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Posted by Rebecca Kanter | June 2nd, 2010

In the LeDroit Park area of Washington D.C. stands St.George’s Episcopal Church. It is a quiet, cloudy, humid, Saturday May morning in D.C. The smell of bacon paves a path from the Church’s front door down to its basement and into the kitchen. Here, smiling African-American men and women are cooking up lots and lots of scrambled—with American-cheese added—eggs (yes, all cracked by hand!), pancakes, baked turkey bacon, and hot coffee. The boom-box blares gospel music in the background, as this enthusiastic group of volunteers from all over the greater D.C. area concentrates on their task at hand.

Near the kitchen, in another room, many people, mostly middle-aged and older African-American men, sit around neatly set tables. Some are “regulars,” everyone present is African-American, and a few families have wandered in. Many are chatting, sipping coffee, or staring at the walls adorned with brightly colored, paper, African-American dancers; and waiting to be served a hot, freshly-cooked, breakfast.

Welcome to Kwanzaa (Swahili for first harvest) Kitchen, an outreach program of St.George’s Episcopal Church. It began in 1992, as the Breakfast Program. Modeled after the Black Panthers’ free breakfast programs for children in California, Kwanzaa Kitchen was started and continues, under Janis Evans (the St George’s Outreach Chair, and program coordinator for Kwanzaa Kitchen), to serve breakfast, every other Saturday morning, to the needy and the homeless.

Posted by Rebecca Kanter | May 25th, 2010

Similar to DC’s proposed soda tax (written about extensively on this blog, such as here), Baltimore City had proposed a bottle tax.

This seems to be a sales tax, rather than an excise tax, because beverage bottles are not of uniform size and “The [Baltimore City] administration has insisted that the bottle tax — which would exempt milk, juice and two-liter containers, would not unduly burden on residents.”
Revenue from the DC soda tax is righteously targeted to towards helping mitigate the chronic health problems that increased sugar-sweetened beverage intake both causes and magnifies, particularly among its most vulnerable consumers: children living in low-income areas (for example, Wards 7 and 8).
Meanwhile our neighbors, in East Baltimore (socio-economically similar to Wards 7 and 8), express their support for the Baltimore City “bottle tax” as a way to save city services.

Posted by Rebecca Kanter | April 23rd, 2010

At last week’s “Food Access Solutions” panel at THEARC, we had a great opportunity to hear a conversation among some of the leaders of the local food movement here in DC.

Moderated by Andrea Northup, coordinator of the DC Farm to School Network, a panel about food in DC included Dennis Chestnut, executive director of Groundwork Anacostia River DC, Vinnie Bevivino, farming coordinator for Engaged Community Offshoots, Tambra Stevenson, founder of the DC Food Justice Coalition, and Alexandra Ashbrook, director of DC Hunger Solutions.

Alexandra began the local panel by talking about the report published by DC Hunger Solutions and Social Compact, entitled “When Healthy Food is Out of Reach: An analysis of the grocery gap in the District of Columbia 2010″ (Press release and full report here.). Throughout the rest of the panel, possible solutions to the “grocery gap” and food access issues in DC were addressed; particularly regarding Wards 7 & 8.

But the panelists also acknowledged that consciousness — rather than mere access to grocery stores — is the crux of the issue. What was really at issue is peoples’ emotional connection to food—and that the matter of consciousness is one that activists and advocates, too, must grapple with. ‘Until you raise your level of consciousness, you can’t raise others,’ stated Tambra.

And if we can approach these problems from a new perspective? Tambra referred to the matter of the Safeway on Rhode Island, and the residents who protested its closing. Tambra said that when she lived in the neighborhood, she wouldn’t shop in the store. “Sometimes,” she explained, “things need to die for change to occur.”

Vinnie, by comparison, traced a parallel trend through which the land we live has transitioned from agriculture to other uses. He pointed out that agriculture can be everywhere (in urban and rural areas) and employ people. At a time like this, in a community where unemployment is approaching 30%, that kind of claim had the attention of everyone in the room.

“There needs to be a paradigm shift”, Vinnie said. We need to spur this shift among ourselves, and then we can bring it to policymakers. Then we can solve the problem collectively.

One approach that some of the attendees may not have expected: Dennis and Tambra both spoke of the critical importance of the ‘food-faith initiative.’ Not just because that’s a sure path to consciousness — but also because that’s where you find many of the people who’ve shaped these communities. Churches, by the way, have both kitchens and land that could be used for gardening.

Indeed, a series of questioners presented the panel with community initiatives — many church-based — that most of the audience had never heard of before.

If we can somehow work together, connecting the dots among all the work that’s being done to improve our food infrastructure, Tambra suggested at the conclusion of the panel that perhaps one day we’ll be picking up vegetable rinds and apple cores from the sidewalks, rather than candy bar wrappers.

Posted by Rebecca Kanter | March 11th, 2010

Last Wednesday, the Metropolitan Washington Public Health Association (MWPHA) held a panel discussion in Hyattsville, MD in an effort to spread awareness about food access issues beyond the geographical borders of the District. The event was significant because it demonstrated that people within the health profession are sometimes unaware of “where their food comes from.”

The panel was convened by Tambra Stevenson, Chair of the MWPHA’s Food & the Environment Committee (and DC Food For All contributor). Also on hand were Carl Rollins of Common Good City Farm (another DC Food For All contributor), Aileen Orlino, a GWU graduate student studying public health, and myself, also a public health graduate student. The topic was “What’s on your plate? Are today’s food policies making you sick?”

While non-organic healthy foods sat in the background, a yummy dynamic organic dialogue took place between the panel and audience—both of which were very diverse. Questions ranged from “Do I have to eat organic…I hear it is healthier, but I cannot afford it?” to “What are hoop houses” and “So are there PCBs in fish?”

In a wide-ranging, informative free for all the many aspects of our broken factory farm-focused food system were explored. Tambra outlined many of the problems: the tragedy that even though the system has successfully created a supply of low-cost food much of it is high in sugar, salt and lacks nutritional value.

We have traded health for an abundant supply. She also noted that we as a society can “Pay now, or pay later.” Healthy food can be more expensive but poorer health outcomes and decreased longevity are an overlooked societal cost. Moreover, “We need to stop our addiction with foods high in sugar that are like a new crack,” Tambra said.