Author Archive

Posted by Rhea Kennedy | July 8th, 2010

By Livia Navon

Although the concept of a food desert has been around for a while, it seems like these days, they are showing up more and more in public discourse. Michelle Obama’s recent ‘Let’s Move’ Campaign has highlighted the issue which might explain all the buzz.

So, what exactly is a food desert? The 2008 Farm Bill defined a food desert as an “area in the United States with limited access to affordable and nutritious food, particularly such an area composed of predominantly lower income neighborhoods and communities. ” But as a recent USDA report explains, a food desert is difficult to define in a straightforward and quantifiable way. One reason is that “nutritious” is a difficult concept.  A candy bar has a lot of calories and thus, one could argue, offers a lot of nutritional value. But it probably does not fit most people’s idea of healthy.

Also, what is “limited access?”  If you can take a bus to the grocery store, is that sufficient access? What if you have to take two buses and then walk? Some people complain about not being able to find a good cup of coffee in a certain area. Imagine if you could roam for miles without finding anything to eat or drink that wasn’t prepackaged or heavily processed.

The USDA report uses a distance of one mile from a grocery store as the definition for access.  A figure from the report (above) shows the situation in the Washington, D.C. Metro area.  The areas in dark outlines represent areas defined as low income.  The circles represent areas that lie within a one-mile radius of a grocery store.  Shading corresponds to the number of people living in the area. The darker the color, the higher the population.

Although some areas of Southeast DC meet the criteria of the report for being food deserts based on the report’s criteria, most of DC would appear to have adequate access to food.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t take much for an area to become a food desert. For example, in Northeast DC, where the local Safeway recently closed down, there is another grocery store located within in a one mile radius. However, some residents expressed the desperation for groceries associated with living in a food desert.

Posted by Rhea Kennedy | June 4th, 2010

The Columbia Heights Community Marketplace, Ward 8 Farmers Market, and Mt. Rainier Farmers Market all kick off their seasons this Saturday, June 5. Two of these markets are setting up their tents for the first time. All three offer both local food and a community focus.
The brand new Columbia Heights Community Marketplace will light up [...]

Posted by Rhea Kennedy | May 27th, 2010

As a recent American Prospect article made clear, not all farmers markets are geared toward shoppers who need fresh fruits and vegetables the most. Yet two markets in the District have opened or expanded this season to address that critical constituency.

The Howard University Hospital (HUH) began hosting a twice-weekly farmers market Tuesday, May 11, and will continue to feature produce from Pennsylvania and North Carolina farmers each Tuesday from 3 to 7 p.m. and Fridays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the hospital courtyard. The hospital is located in Ward 1 at 2041 Georgia Avenue NW, near the Shaw/Howard University Metro and steps off several Metrobus routes. The market accepts WIC and Senior CSFP vouchers.

The purpose of the market, according to a Howard press release, is to help address the scarcity of fresh fruits and vegetables in African American communities. With its location in Ward 1, the campus is a good place to start. The market is a project of the program HUH CARES, and has been commended by Dr. Denia Tapscott, a bariatrician and program director for the Center for Wellness and Weight Loss Surgery, as a service that can address the obesity epidemic among African Americans. The market may get a mention as part of EBONY Magazine’s year-long coverage of the center.

The Ward 8 Farmers’ Market starts its season on Saturday, June 5. The market, which carries a social justice mission, is now entering its 12^th season of bringing fruits, vegetables, herbs, plants, and more from Pennsylvania and Maryland to the heart of Congress Heights.  The market will be held every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the parking lot of the old Congress Heights School at 500 Alabama Ave. SE, near the Anacostia and Congress Heights Metro stations on the green line. For years, this area suffered from a dearth of grocery stores but an abundance of small corner stores, where fresh food makes up only one percent of the offerings.

The market will expand this year, creating the only weekday farmers market east of the Anacostia River.  Beginning on June 8, it will operate from the parking lot of the United Medical Center at 1310 Southern Ave. SE near the Southern Avenue Metro station on the green line. The market will run each Tuesday from 3 to 7 p.m. through October. Also new this year is a website for the market: www.ward8farmersmarket.com.

