age, and the fact that it is is very heartbreaking. So, if we can do just a tiny bit for someone in our community, why not?”

Small group communication is a requirement for both communication and speech and theatre education majors. Adam Hughes, assistant professor of communication, is the sole instructor for SP315. This is his second year at Emporia State and his third semester teaching the course.

He explained that the field of communication is broken down into multiple parts, including interpersonal communication, public speaking, communication within an organization and small group communication.

“Whenever you’re not just one-on-one with somebody … the dynamic of the communication that takes place (is) not just like the back and forth of a one-on-one.” said Hughes. “When you’re talking with somebody, one-on-one, the communication process is like a ball on a tennis court. It sort of goes back and forth, right? Whenever you’re in a group, it may be the case that two people are doing that, and the third person is listening. They’re not NOT communicating. I mean, listening is a communication process. So the class is about studying that and thinking about the sort of social side of groups, of how people get along and relate to each other on, like, a personal level.”

Although the course has elements of a traditional lecture course, like lectures and quizzes, the course puts emphasis on the service project. Hughes said that the project must be “ambitious” and not just “bare minimum requirements.” One group of students has reached out to a local dentist’s office to supply toothbrushes and toothpaste to those on campus who need them, and another group is planning to have a pet adoption fair.

“The reason we have the service project as a part of the course is because there needs to be some task for the students in the course to orient themselves towards, right?” Hughes stated. “So what better thing to have that towards than some kind of, like, service activity, whether within the sort of campus community or the sort of broader Emporia town?”