Agricultural communication professionals today must have a continually evolving set of skills related to digital technology and media convergence, as well as a keen sense of establishing communication strategies that reach globally and demand cross-cultural engagement. The authors designed a service learning course focused on food insecurity to examine the effects of teaching cross-cultural communication and engagement using applied ethnographic and auto ethnographic methodologies. Seven students majoring in agricultural communication participated in an eight-week course that integrated volunteer activities at local food pantries, practices of critical reflexive analysis (CRA) and narrative co-construction with food pantry clients. The authors utilized grounded theory to analyze journal entries and class discussion, resulting in three emerged themes related to the process of student learning: 1) Recognizing disconnect through evaluation of self; 2) seeing complexity in the bigger picture; and 3) redefining responsibility in writing. The process of CRA challenged the students to shift their thinking from interviewing just the client to simultaneously interviewing the client and self for the purposes of developing a co-constructed story.