The document summarizes a focus group conducted by the author to understand voices of hunger in High Point, North Carolina. The focus group was held at Open Door Ministries, a food pantry, and included 7 initial participants. Questions focused on awareness of local hunger programs, information sources, perceptions of community leadership and empowerment. Responses revealed little knowledge of local hunger initiatives and reliance on news for information. Participants felt they could enact change through community involvement but faced barriers like lack of opportunity and resources. The focus group aimed to better understand community needs to aid the Greater High Point Food Alliance in addressing local hunger.

1. I conducted a focus group to assess the voices of hunger in High Point.
Historically, a focus group is a form of qualitative research where respondents in
small groups are asked about their perceptions, opinions beliefs and attitudes. This
focus group was facilitated at Open Door Ministries on April 9th and was
accompanied by Qualitative interviews for those unwilling or unable to participate
in the focus group.
Before beginning the focus group, I received approval from the Institutional
Review Board (IRB) to facilitate this research study by proving ethical research
practices. Next, I contacted the manager of the kitchen at Open Door Ministries to
get permission to facilitate this study. On April 8th, as the facilitator of this study, I
sat down at a table in the dinning area at Open Door Ministries with people having
dinner to invite people to the focus group the following night. The next night was
the night of the focus group. I sat at a table and waited for people coming in for
dinner to join me. Participation was completely voluntary, with no incentives.
Participants had to fill out a consent form and a waiting room questionnaire before
we began. The consent form minimized the risk of participants revealing
information they did not wish to share by confirming with them that their
participation is completely voluntary. The focus group started with 7 participants,
and ended with 4.
Before beginning, I opened with a brief dissertation of the focus group to
thank members for participating, explain the purpose of the study, lay out the
ground rules for participation, describe the structure of the study and answered any
lingering questions. It was noted that when the rule, “you have the right to leave this

2. group at anytime; however, if you leave, you may not return back to the study,” was
mentioned, a male participate stated that he was wearing an ankle monitor, and may
not be able to stay for the entirety of the study.
The focus group took about one hour. There was a series of five open-ended
questions. I chose less intrusive questions that were descriptive in terms of the
demographic. Here were the questions used:
1) Are you aware of the Greater High Point Food Alliance? If so, do you think
they are making a difference in the community?
2) We all know someone who needs, or has needed food assistance at some
point in time. What resources for hunger are youaware of in the
community?
3) There are many sources to seek information about what is going on in the
community such as Facebook, Newspapers, Radio broadcasts and
Television. What is your main source of information about what is
happening in our community?
4) There are a lot of community leaders in High Point. Do you think that you
have the power to make a change in the community?
5) Everyone’s voice matters to the community as a whole. In what ways can
the community help you voice your opinion?
A maximum of ten minutes was spent on each question before moving on to the
next. Each participant was asked to keep their responses within a reasonable time
frame so that each participant had enough time to answer if question if they wished
to do so.
Responses were recorded on the “Voice Memo” recording app on my I-Phone
device. After the focus group, I transcribed the recordings. Once transcribed, I
highlighted relevant and fruitful quotes on paper. Next, I analyzed the data and
found patterns in what participants said. Once transcriptions were made, recordings
were destroyed.

3. In December 2014, The Greater High Point Food Alliance (GHPFA) formed in
High Point as a group of concerned local volunteers focused on more effectively
utilizing current community and nonprofit assets in order to address the area’s
hunger crisis. As stated in their executive summary, “The GHPFA is an initiative
committed to studying our hunger crisis and developing strategies and community
partnerships to address it.” Since this initiative demonstrates that this is “our”
hunger crisis, it is important to voice those who are faced with hunger.
In effort to aid the GHPFA, I facilitated a focus group in order to analyze some
voices of hunger. A focus group can be defined as,
“a technique involving the use of in-depth group interviews in which
participants are selected because they are a purposive, although not
necessarily representative, sampling of a specific population, this group being
‘focused’ on a given topic. Participants in this type of research are, therefore,
selected on the criteria that they would have something to say on the topic, are
within the age-range, have similar socio-characteristics and would be
comfortable talking to the interviewer and each other (Richardson & Rabiee,
2001).”
I believe that a focus group was the best way to hear and share the voices of hunger
in High Point. I chose the sample of people eating dinner at Open Door Ministries
because it is located in one of the biggest food deserts and it is one of the only food
pantries in High Point that serves a hot meal every single night at 6:00 p.m.
When I arrived to Open Door Ministries I greeted Mike, the kitchen’s
assistant manager. He introduced me to some of the volunteers that were helping
prepare dinner. Nearly all of the folks running this kitchen are currently or
previously homeless. Many are so grateful for the assistance given to them that they

