All posts in Food Security category.
Seems a few departments of City government are interested in discussing sustainability these days. This is the first in a series of working meetings led by the Depts of Planning and the Environment…. Of note, one working group is to focus on food issues in DC. Anticipated topics include: local food production; commercial distribution; access [...]
Aya Community Markets (Aya) is a community-centered economic and holistic health experience that combines education, farmers’ markets and community supported sustainable agriculture to provide access to healthy food and improved nutrition in “food deserts” and underserved communities in Washington, DC.
Join us for our launch on Saturday July 30th from 11am until 5pm at Pennsylvania Avenue Baptist Church (3000 Penn. Ave. SE).
Aya’s physical farmers’ markets will be a vibrant gathering places and destination points where consumers will come to not only shop for produce, but will be able to access various vendors for goods and services for mental, spiritual and financial health. This holistic approach will attract customers in search of other health experiences such as yoga, exercise classes, or credit counseling which help to improve the community.
Aya Community Markets will offer fresh, local produce, flowers, prepared foods and handcrafted items directly to Ward 7 residents. In addition Aya will host a wide range of family and nutritional programs, including live entertainment, chef demonstrations and youth activities.
Aya will feature:
Visit http://dreamingoutloud.org/ayamarkets for more!
Over the past several months, I’ve been exploring what it might take to build a nourishing food system in DC. I’ve had the privilege of hearing ideas from different individuals and groups about what collaboration could look like and how something like a food policy council might help move the city as a whole in the right direction.
To me, the discussions have been exciting and the possibilities seem both endless and achievable. It’s also apparent that the work goes far beyond generating good policy ideas. Speaking with groups who’ve been living and working in the city for a long time, it becomes increasingly clear that as a white, young, relatively new arrival to the district, and someone who came from a pretty comfortable economic background, I need to spend some time reflecting on my identity and role.
It’s no secret that across the country, the impact of a broken food system is disproportionately felt by communities of color. In DC in particular, parts of the city with higher concentration of African Americans often have higher rates of poverty, lower access to healthy and affordable foods, and higher rates of the accompanying diet-related diseases.
Studies and facts are easy to find, yet less often do I find them accompanied by thoughtful analysis of why and of the reality of a racist food system that has been built and perpetuated throughout our nation’s and our city’s history. “Race & the Food System,” a project of WHY Hunger and Growing Food and Justice For All Initiative, explores some of that history and the present reality. From low-cost labor inputs from immigrant workers, to the discriminatory treatment of black farmers by the USDA, to the ongoing unequal wages and employment patterns across all aspects of the food system – it’s clear that race matters.
WHY Hunger and GFJI breaks it down: “The problem is systemic; therefore, the solution must be approached with an eye towards understanding those systems and how to change them.” So what does systemic change in DC look like? And how might something like a food policy council play a role?
As a starting place, it’s clear that white people like me must reflect on our identity (and the privileges that have come with it) and take responsibility for our place in an unjust system. Next, I hope we can prioritize listening and learning – about the history of food and racism in this city, about how ways of working on food politics might perpetuate some of those injustices, about work that’s already being done and ideas that people already have about how to fix it. (I’m excited about this week’s National Black Agricultural Awareness Week as one of those opportunities to reflect and learn. Learn more here )
We can gain strength for the long journey by knowing other cities have made progress – white people and people of color together building the kind of just, transparent, welcoming community needed to do this hard work. Some cities, like Detroit and Oakland, have explicitly built diverse representation and ownership into the mandate and mission of their food policy councils. Others have used participatory action research to engage as broad of a spectrum of impacted groups and individuals as possible in creating and implementing a ‘food systems plan.’ And some, like Toronto’s organized food community, took a few steps back through public conversations and gatherings, with the support of the Growing Food and Justice for All Initiative’s Toronto chapter.
The Community Food Security Coalition summarizes the aim: “In order to dismantle the structural racism within our food system, we must make a determined effort to cultivate and increase the leadership, voice, perspectives and demands of low-income communities of color within the food movement.” I hope that our work in DC can be shaped by that vision.
[Cross-posted on the Bread for the City blog]
Earlier this summer, Louise Thundercloud, Angie Stackhouse and I represented Bread for the City at the Community Food Security Coalition’s (CFSC) “From Neighborhood To Nation” Conference in Portland, OR. This event convened people from across the country who are working to promote local and state-level policies for healthier and more just food systems.
Set in a city whose mayor owns chickens and dedicates city hall land to the production of food for local homeless shelters, the conference had no shortage of government-driven food-policy role models. We learned about progressive and impressive urban agriculture policies and programs in Baltimore, healthy food systems resolutions in Cleveland, coordination across Michigan’s cities to identify shared infrastructure needs, and Seattle’s efforts to link local legislation to national Farm Bill policies.
Angie Stackhouse is Bread for the City client and a local advocate for social justice issues, particularly for the homeless community. Angie has been helping Bread for the City with the food policy council planning process with the Health Affordable Food for All Coalition, and recently traveled attended a food policy conference with others from Bread for the City. Angie has blogged with us in the past about homelessness in DC.
