The next workshop is tomorrow at 6pm! Bread for the City is located at 1525 7th St NW, right by the Shaw metro. Email us to RSVP, or join the Google Group to stay posted in the meantime.

We’ve just passed the four month mark and the 100th post mark(!), so it’s a good time to reflect: the DC Food for All has had more than 40 contributors posting on all matters of local food justice issues. There are 150 people (smart and lively ones!) on our discussion list– have you joined it? (Want to stay posted about big announcements and events, but protect your inbox? Join our announcement list.) We’ve also had 4-5 successful workshops and 3 fantastic potlucks. All done entirely by volunteers.

Plus there is a huge swath of ideas and people and energy swirling around us that has yet to tapped. This is exciting stuff!

One important thing that we’ve learned in all this is that it’s not enough to just sit around and talk about important food issues — and it’s not enough to just blog about them either! To create real momentum, we have to gather together, communicate about what we care about, and then take action in our community.

And so we’re developing a regular calendar of events and activities — throughout the year ahead. I encourage you to attend our next workshop: March 9th, 6:30-8:30p, at Bread for the City. Email us at DCFoodForAll@gmail.com to RSVP or ask questions.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed and volunteered so far!

When Yao Afantchao first left his village in Togo for the United States relatives and friends showered him with gifts of local foods so that he would not be without his native diet. Loaded with mangoes, the peanuts of his region and dried delicacies he crossed the Atlantic.

But when the US Customs Service inspected his bags at JFK Airport, his first lesson in U.S. food economics and practices was a shock. The foodstuff of Afantchao’s homeland was confiscated.

“That’s it; my life is gone,” Afantchao said recalling his feelings of the day and that loss. “The trip I made from New York to Philadelphia was the longest of my life.”

Since witnessing that initial clash between authorities and the food he loves, Afantchao’s stories about food have transformed as the nation’s population has become more diverse. He now works as an ethnic and specialty crop specialist with the University of the District of Columbia, helping immigrants find the foods they prefer and the local farmers to produce it.

As people arrive in the United States from other countries, they naturally bring their appetites with them. Although Afantchao in time re-acquired much of his accustomed diet, there was a transition period.

“We like to find our own food,” he said of the immigrant experience at the Feb. 20 Rooting DC conference. “People like to give you pizza and take you to McDonald’s. That is nice for a day. But ethnic food is not just food to the immigrant. It is also a source of culture.”

His eyes and palate have been on the look-out for these foods. “When I go to a home and they serve garden eggs, I am going back to that home,” quipped Afantchao, a large-framed man who sports a mustache and goatee around his ever-present smile.

As a community educator he travels widely in the region, from urban communities to rural Southern Maryland. He acts as a link between those willing to pay for familiar fare and the farmers who do or might produce it. One farm family he met was initially skeptical of planting crops they had never tasted and that had exotic names; 19 years later the farm is making money providing the specialty produce that immigrants and native-born consumers enjoy at their tables or in restaurants.

“Our foods are comfort foods,” Afantachao said. “In the United States, you are always willing to try something new. You are brave people.”

Working through UDC’s cooperative extension service and its agricultural experimentation service, Afantachao was on the team that helped determine a good choice of crops for this segment of the market. He mentioned a few main ones at the Rooting DC conference.

* Sawa-Sawa — A sorrel plant, or edible hibiscus, shic is good in salads. The red bud version makes a good tea.

* Jute leaf — a leafy green

* Avuvo — A plant in the Amara family that is expensive in Africa.

* Njamma-Njamma — A leafy green. Often outside Africa local greens, such as collards, are substituted and a dish by this name is prepared in West African fashion.

* Water leaves — good in stews with meat or fish

* Gboma – in the eggplant family

* Assorted hot peppers — Popular in many cultures

* Garden eggs – another eggplant

Thomason is the publisher of GlobalResourcesNews.com, a site about ecology and economics.

Big thanks and photo credit go to Beverlie Lord of Satsun Photography for the image above.

Cross-posted from Field to Fork Network.

Policy changes

Several DC Food For All contributors have suggested ways that our local government can improve access to food in the city.

Most popularly, Caryn Ernst announced a campaign to ease restrictions on raising hens in DC’s backyards. Read more about the issue here, or go right ahead and sign our petition here.

Katie Vinopal of DC Hunger Solutions told us about an easy policy change that the City could make to help struggling families put food on the table as they work towards financial stability. She noted that, currently, families who transition out of TANF (the modern welfare program) often lose their food stamp benefits before they are truly self-sufficient. The city could fix this hole by extending food assistance to families who are transitioning off of TANF — and it would be paid for entirely by federal funding!

