Winch headshot

Emerson Fellow, Leland Fellow

Rachel Winch

4th Class, 2007-2009 & 14th Class, 2007-2008

Rachel graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from Williams College in 2006 with a double major in sociology and Asian studies and has studied abroad in India and Nicaragua. Prior to becoming and Emerson and then a Leland Fellow, Rachel taught fifth and sixth grade at Esperanza Academy, a tuition-free middle school for low-income girls in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and biked across the country to raise money for affordable housing.

Emerson Fellowship

Field Placement: California Department of Health

Oakland, California

Rachel worked with the Network for a Healthy California to build the prescreening and outreach capacity of the Statewide Food Stamp Information Line.  She developed California’s Official Statewide Protocol for Telephone-Based Food Stamp Assistance, which is now being used by call center operators throughout the state.  Rachel also mapped access to food in Oakland with the Kellogg Food and Fitness grant recipients.

Policy Placement: U.S. House of Representatives Hunger Caucus

Washington, D.C.

Rachel worked to increase awareness of domestic and international hunger issues in the House of Representatives.  She coordinated a series of briefings on the impact of rising food costs on international and domestic hunger and helped to plan a Massachusetts anti-hunger summit.

Leland Fellowship

Placement: Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF), Alexandria, Virginia

Rachel Winch joined the Leland Program during its second year. At GCNF Rachel updated and expanded the Global Child Nutrition Foundation’s school feeding toolkit. Originally created for use at the GCNF’s annual school feeding forum, the toolkit provided the resources to conduct a country needs assessment focused in four target areas: government commitment and political will; institutional capacity; community commitment and resource utilization; and design and implementation. Rachel supplemented the toolkit with case studies, including of school feeding programs operating in India, Mali, and Guatemala. Rachel also collaborated with Elizabeth Whelan on a book that documented the school feeding sites through photos and stories. Rachel also built the capacity of GCNF’s Global Knowledge Center, a resource for those working in school feeding to exchange ideas, best practices, and updates on their work.

Publications