4. pledge to volunteer as they seek assistance themselves. Before the focus group
began, I had the opportunity to interview a few people.
Pre-Focus group interviews included these fruitful quotes:
“Now that I’m here I have to utilize whatever services that are provided for me—
but what I’m seeing is, there are none. What I hear is “get a job” “get a job” “get a
job;” But when you want to work to sustain yourself, not just working some doc
making minimum wage where you can’t actually rise above the poverty level, then
you have to make a change if you want to be able to do good things. There is no
opportunity to create a network… how do I change that, what can I do, well me
being here and talking to you helps.”
~
“I can say that I was homeless for three years in this area and if it hadn’t been for
here, I wouldn’t have been able to survive.”
~
“So what are you guys trying to do, raise money for a program or something”
~
“At least ya’ll are down to earth. A lot of kids come in here and won’t even eat this…
some people are afraid to humble themselves.”

5. ~
“Come live my life for three months, and you tell me how you like it, and you’ll think
differently then how you think”
~
“The workers up there treat you like we’re inmates and I’m like I’M NOT AN INMATE
BRO.”
~
When the focus group began, opening marks were made to discuss the
process of the focus group. It was stated that it would take one hour, and if a
participant left they would not be able to return. One man raised his hand and said
that he might not be able to stay for the entire study because he was on a time
restraint with his ankle monitor. Two women filled out the paperwork for the study,
but one woman left to go take a phone call before it started and didn’t return until
we were halfway through so she did not participate. We started the focus group
with seven participants: 6 males and 1 female.
When asked the first question: “are you aware of the greater high point food
alliance?” Everyone said no besides one man, “I go to GTCC so I think I’ve seen a
flyer or two about it, but I’ve never looked into it.” From the one respondent, he did

6. not know if they were making a difference because he wasn’t even sure if he saw the
correct flyer.
When asked: “we all know someone in our life who has needed some sort of
food assistance in his or her life; what resources or programs for hunger areyou
aware of in the community to reach these people?” . . . Noone knew of any other
resources or programs besides food banks.
When asked, “There are many sources to seek information about what’s
going on in the community such as Facebook, newspapers, radio, and television.
What is your main source of information that you get about what is happening in the
community?” Four of the five respondents said they get all of their information from
the news. One respondent emphasized the fact that he does not seek any of his
information from social media.
“I see the news, sometimes I read the papers like the RHINO, and I go on Facebook,
but you never hear about things taking place, or focused on bettering the
community . . . you don’t hear anything about what’s happening here, like ya’ll
coming here to have a ‘Q’ and ‘A’ service, or events happening to make people more
knowledgeable . . . you never hear about events to better neighborhoods.”
When asked, “There are a lot of community leaders in High Point. Do you
think you have the power to make a change in the community?” For this question,
only five participants were left to respond.

