Greetings from a World Without Hunger
Illustrated by Vanessa Rodriguez for USAID's Office of Food For Peace
These illustrations were created for a Medium blog post for World Hunger Day 2020. The story highlights what a community without hunger would look like. Based on the proposed text, I conceptualized and designed images that could accompany the story. I started with sketching postcards from this ideal world. I then scanned them and illustrated the sketches using Adobe Illustrator.
The team was looking for a new, creative way to highlight USAID's development work helping vulnerable communities build food security. It's a topic we write about often through success stories, technical reports, and much more, but we wanted to do something different. We wanted to put a spin on the story we usually tell - about the difficulties food insecurity has on impoverished families overseas - and thought doing something graphically would bring different attention to it. So we decided to tell the opposite story - to talk about a place where there was food security for everyone - and the graphic representation followed.
This is a new type of story for USAID. USAID typically publishes stories about the results of our humanitarian and development programs. This form of storytelling - with strong graphic elements - broadened our approach to storytelling, encouraging us to be more creative and rely as strongly on the graphics as we do on the narrative. The story is itself a new experience for readers. The graphics are the focus of the story and helps readers envision what a world without hunger looks like.
USAID storytelling is one way we inform the public of the positive impact U.S. foreign assistance is making in people's lives around the world. We also look for creative ways to engage with the public. This story helped USAID inform the public about the goals of our food security programs and how a holistic approach to building food security is necessary to meet those goals.
Illustrated here is a farmer checking off a list while another is loading the truck with fresh vegetables. It is essential to have access to fresh vegetables to feed the local community.
Here are the workers teaching the community members how to prepare for drought with drought-tolerant seeds. This training is vital for the community to continue to strive for resilience during dry seasons.
Illustrated here are beneficiaries using hand washing stations. The community takes responsibility for their health, and providing access to water to everyone for drinking, watering crops, and taking care of their livestock is essential.
Health and nutrition create a positive impact on the community. Illustrated here are the neighbors gardening fresh vegetables and a nurse providing a breastfeeding nutrition class for new mothers.
The illustration shows a couple cooking together while a diverse group of people makes their way to a job fair. It essential for the community, as this helps create opportunities and equality for families.
This illustration shows the village grocery store with a fresh vegetable stand out in the front and people opening up their businesses, such as a seamstress. The community needs to have access to food and opportunities for the community.
Thank you for your consideration!