Both Ward 8 Farmers’ Market locations will accept EBT cards issued in D.C., SNAP cards issued in Maryland, the new WIC Cash Value Checks (CVC), and other food assistance coupons such as those offered by the WIC and Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program.

The market continues to provide vegetables and fruit to corner stores in Congress Heights, with the help of a grant from the Capital Area Food Bank, in exchange for the promise that they are sold to the public at reasonable prices.

Posted by Rhea Kennedy | April 10th, 2010

Starting May 1, many farmers will for the first time accept Fruit and Vegetable Coupons (FVCs) through the Women, Infant and Children (WIC) program at D.C. farmers markets. Unfortunately, as this blog has mentioned here, here, and here, the new program already came up against obstacles. The most regrettable, perhaps, was the one-time training. If [...]

Posted by Rhea Kennedy | March 25th, 2010

Michelle Obama, a passionate urban gardener and fresh food advocate, should be proud of her adopted community. On March 10, the DC Department of Health held a training for farmers to accept both the existing WIC Farmers Market Nutrition Program (FMNP) coupons and the new WIC Cash Value Vouchers for fruit and vegetables (FVCs).

Farmers filled the room. Those who attended were registered to start accepting these coupons on May 1, thus making local fruits and vegetables more accessible to D.C. mothers and their young children.

Indeed, this brings us closer to the message of Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign, which urges parents and policymakers to get vegetables on every child’s plate.

Unfortunately, like the effort to bring more vegetables into D.C. school cafeterias (and as reported on this very blog), this one may not live up to its potential. In D.C., farmers had just this one chance to get authorized—on one day, in one location.

From reports of the training, it seems like virtually every produce market will have at least one vendor registered to accept coupons. So that’s good–but who knows how many more rooms they could have filled?

Posted by Rhea Kennedy | February 13th, 2010

Anyone who thinks living in D.C. precludes any chance to influence national food policy should meet Kathy Ozer. Since 1987, this Adams Morgan resident has been representing farmers and fighting to fix what she calls a “broken” national food system. She currently serves as the executive director of the National Family Farm Coalition on Capitol Hill. Last month, she keynoted the Future Harvest conference, the annual gathering of the Chesapeake Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture. This year’s gathering also included a special presentation by Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan on the USDA’s Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food initiative.

As a long-time resident of D.C., Ozer also strongly supports local initiatives to make healthy food accessible to low-income consumers in the District, and bringing fresh, nutritious food to the city’s school cafeterias. I recently spoke to Ozer about what she does, and how anyone—with or without a vote in Congress—can help put the pieces together.

How did you get involved in farmers’ rights?

I came to the coalition from the perspective of how important it was to have different voices represented on Capitol Hill, but I definitely did not grow up on a farm. I grew up in Bethesda, Maryland. In the 1970s and the 80s, my family was supportive of the Bethesda Food Co-op. So since then, I’ve always had a real interest in food access issues and where food fit into some of the broader sets of issues that we all confront.

What does your organization do, and how does it tie into local food issues?

One of the things that the Family Farm Coalition has done since it started is to connect groups around the country to organize and mobilize on a policy level. These are very important to the day-to-day lives of farmers and of consumers, as people who, hopefully, directly eat more of the food that is being produced.

Tell us about your keynote at the Future Harvest conference.

It was kind of a snapshot about why it’s important to be involved in policy. Many people at the conference seemed pretty interested in what they should do themselves at an immediate level. [I said that] one of those things is to participate in the USDA’s upcoming workshops on antitrust enforcement issues; also to answer action alerts and different messages when there are key issues coming up in congress, and not to be complacent just because there are people in these positions now who support these issues. They need the pressure from all of us.

