Strength under pressure. Extraordinary vision. A super-sized heart with a soul to match.
These are the qualities that Feeding San Diego is looking for in the hero who will help put the squeeze on the county’s hunger crisis. The same goes for the young person who is going to create the new food champion.
In a collaboration with the Comic-Con Museum in Balboa Park, Feeding San Diego is launching “The Hunger Action Hero Art Contest,” which challenges the county’s K-12 students to design an action hero who will fight to end hunger by rescuing extra food from grocery stores, hotels, restaurants and other businesses and getting it to the people who need it.
“Hunger is a reality. It is something people here in San Diego live with on a regular basis,” said Rita Vandergaw, executive director of the Comic-Con Museum. “Wouldn’t it be wonderful to find a way to truly wipe hunger from the world? That takes a lot of superheroes.”
For the Hunger Action Hero contest, entries consist of original artwork depicting the new character, along with a brief paragraph explaining what the hero’s superpowers are, where they got them, and how these superpowers will help the world end hunger through food rescue.
The deadline for submissions is April 22. A of judges will pick the top 10 submissions, and the community will vote on those to determine the winner.
The winning entry will be announced May 13. The winner will receive badges for themselves and three guests to attend this year’s Comic-Con. The winning superhero will be brought to life through a costume designed by Allan Lavigne, head of the Bronze Armory Studios and a prop designer and costumer who has worked on Marvel’s “Iron Man” and “Captain America” film franchises.
The costume will make its public debut during a Comic-Con Museum at Comic-Con. It will also be on display during July at the museum, where the student-creator’s vision of a hunger-fighting hero will make visitors think about what kind of actions they can take.
“From an organizational standpoint, we are hoping this helps drive awareness for Feeding San Diego,” said director of marketing and communications Dana Williams, who came up with the contest idea.
“A lot of people haven’t heard of us and are not aware of the resources, whether it is the opportunity to get help or for people who want to give help. We hope this opens up a conversation about hunger in our community, what we can do to people who need extra help, and what we can do to celebrate those who take action.”
Every action hero has an origin story, and the Hunger Action Hero is no exception.
The contest was born out of Feeding San Diego’s Together Tour, a series of large-scale food-distribution events that originally focused on of the struggling hospitality industry. That effort evolved into an ongoing countywide program aimed at such hunger hot spots as Chula Vista, San Diego and Escondido.
The Together Tour launched last February, and by August, it had distributed more than 1 million pounds of food, serving more than 67,000 people. (Together Tour distribution events are still happening throughout the county. Go to feedingsandiego.org/together-tour/ for information.)
And while Feeding San Diego was distributing fresh produce, dry goods and frozen meat protein, the organization was figuring out how it could get the word out to even more San Diegans. That meant fighting the myth that food distribution is for people who are worse off than you are, along with the very-human idea that asking for help is a sign of weakness.
And for that, Feeding San Diego needed a hero. Fortunately, the hero experts were right here at home.
“I loved the project for a lot of reasons,” Vandergaw said of the contest, sponsored by the David C. Copley Foundation. “One of our goals is to engage with the community and to education. And what better way to get kids engaged about fighting hunger and help them learn about the methods by which it can be done through food rescue?
“I think this will set their minds alive with creativity, and that is part of what we do.”
Creating a new action hero that can raise awareness about hunger and food rescue while also looking awesome enough to end up in a museum is a big challenge. But the woman behind the contest is sure local young people are primed to take it on.
By ing with Feeding San Diego to battle hunger, the contest participants can give themselves the kind of power boost they could probably use right about now.
“Kids today are grappling with a lot,” Williams said of the students who have been faced with the challenges of going to school during a pandemic and the ongoing stress of living in a world in turmoil.
“We need to teach the youth of today empathy and help them realize that they are empowered, and that they have a voice and their voice matters and their actions matter. That’s why kids are so inspired by superheroes and Comic-Con culture. We’re so grateful to have the opportunity to partner with the Comic-Con Museum on something that is such a healthy and productive way to help kids express themselves while they deal with complex issues.”
For information about the Hunger Action Hero Art Contest, go to https://feedingsandiego.org/hunger-action-hero-art-contest/
