The D.C. Foodshed Map is an easy-to-use resource based in Google Maps that covers sustainable food resources within 100 miles of NW D.C. It lists a variety of resources, including both distribution channels and sources of food. Categories include:
- Farmers’ markets
- Community gardens
- Local farms, especially those that have Community Supported Agriculture programs
- Grocery co-ops
- Food justice and sustainability organizations
- Gardening businesses and resources, such as sources of mulch
- Restaurants with a focus on sustainable and local food

Although the D.C. Foodshed Map is an invaluable resource to D.C. residents, it also provides a wealth of information to those in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs. It even includes resources as far out as Baltimore and Pennsylvania. To serve people of all income levels, it also provides information on food banks and which farmers’ markets accept WIC, SNAP and other food stamp programs.

Users can browse the map in multiple ways. You can click and scroll into your local area to see the nearby resources. You can also scroll through the list of entries, which are sorted by organization and in alphabetical order. If you save the Foodshed Map into My Places on Google, you can look up a particular address and view the surrounding points of interest. Users with Google Earth or other mapping software can even download the data as a KML file and view it in that platform.

If an organization or place is missing, users are welcomed and encouraged to add to the map. There is a form on the Food Map page on the Ecolocity website, where users can enter in the name, type, description, address and much more about the organization. The entry is then uploaded the next time the administrator (me) updates the map, which is approximately once a week. If there is a correction needed, please email me to fix it. As the map has a database back-end, I can also add large numbers of entries at a time, such as government data. Please let me know if you have access to such data sets.

If you’re interested in learning more, contributing to, or improving the D.C. Foodshed Map, please attend our next Ecolocity meeting on Tuesday, July 19 at 7 PM at the Emergence Community Arts Collective (733 Euclid Street Northwest, Washington, D.C.). I’ll being giving a “virtual tour” of the map and provide time for brainstorming. We especially welcome mapping experts, as there are always technical challenges to overcome. We hope to see you there!

Walmart is feeling a little wobbly about the chances that the four sites that they’ve chosen for stores in the District will actually become realities, and here’s proof. Yesterday, the mailer you see here was received in mailboxes all across the city. You’re looking at the “Ward 4 edition” right now; the version that was sent to parts of the city that don’t contain potential Walmart sites received different versions (i.e., the headline on the one I saw that was sent to Ward 3 residents proclaims “Walmart’s new DC stores will create 1,200 jobs”, rather than the Ward 4-specific language you see above). The piece looks very similar to the kind of literature we’re used to receiving from candidates during campaign seasons, complete with a disclaimer notice (“Paid for by Walmart Stores, Inc.”).

The mailer’s interior again emphasizes that Walmart will create new jobs, though they neglect to mention that they’re also likely to take jobs away, as small businesses in the surrounding neighborhoods struggle to survive in Walmart’s shadow. And, as David Merriman and Joseph Persky of the University of Illinois wrote in their recent Washington Post piece on Walmart’s entry into Chicago, “In considering whether to encourage or oppose Wal-Mart’s entry into the District, our results suggest that job creation should not be an overriding factor.” Merriman and Persky note that over a period of two years, the number of jobs Walmart created in Chicago was offset by the number of jobs that were lost due to small businesses’ shuttering after Walmart’s arrival.

“Access to healthy food” is also emphasized here. But as we’ve learned from the USDA’s recently uploaded online tool, Ward 4 is actually not considered a food desert at all. Richard Layman has also taken note of this. From Layman’s post:

WRT Brightwood, considering that there is a below average Safeway at Petworth but the store is going to be upgraded to be roughly comparable to the City Vista store, plus the store at Piney Branch Road, plus the Giant Supermarket at Eastern Ave. and Riggs Road just across the border in Maryland, plus the proposed Safeway at Riggs Road and South Dakota Avenue as part of the Cafritz project, plus the Safeway on Connecticut Ave. in Chevy Chase, not to mention the Yes Grocery, I think it would be hard to say that people are underserved…

I found a mapping tool, and started mapping 3 mile retail trade areas from a handful of supermarkets that serve Brightwood: Safeway in Petworth, Safeway at Piney Branch Road, Safeway in SW DC, Safeway in Chevy Chase, the Yes Grocery on Georgia Ave. NW, the PanAm Market at Michigan and Eastern Avenues, the Giant Supermarket on the DC-Maryland border at Eastern Avenue and Riggs Road in Prince George’s County. But since so much of the city was covered just with these stores, I decided to start over.

I changed the radius to 1.5 miles from the store location. It doesn’t include the proposed Safeway location on Riggs Road NE or the proposed Walmart on Georgia Avenue NW or New York Avenue NE. It doesn’t include the PanAm store on 14th Street NW, or independent supermarkets in Mt. Pleasant, nor Florida Market. A lot of stores aren’t listed.

I’m not saying that I don’t think Ward 4 could use more food options than it currently has, just that Walmart’s avowals that they’re rescuing us from the bowels of food-desertism are rather baseless.

Of course the mailer mentions nothing about the true folly: that it’s becoming more and more apparent that the site, near the intersection of Georgia and Missouri Avenues, can’t realistically support the proposed development without having a serious adverse affect on traffic, pedestrian safety, and quality of life in the surrounding residential area.

For more, visit the Brightwoodian, a blog of news and musings focusing on Brightwood and its surrounding neighborhoods in Washington, DC’s Ward 4.

After many, many requests from urban farmers, cyclists, and food activists for information on a rescheduled DC Urban Farms Bike Tour, I am elated to let you all know that you can break out your bikes (and helmets, ahem) in less than two weeks. And there are two exciting new additions to the tour, bringing us up to five — yes, five — stops around the District. It’s going to be GREAT!

Here’s the schedule:

9:00am: Pray for sunshine….