And Greg Plotkin examined a policy that might not be achieving its intended function: tax breaks for supermarket development in underserved neighborhoods. Are they actually working? Greg suggests the NYC FRESH initiative as an alternative policy approach. (His post was picked up by Greater Greater Washington, where there’s length discussion in the comments.)

Changes in the city

Several contributors looked at different aspects of DC’s food infrastructure — and found mixed results.

Tara Flakker describes her journey into a nascent movement to bring farm fresh food into DC’s schools. Related, Brynn Slate featured a vermiculture class for kids conducted by City Blossoms.

Liz Whitehurst took a journey with the Neighborhood Farm Initiative to explore DC’s urban gardenscape, conducting the city’s first census of community gardens. Liz’s post was also picked up by Greater Greater Washington!

And Jody Tick from the Capital Area Food Bank shared some retrospective thoughts about the history and eventual closing of the Anacostia Farmer’s Market.

Triumph over homelessness and hunger

Lastly, yesterday’s post is certainly worth your attention. Louise Thundercloud shared her personal perspective on homelessness. Louise explains that one of the most debilitating psychological effects of severe poverty is a person’s loss of control over the kind of food that she can eat. Her own experience, she says, suggests that workshare programs at community food sites like cooperative grocery stores are a way to foster both food security and personal empowerment.

Many thanks to all of our contributors.

If you appreciate these stories, and want to stay updated on DC Food For All events, sign up for our announcement list here. If you’d like to get more involved and potentially even contribute, please join our discussion group here. And if you have any general feedback, let us know at dcfoodforall@gmail.com.

Thank you!

The most odious problem is hunger – more importantly, hunger that limits the scope of your choices of what to eat. This issue is related to the problem of very low self esteem: feeling as though you deserve only what is given to you, because you feel so terrible about yourself. I am referring to the lack of empowerment felt by most homeless people, & it compounds when someone had very low self esteem prior to becoming homeless.

When I began my climb out of being homeless, I began to get very angry at my lack of control over the more basic things, what I ate. I began to refuse to eat, preferring to sleep away hunger.

Hunger is the manifestation that accompanies having no job, and being completely dependent on others for food. What if the homeless had other choices, which include fresh organic vegetable or fruits, that they can earn in exchange for volunteering their time at a health food store or urban garden?

Someone told me about a food co-op which would allow me to volunteer & use my volunteer hours to purchase organic fresh foods. On my first shift I felt myself feeling more capable & less at the mercy of others. I had choices & my work gave me those choices.

Fortunately for me, I did not become homeless with a lot of the baggage many do, I didn’t have completely crushed self-esteem, just interrupted self-worth.

Homelessness strips you bare of your humanity. You feel like scum. You often look like scum, & people generally either do not notice you, or they do with malice & disgust. Negativity is very easily absorbed & once it has been absorbed, it is very hard to shake, especially when you are homeless.

So here’s my question: since low self-esteem leads to repeat homeless, shouldn’t self-esteem building be offered more often to end the cycle of homeless? Where food is concerned, couldn’t more opportunities be aimed directly at the homeless community in the form of shift work, enabling the person to earn groceries they want & are able to fix themselves, thereby providing an avenue for empowerment?

Having worked several times as a volunteer at a health food store, I know how busy things get. Having more able bodied volunteers would enable to permanent staff more time to take care of their customers. Also shift work allowed me to learn about different movements: human rights, environmental, peace movements. Other kinds of connections can be made, as well as other solutions can be found for ending some very perplexing problems. Perhaps ending homelessness could be one of them.

The homeless can play a large role in addressing hunger in the homeless community, & open a dialogue on how homeless people can play a large part in ending the cycle of homeless & low self –esteem in their community.

Isn’t it empowering to feed oneself what one wants, instead of having to eat what is put in front of you, particularly food that you really don’t want to eat? I know that having that choice put self-determination & empowerment in my hands.

Louise Thundercloud
Homeless 1991-1993

Some of you may have noticed that we’re having some site issues. In order to test our repairs, we need to have one dummy post for the developers to be able to see.  So, here it is.

This is a graphic loaded from another website.  Dheeraj is awfully fond of Marvel Comics, so is it any surprise that he chose this one?

Now, here’s an uploaded picture of Dheeraj, brooding away at a bar. Look at how emo he is!

And now, finally, a You Tube video of a song that Dheeraj finds incredibly amusing: