Service-Learning with a Food Stamp Enrollment Campaign: Community and Student Benefits

The authors analyze a multi-campus collaboration in a Food Stamp Enrollment Campaign to demonstrate that a well-managed public benefits campaign, associated with broader advocacy-based community partnerships, can result in positive outcomes for the community that include measurable benefits for clients, data needed to make policy and administrative changes, and new institutional relationships that enhance existing capacities. Public benefits campaigns also provide effective service-learning experiences that enhance student learning and engagement in issues related to the study of poverty, policy, and social justice. Recommendations are offered for effective implementation of such service-learning opportunities with public benefits campaigns.