Using a Trauma-informed Approach to Fight Hunger

By Mark Dinglasan
Executive Director, CUMAC

CUMAC is a nonprofit anti-hunger organization in Paterson, New Jersey. Our mission is to fight hunger and its root causes through a holistic, trauma-informed approach that provides groceries – and basic necessities like home furnishings, clothing, and warm referrals to community partners – to families and individuals in need. CUMAC serves more than 1,200 families every month. That translates into roughly 2,500 individuals per month. One out of every three of individuals we serve are children.

CUMAC is using knowledge about adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) research and strengths-based community building principles to pursue our vision of food justice. I sometimes get asked, “Why does a food organization do ACEs work?” The answer is simple: ending hunger has nothing to do with giving people food. Food justice means the food that we are providing is food that we would feed to our own families and loved ones. It means the manner in which we provide this food, and all of our programming for that matter, is equitable and just so that we are treating others the way we want to be treated.

I joined CUMAC in 2017 and we began an ambitious effort to transform it into an organization that partners with communities by providing healthy food and supportive services to combat hunger. In 2019, we invited our networks to “go beyond hunger” with us. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, we did not pause this work, even though it was challenging. We leaned into it.

We created a large trauma-informed choice marketplace, reframed our job training and employment programs, and made CUMAC an empowering place to work that’s led by employees from the communities we serve. What this means is:

When we look around at our marketplace every day, we ask ourselves the question, “Does coming here make you feel safe?” The physical environment – like the colors on the walls, and the cleanliness of the facility – is designed so the answer is YES.
All CUMAC employees are trained on ACEs, self-healing communities, and resilience – and are charged with imparting that knowledge, sensitivity and care to clients during every interaction on the phone, via email, and in person. For example, when a client comes to CUMAC agitated, we often encourage each other to “put on our trauma lens” and remind ourselves that we don’t know what brought that person to CUMAC today, but they’re here because they need help. It’s an everyday example of how to shift from saying “what’s wrong with you?” to “what happened to you?”
There is a tremendous dedication to listening to our clients and constantly asking “How are we doing?” and “What can we do better?” – and making sure we act upon that feedback. We should never ask someone about their problems if we have no intention of helping. And every time a client —or one of our team members — sees that CUMAC shifts, changes, and adapts based on feedback, it builds powerful trust and buy-in between CUMAC and the communities we serve.

If you’ve ever been to a CUMAC training or presentation, you will hear us say that the trauma we experience lives on in our bodies and is at the root of poverty and hunger. To truly end hunger, we must help people, families and communities access the power – a power that lives within all of us – to heal from that trauma.

That sounds very “pie in the sky,” I know. But really, it comes down to practical application of knowledge. I once heard Autumn Brown say, “there’s a big difference between learning about trauma and learning the practice of healing from trauma.”

To me, the practice of healing from trauma means:

Always asking: “Are the decisions we make at our organization informed by our knowledge of how trauma and adversity has a profound effect on children, adults, families and communities?”
Coupling that constant question with programs and services that partner with people to build feelings of hope and self-efficacy. This part is especially important because giving individuals, families and communities the ability to BELIEVE they can make a difference in their own lives helps with healing from trauma and empowering communities. As a service organization, it’s also important because it shifts the focus away from creating programs that view communities as recipients and pushes us towards creating programs where residents are advisors, advocates, and owners of the services being provided.
Tracking the outcomes of these programs and services so that we know if we’re making a positive or negative effect on knowledge, attitude, belief and behavior in the communities we serve.

Practicing the work in this manner is an absolute MUST if we are going to heal our communities and address the root causes of hunger and poverty. When our team members shift from the traditional view of “What’s wrong with this person?” to the trauma-informed view of “What happened to this person?” we often say that they are “looking through their trauma lens.” When we give residents from the communities we serve the ability to adopt their own “trauma lens,” we begin to create a new system that focuses on building human connections and positive relationships to combat adversity.

To be trauma-informed, in my humble opinion, means that we must use our knowledge of trauma to create foundational change within our organizations and systems. For CUMAC, that means we continuously work to transform ourselves into an organization that pursues food justice rather than simply supplying emergency food. That’s an ongoing practice that we’ll not always get right. But we have to try. Onward and upward everyone!

Mark Dinglasan, MBA, is the Executive Director of CUMAC, the largest anti-hunger organization in Passaic County. Mark has been a key partner in launching Actions4ACEs in New Jersey, serving on the Community Advisory Board. You can find additional resources about ACEs at www.Actions4ACEs.com.