I came to the Community Food Security Coalition’s local policy conference to find out how we can better serve the homeless community in terms of getting fresh vegetables in shelters. Once there, I met a lot of people who talked about how that’s just one important way among many that we can improve our communities’ food systems, improving our health while also developing economic opportunity.
And I realized that what we all want is healthy affordable food for all – so let’s do it!
How do we make that happen? First, you need to think about who needs to be brought to the table. You need to do the groundwork – going into the communities and asking people how they feel about their food choices and how they feel about not having fresh food in their neighborhood.
You also need to have people who know about things like zoning, people who are affiliated with the Health department (to highlight the importance of sickness & disease happening in the neighborhoods), and folks who have data linking lack of fresh vegetables to sickness and obesity (that’ll help convince City Council how important it is). Then, you start thinking about how to work together to make it happen.
I learned that having something like a food policy council can help make sure the City Council recognizes that people need fresh & healthy food. And I learned that successful food policy councils have participation and leadership from residents who themselves are struggling with these problems and searching for solutions.
But we also learned that you’ve got to be strategic. You have to know how to use the tools that you have with limited resources. Being strategic means being able to clearly define what you’re trying to do, which also makes people more likely to want to sign on.
So let’s get to work! Here are some of my favorite ideas from the conference:
And here’s what I’m going to be doing now that I’m back in DC:
Louise Thundercloud attended the Community Food Security Coalition’s conference on local food policy, along with others from Bread for the City. Check back soon for more!
I traveled to Portland last week to attend CFSC’s food policy conference with a couple of goals: namely, to begin crafting language which will enable discussions on food policy to be translated into language, both indigenous communities and people within urban communities can understand. I wanted to be able to show those communities the connection between diet, fitness & health in practical terms, but to also connect those conversations to politically, the importance of being able to eat well.
I learned that all of us working on food justice have got a lot more learning to do, not just how to change policy to make fresh food available to people, but to get more at why it is people don’t have access, and how to better communicate with people who aren’t working in the field.
…
Food pioneer Dr. Oran Hesterman will be speaking about his new book, FAIR FOOD, Growing A Healthy, Sustainable Food System for All, at 7 p.m., June 6, at Politics & Prose in Washington.
While many books have given advice to buy local and eat organic. Dr. Hesterman is calling for a complete reform of the U.S. food system, to bring us back to health. The book deals with all aspects of a food system in crisis, including chemicals, shortages, mistreatment of workers, and unsanitary conditions. Hesterman, president and CEO of Fair Food Network, is a former professor of agronomy, and determined to help change how food is produced, packaged, and delivered.
Here in the link to the book’s website, www.fairfoodbook.org
Dr. Hesterman will discuss problems on a national scale as well as inequities in the food system here in DC — and positive steps being taken as well.
One community member recently shared her experience living on food assistance programs and her hopes for her family’s diet to expand beyond the pasta and beans offered by many local food pantries. To her, a more food-just D.C. includes vegetables and fruit in her grocery bags.
A community brainstorm was held this past weekend at the New Community Church Sanctuary for local advocates and members of the Shaw community to share their ideas for a more food-just D.C. Hosted by ONE DC, Bread for the City, and Common Good City Farm, a round-table discussion enabled individuals from a variety of groups and backgrounds to answer the following questions: What does a healthier, more just food system look like? What are examples of programs that are moving the city toward a more food-just system? How could city-wide support and policy change help facilitate a more food-just D.C.? And finally, who and/or what would need to be included to actually establish such a system?
As previously posted in Community Brainstorm: Building a Healthy, Hunger-Free DC, the food system impacts the environment, the economy and people, yet there is no centralized agency responsible for it; in DC, 13 different city agencies play a role in shaping our local food system. What is now being proposed is the formation of a food policy council, which has the potential to improve DC’s fragmented food system. Food policy councils in other cities and states engage with government policy, grassroots projects, businesses and food workers. They serve as forums for the discussion of food issues and coordination between the various sectors of the food system, and can influence government policies.
Visions for the ideal food-just system include expanding supermarkets across the city, specifying food vouchers for fruits and vegetables, and developing urban agriculture, especially in the expansion of community gardens, and to increase the presence of farm animals and fruit trees in the city.
Examples of initiatives that were presented as already working towards a more food-just D.C. included rooftop gardens, such as the newly established one a top Bread for the City, community and school gardens, gleaning programs, the donation of fresh produce to local shelters and food pantries, and “re-skilling” programs, such as the one offered by Ecolocity DC.
Also, specifically present in the Shaw neighborhood are the ONE DC wellness initiative and Common Good City Farm’s Green Tomorrows program, offering low-income adults or families fresh food from the farm and educational programs.
Overall, the community brainstorm confirmed the passion and determination among local advocates and community members alike to support greater organization and collaboration to create a more food-just D.C., one that better serves all D.C. residents. As one local advocate concluded, “We’ve got to get out of this beg mode and move to a power mode,” which I believe embodies the driving force behind the rapidly developing food justice movement here in D.C.
There are many ways to get involved, such as attending or hosting an upcoming discussion. For more information, contact Allison Burket at aburket@breadforthecity.org.
