Archive for June, 2010

Posted by Stacy Braverman | June 28th, 2010

The District’s food stamp eligibility rules changed recently, making thousands of households whose income is between 133% and 200% of the Federal Poverty Level newly eligible for benefits.

Bread for the City’s legal clinic interns Zila McDowell, Bryan Evans, and Carrie Johnson recently called through the 151 food pantry clients who reported incomes in this range. The clients’ eligibility for benefits depends on several additional factors: their household size, income source (a job versus disability benefits and other unearned income), and certain household expenses. Based on the information they gave us, some of these clients became eligible for food stamps when the changes went into effect.

The interns helped interested clients complete a food stamp estimator, giving them a sense of the level of benefits for which they’d qualify. Carrie says, “clients I called were excited about the change in the food stamp program. Some only qualified for $16 [the minimum monthly benefit for 1- and 2-person households], but they still said ‘something is better than nothing…. I’ll take what I can get.’”

Even $16 in food stamps will stretch a little farther this summer thanks to Freshfarm farmers’ market’s “Double Dollars” program. We covered this program last summer and are pleased to report that this year it’s expanded from one to three farmers’ markets in the District (plus the Saturday market in Silver Spring):

Food stamp recipients who visit these markets can make up to a $10 charge on their EBT cards, and get twice the value of their charge in tokens to buy food at the market. (Several other markets take EBT cards and the $25 in “Get Fresh” checks provided to WIC and Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program recipients, but are not currently participating in double-dollar promotions. A new market at Howard University Hospital is also taking WIC and senior vouchers.)

According to Carrie, “Mr. P was incredibly excited about the farmers’ market double-dollars program. He was excited about being able to buy fresh produce in an open air market.” We’re glad that DC food stamp recipients can now extend their food budgets and access more nutritious, locally-grown food…and happy to have interns who help us share this good news with our clients!

Posted by Greg Bloom | June 24th, 2010

Hello from Detroit, site of the 2010 US Social Forum and Allied Media Conference! I attended a remarkable opening session on Tuesday about the city’s local food movement, and want to share some of this experience because its themes are critically important to consider for those of us invested in the effort to change urban community food infrastructures.

The city of Detroit was built for 2 million people — but in the course of at least four decades of accelerated economic decay, its population has fallen well under half that. The city occupies 139 square miles; at least 40 square miles now lie abandoned. One fifth of Detroit residents don’t have access to transportation, period. The last major grocer in Detroit closed in 2007, leaving a vast desert spotted with “fringe markets” in corner stores (with few oases).

All of which points to a primary reason why the US Social Forum is hosted here: Detroit is “Ground Zero” for the various intersecting crises of post-industrial capitalism, including the crisis of our modern food infrastructure. The city’s struggle demands our attention — especially because of the many green shoots of renewal that can be found (for instance, an estimated 1,300 community gardens and farms).

One of the session’s speakers was Patrick Crouch of Earthworks, which works in conjunction with one of the city’s oldest soup kitchens. Earthworks engages in urban agriculture and community education, and is part of a network of activists working to reclaim community food sovereignty. For example, Patrick briefly described ongoing efforts to encourage Detroit’s fringe markets to source fresh local foods–similar to the Healthy Corner Stores project in DC.

Patrick’s role in this session, however, deliberately reflected his role in the community: as a white transplant to Detroit, Patrick works to support the leadership and sovereignty of Detroit’s indigenous black communities.

Since 2006, such sovereignty has been formally represented by the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (the acronymically vowel-free DBCFSN). Monica White, board member and professor at Wayne State University, explained that not only is Detroit’s population 85% black, but “there’s a long history of urban agriculture here — agrarian roots stretching back more than a century.”

And yet, Monica explained, as Detroit’s economic and structural collapse accelerated in the past decade, the food movement was gaining momentum — bringing a swell of foundations, developers, corporations and activists into the city, looking for paths of renewal. (A big-business proposal for massive conversion of vacant land into large-scale agriculture, for instance, is both breathtakingly ambitious and also fairly described as “reminiscent of a plantation.”) The Detroit Black Community Food Security Network formed to ensure that the indigenous community’s voice was not only at the table, but setting the agenda.

(Image here copped from the NYC Food Justice Coalition’s blog, a great read on the Social Forum.)

(Post continued here…)

Posted by Andrea Northup | June 23rd, 2010

Local lettuce and berries for school lunch being prepared at CentroNIA If you walked into a D.C. school cafeteria on June 3rd 2010, you may have been surprised at what you saw on students’ trays!  Over 150 schools in DC featured fresh, locally-grown strawberries and salad greens as a part of their school lunches.  This [...]

Posted by Andrea Northup | June 22nd, 2010

Need District Healthy Food Leaders at DC Environmental Network Brown-Bag On May 6th Mayor Fenty named Christoph Tulou Director of the DC Department of the Environment (DDOE). On June 24th at noon, the DC Environmental Network and Earthjustice would like to invite you to a brown-bag luncheon to welcome Director Tulou to the District. Although [...]