7. The first respondent said yes immediately, but included that, “we all need
each other to build each other and to help each other survive and really unite.”
Another man, who was quite talkative in one-on-one conversation previous to the
focus group but more reserved during the study, immediately brought up his pastor
making a change through ministry: “He has made a big change just by himself . . . he
gives food to people, and he sets up free coffee and Danishes at the library every
Tuesday for all the homeless people.” When asked, “well, what about you? Do you
have the power to make a change in the community?” He responded, “yeah I could if
I wanted to put the effort into it.”
The next participant agreed saying, “everyone has the power to do it; it’s if
they WANT to do it.” He spoke about how there are some people that just want to sit
there with their hand out.
The first respondent chimed back in to say, “every man has to labor; people
need to stop trying to feed off other people. . . people need to look at themselves and
the world together and reach and stride together. . . when people have too much and
they don’t want to loose it, the good people suffer”
The next respondent suggested that community leaders are hidden in their
obscurity. He said, “I don’t mean to sound fatalistic or pessimistic but I haven’t seen
anything that says yeah you have the power to change something . . . avenues to
change anything are very slim to none . . . I could get a job at a factory and live out of

8. a boarding room but I have bigger aspirations than that, and to be at 42 years old
with no home and nothing. You’ll turn around and say I need a little bit of help here,
for a little while, but when I do turn around and say yeah I need a little bit of help,
and I can fix this, and I know I can fix this, I just need a leg up- not a hand out- but a
leg up; there is no one to ask for that” . . . “I believe I can but not without trying to
change some things first with those that are already in the position to do things . . .
(when trying to help the city council) from a low man like myself, I was turned
away.”
The woman respondent suggested that she has the power to speak-out, and
has faith in the lord to help promote change.
The last question was only asked to the four remaining participants. The only
woman politely left the study to go smoke a cigarette. The final question read:
“Everyone’s voice does matter to the community as a whole. In what way can the
community help your voice be heard? How can it help your opinion be heard?”
The first respondent was eager to have the floor; “I know. I know. I know
exactly what can happen . . . For the people that say they want to help us and change
the community- My name is _____ ______ , let me speak to you . . . let a few of us talk to
you . . . to me this is simply a bureaucracy . . . if you really want to make a different,
come out here and meet people and find the answer . . . Some people here are
addicts, some people are just lazy but whatever, not everybody is that way and there
are a few people out here who just need ONE opportunity; if you mean to provide
that one opportunity then you got my voice.”

9. The second respondent loved what was just said and wanted to share that his
name is _________ ________, “for them to come out here and walk in our shoes and really
see the hurt—to get off their high horses because they have wonderful lives and we
don’t . . . allow us to speak.” The third respondent said, “I just agree.” The fourth
responded had no suggestions. In short he said, “People are crazy. Society is crazy.
People are Idiots. High Point is a bad place.” The final respondent said, “Allow more
poor people in poverty into these councils and these meetings so that we can speak .
. . just give us a chance . . . Start having them come down to us so we can have help
from someone to get our voice to be an action.”
Many respondents kept refereeing to a more united community network and
a sense of togetherness. There was a focus in togetherness. Multiple respondents
asked community leaders to come walk in their shoes and by their side. They want
leaders to see how they live first hand. They want to feel like they have a voice, so
they want the leaders to come and talk to them since it is hard for them to seek an
outlet.
One piece of advice that I would offer is to train the different programs to
empower the people that they are assisting. As described by the approach-inhibition
theory of Human Relations, people are more likely to change their behavior when
they feel powerful. They are more likely to take action, make decisions, take
initiative and have a louder voice. A man who lived in the men’s shelter on the top
level of open door ministries said:

10. “You could lead a horse to water but you can’t force him to drink. You could put up
flyers but if they don’t take the opportunity then that’s on them.”
As a closing remark in an interview after the focus group, a respondent said,
“There used to be a lot of opportunities in this city but I don’t see that anymore,
food and access to having food is good but why not teach a man how to fish as
opposed to give him one—that’s more important to me; yeah there needs to be
food that’s accessible for those who absolutely have no avenue, but everybody
in here, or everybody that’s associated with this type of problem, is not disable,
is not incapable, what they’re missing is the opportunity to get their own fish.”

11. Reference
 Rabiee, F. (2004). Focus-group interview and data analysis. Proceedings of
the nutrition society, 63(04), 655-660.