I also spoke about some of the implementation issues of the Farm Bill. One has to do with ensuring that all the farm programs are able to be used by all farmers regardless of their race or their sex or what geographic area they may live in. So we need to make sure that something called the Diversity Initiative that we all fought for in the 2008 Farm Bill gets implemented as fairly as possible.

What pending legislation should food security activists be watching?

I think the most immediate opening is the whole rewriting of the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act. Our coalition is a part of the Community Food Security Coalition [CFSC], and in that role we’ve been pushing really hard for a program called Farm to Cafeteria, which would provide federal funds through grants to enable schools to better set up either the physical infrastructure or actual distribution networks to be better sourcing from local farmers. In [the Farm Bill of] 2004, we got this Farm to Cafeteria legislation into law, but it didn’t have funding attached to it. So one of the biggest requests is for there to be mandatory funding.

Also, there is a part of the TRADE Act that puts forward what a fair trade policy would be instead of the free trade and open markets we’ve had. It’s got a really strong agriculture, food security, and food safety piece to it. So our coalition, along with other groups have been pushing hard for that change in trade approach.

Many of our readers live in Washington, D.C. without a vote in Congress. How can we influence these discussions?

For national legislation, if people have moved here from other places and have family back in other parts of the country, engage them in the political process with their representatives.

Also, there are members of Congress who, even if we’re not directly voting for them, are either on the senate subcommittee on appropriations for D.C., on the House subcommittee that has oversight for D.C. operations, or are making policy decisions that directly affect D.C.  They need to hear from us too.

I think the most immediate role is weighing in on legislation like the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act and farm to school initiatives. The Community Food Security Coalition will be developing action alerts on these issues, and there are members of congress from the Washington area who can play a really important role in that.   The recent launch by First Lady Michelle Obama on tackling childhood obesity and the new task force is a very important initiative.  As a group that represents family farmers we want to be sure that the farmers who are growing our food and milking cows on a daily basis have access to the credit they need to plant their crops.  President Obama’s State of the Union announcement of channeling $30 billion to the community banks is a hopeful sign this winter.

I think what we can do right now as voters is to make sure as many members of Congress as possible have sponsored the TRADE Act.

You can also go to those USDA/Department of Justice workshops and take other opportunities to urge the government to take actions on behalf of consumers and in the public interest—not just agribusiness and other corporate interests—when they’re developing farm policy. With the Supreme Court decision about the role of corporations in the issue of campaign finance, I think that issue becomes an even bigger concern.

On the local level, there’s a proposal on the D.C. City Council for a farm to school program here. I think the importance of having some models here that could be replicated, and learning from other models, is critically important.

Posted by Rhea Kennedy | February 10th, 2010

On Tuesday, sixth grader Tammy Nguyen brought down the White House with some choice words. Leading up to a much-anticipated announcement in the State Dining Room, Nguyen described how she helped grow a rainbow of vegetables in a kitchen garden on the “first lawn.”

“My friends and I have learned a lot about change, about eating healthy food, and making the right choices,” the former Bancroft Elementary School student explained. “My classmates and I plan to keep that color on the plate–and I don’t mean M&Ms,” she said.

Nguyen then introduced First Lady Michelle Obama, who summoned all hands on deck to bring the Bancroft students’ experience to every American child in the interest of better health. She outlined a detailed initiative, called Let’s Move, to curb the startling rate of childhood obesity (about one in three children is overweight or obese, she said), and save the nation’s kids from preventable diseases. Such an initiative can also create jobs and help fish the budget out of a deficit. That can only happen, Obama said, if many sectors work together and the action starts immediately.

“Instead of just talking bout this problem, instead of just worrying and wringing our hands about it, let’s do something about it,” said the first lady. “Let’s act…. let’s move.”

A new Task Force on Childhood Obesity will propel the initiative.

Posted by Rhea Kennedy | January 22nd, 2010

With aftershocks continuing to slam Haiti, we’re all struggling to grasp the losses the earthquake has claimed. Deciding how to help is yet another challenge. Why not start with food? Here are five ways to take action as a food lover and supporter of food access.