Posted by Liz Whitehurst | June 15th, 2010

At the Neighborhood Farm Initiative, spring means planting. It means digging, fertilizing, weeding, watering, and finally, eating.

Posted by Xi Wang | June 14th, 2010

*UPDATED* Howard University Hospital (HUH) is hosting a fresh produce market geared toward the community and residents of the Shaw Neighborhood. Farmers on Wheels is a collaboration between DC WIC (Women, Infant and Children) Program and HUH CARES (Comprehensive Area Resources, Entitlement and Services). Although there are a handful of nearby farmer’s markets, most of [...]

Posted by Sharon Gruber | June 14th, 2010

[Cross-posted from Beyond Bread.]

Last month, Gary Imhoff of DC Watch had some salty words to say about health and nutrition. Just as the innovative, promising Healthy Schools Act was making its way to become law, Gary objected to the efforts to reduce the consumption of sugar and salt in our schools. These ingredients, Gary claimed, “pose no real dietary or health dangers to the average person.”

Unfortunately, one third of Americans are far beyond average: they are either overweight or obese. A major factor in this health crisis is overconsumption of sodium, which contributes to heart disease among other illness. The Washington Post recently reported that the Center for Disease Control estimates that an average of 77 percent of our sodium intake actually comes from packaged food — the canned, boxed, and bottled foods we buy at the market. That article also reports that the federal government is taking this health threat seriously with a new effort (not yet officially announced, but planned to span a 10-year period) to curb the amount of sodium in processed food and restaurants.

It’s great news, and I hope the federal government follows through. Indeed, here at Bread for the City we’ve already started down that path. In the past few years, we have greatly reduced much of the sodium in the items in our food pantry.

Yet Gary objects to “food police” who he says wants us to live in “a world without flavor.” The good news for Gary is that ours is a wide world full of flavors, with many ways of preparing food that is both tasty and healthy.

Here at Bread for the City, we’re able to go beyond the pantry to explore this world of healthy food. Each month at both the NW and SE sites, BFC holds nutrition and cooking workshops, geared toward helping clients make tasty, easy-to-prepare, healthful, inexpensive foods at home.

Just a few weeks ago, I gathered with Bread for the City clients from age 3 to about 73, as we spent an hour peeling, chopping, stirring, and laughing. We talk a lot about salt in these classes. With chili pepper flakes, vinegar, garlic, onion, and lemon as the seasonings on these dishes, the flavor was plentiful — all without using any salt. Participants knew that if they chose, they could add salt to the food on their own plates. But, remarkably, every participant declined to add any.

Posted by Jonna McKone | June 12th, 2010

DC Digital Capital Week began yesterday. The ten-day event is a series of workshops, demonstrations, networking events, public art pieces, talks and parties on all things technical. It aims to amplify D.C.’s creative, entrepreneurial, tech, govt/non-profit sectors, linking groups, inspiring projects and collaborations and identifying local and global opportunities for change.

And there’s a food specific event called, “The Food Revolution: One Byte at a Time.” Panelists  will include “individuals from organizations “who have sucessfully used social media to dissmeninate their pro-food/sustainable agriculture/nutrition advocates’ message…” According to the site, each speaker will provide examples and case studies. A  panel discussion will follow.  The panel occurs this Thursday, June 17th at 10:00 a.m. Full details are on the website.

Speakers include:

• Courtney Gray Haupt (@CourtneyGH), Vice President of Public Affairs and Health Policy at Spectrum, will moderate and discuss how she has helped her sustainable ag-focused clients navigate the digital sphere in a smart, strategic way.
• Ed Bruske (@theslowcook) began his writing career as a reporter for the Washington Post but has since started his own blog, The Slow Cook, and tends his “urban farm” about a mile from the White House in DC. Ed is a personal chef for clients with special needs, and teaches “food appreciation” to children enrolled in the after-school program at Georgetown Day School. He is a co-founder of the group DC Urban Gardeners and sits on the advisory board of the DC Farm to School Network. Ed believes in self-reliance, growing food close to home, and political freedom for District residents.
• Helena Bottemiller (@hbottemiller) is a Washington, DC-based reporter covering food policy, politics and regulation for food borne illness lawyer Bill Marler’s Food Safety News. After years of being a self-described food policy wonk, Helena delved into the food safety world for the first time while writing her thesis on the politics of food regulation at Claremont McKenna College in Los Angeles, where she graduated with a degree in Government.
• Sarah Alexander (@sa4schoolmilk) is a senior food organizer at Food and Water Watch. She works to promote a healthy and independent food system and to improve public knowledge on food issues including factory farms, and country of origin labeling. Sarah led a successful grassroots campaign, Healthy School Milk or Bust Tour, using social media that helped put organic and rGBH-free milk in schools. Sarah previously worked with Green Corps, the White Earth Land Recovery Project, and the American Community Gardening Association.