About This Project

As record numbers of Californians seek food assistance, the USC Annenberg School for Journalism & Communication is teaming up with California Watch, a project of the Center for Investigative Reporting, to launch an investigative multimedia series titled “Hunger in the Golden State.” The series will run in California newspapers (including The Los Angeles Times), on radio stations (through KQED’s statewide public broadcast, The California Report), and online news outlets, like KPCC.org.

Annenberg journalism professor Sandy Tolan transformed his class into a newsroom
to produce the series, alongside former
California Watch launch manager Marcia Parker (now West Coast editorial director of AOL’s Patch.com) and the Center for Investigative Reporting. Parker and Tolan served as co-teachers and editors of the project, with additional editing by the California Watch team.

Over six months, 13 Annenberg journalism graduate students interviewed dozens of state and local food bank officials as well as Californians who struggle with food shortages every day. The reporting unearthed new numbers that show hunger is rising at an unprecedented rate in California and nationwide and affects millions – including those in affluent areas – but is invisible to many.

The stories explore food waste, nutrition in schools, the fraying food safety net, and ways to help Californians fighting to ward off hunger. The project reveals that nearly one in eight people in California has asked for food assistance in the last year and that food banks and social services are overwhelmed.

California food banks doled out more than 300 million pounds to needy families in 2009 – more than 8 pounds for every person in the state. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that one of every seven American households struggled to put food on the table last year. In California, at least 11 million people, or more than one in four, live in “food insecure” families, according a landmark survey by UCLA.

Each student spent hundreds of hours reporting, writing and producing the project. They used on-the-ground reporting to explore the struggle of hungry Californians as well as the challenges governments and charities have in helping them. The result is a comprehensive, in-depth series with more than 20 multimedia pieces.

Second-year graduate student journalists in the class are Francesca Ayala, Kim Daniels, Katie Evarts, Jacqueline Howard, Irma Widjojo, Tina Mather, Emilie Mutert, Shannon Pence, Ashley Ragovin, Anant Goenka, Traci Hanamura, Dianne de Guzman and Alaena Hostetter. Mutert led the Annenberg student design team for this Web site.

Principle contributors from CIR/California Watch include Robert Rosenthal, CIR executive director; California Watch director Louis Freedberg and editorial director Mark Katches; Lance Williams, senior reporter; William Cooley, copy editor, and Sarah McHie, web producer. CIR’s Mark Schapiro also contributed editorial guidance.

Reporters for the hunger stories on KQED’s The California Report include Michael Montgomery, Rob Schmitz, and Sandy Tolan.

Other contributors to the project include Annenberg journalism professors Robert Hernandez and Nonny de la Peña, communication professor Peter Clarke, Wendy Chapman, director of Web Technologies at Annenberg, Annenberg Web developer Chris Guitarte, and Sachi Cunningham, video journalist for the Los Angeles Times. Special thanks to Annenberg Journalism School Director Geneva Overholser, and to Associate Director Patricia Dean.

For the full Annnenberg press release on Hunger in the Golden State, click here.