1:00: meet at the Neighborhood Farm Initiative site @ Mamie D. Lee Community Garden
100 Gallatin Street, NE (near Fort Totten metro station)
1:00-1:45: Neighborhood Farm Initiative

1:45-2:30: Biking: head toward Washington Youth Garden
(The National Arboretum, enter through R Street near 24^th St, NE)
2:30-3:15: Washington Youth Garden

3:15-3:45: Biking: hear toward The Farm at Walker Jones
New Jersey & K Street, NW
3:45-4:15: Walker Jones (w/ Vinnie Bevivino of Seed & Cycle)

4:15-4:30: Biking: head to City Blossoms’ Marion Street Intergenerational Garden
1517 Marion Street, NW (Shaw neighborhood)
4:30-5:00: Marion Street garden

5:00-5:15: head to Common Good City Farm
V Street, between 2nd and 4th Streets, NW (Ledroit Park)
5:15-5:45: Common Good

5:45: Biking: head to Big Bear Cafe
1700 1^st Street, NW
6:00: Happy hour @ Big Bear (featuring Arcadia’s Farmer Mo with a word on the Greenhorns MidAtlantic chapter)

The sites will all have water, so bring your water bottles. I’m working on getting some snacks, but I’d advise those of you with similarly ravenous appetites to bring a little something to nibble on. And don’t forget your helmet and a sturdy bike lock.

Please RSVP to me (ibberoo2@gmail.com) so the farmers know how many to expect for workshops (and I know for snacks). See you at 1pm on Saturday, May 21!

It’s a sadly common misconception that the local food movement is elitist. That’s why I was excited to hear about Jeremy Smith’s new book Growing a Garden City. It tells the stories of how first graders, single moms, and homeless folks have benefited from community gardens. At his book tour event last Tuesday at Busboys and Poets , Jeremy pushed back against the idea that local food can’t be for everyone.

Thankfully, Jeremy’s an awesome spokesperson. Although I was a bit suspicious at first upon seeing a Powerpoint presentation, he used the screen to show us photos of stacks of multi-colored tomatoes and small children chomping on dirty carrots. Respectively delicious and hilarious.

He started off his talk by describing his hometown of Missoula, Montana, a city of 70,000 people in a “valley surrounded by rolling peaks.” Although they have urban coffeeshops and trendy boutiques, one in five residents live in poverty. Despite the fact that they have fewer than 120 days a year in the growing season, he said, “local organic food is normal for many, not special.”

This incongruity is the result of hard work and purposeful organizing by community members. Together, they formed Garden City Harvest, a collaborative of a dozen community gardens and agricultural organizations. As a result, they’ve been able to create what Jeremy called “Agriculture Supported Community.” While Community Supported Agriculture is a familiar concept to most foodies, Agriculture Supported Community occurs when urban agriculture projects support the social and economic health of a neighborhood or city.

Of the many he gave, my favorite Agriculture Supported Community example was the synergy between two different programs: Youth Harvest and the Mobile Market. Youth Harvest is a program that transfers the idea of wilderness therapy for troubled teens to agriculture. Rather than sending kids to juvenile detention, they work on urban farms, growing food and benefiting their community. Along with working for a living, they are able to learn useful skills and actively receive therapy. Through this program, the kids came up with the idea of the Mobile Market, a moving farmers’ market for the home-bound in their community. Through this program, the teens are not only able to bring senior citizens discounted fresh produce, but also establish relationships with them. The seniors receive companionship; the teens receive mentoring. As Jeremy said, “You have literally the most vulnerable members of the community offering a service to each other.” Other projects include a church-run garden for homeless families, a “Volunteer for Veggies” program, and an environmental education project that connects university and elementary school students.

With this book, Jeremy hopes to empower other communities to create programs like the ones that have helped so many people in Missoula. Of course, much of this activity is already going on in D.C. He named off a number of great programs in D.C., like D.C. Central Kitchen’s Fresh Start, a program that teaches ex-offenders how to run a catering company while serving kids in D.C. Public Schools fresh produce.

To maximize the “Agriculture Supported Community” aspect of a project, he recommends “Maximize the amount of community in your community garden.” In particular, he recommends including features that go beyond food – playgrounds, benches, and shady areas where people can rest.

Jeremy ended his speech on an encouraging high note. Acknowledging the hard work of everyone gathered in the room, he said, “We’re proving that good food, good life, and the community of a garden city is available to all.” Indeed, it is.

Listen to John Gloster: download mp3

Ten years ago, what was then Ward 8′s only supermarket was closed. Members of the D.C. Statehood Green Party responded by starting their own market. Ten years later, the Ward 8 Farmers’ Market is still going strong and leading the way in finding innovative approaches to providing fresh produce to the food desert that is southeast Washington, D.C.

In two recent editorials, the Washington Post encouraged D.C. voters not to limit themselves to voting for Democratic candidates, but instead to consider voting for D.C.’s second politcal party which, according to the Post, is the Republicans. John Gloster, one of the founders of the Ward 8 Farmers’ Market and a member of the D.C. Statehood Green Party, responded: “Here’s the deal: the D.C. Statehood Green Party, we call ourselves the second party. The Republican Party is the third party in the District of Columbia. You look at the number of votes we get in elections the last few cycles, it bares that out. We’ve been out-voting the Republican Party.”

John Gloster of the DC Statehood Green Party and the Ward 8 Farmers' Market

Gloster continued, “We stand more in line with the values and the needs of the people of the District of Columbia. For that very reason, we are intentionally excluded from media coverage by organizations conservative in nature like the Washington Post because we represent more of a threat to the power structure than the Republican Party, if you think about it. Because we are more in line with the average citizen of the District of Columbia there’s more of a potential of our becoming first party, and that would totally upset the power structure right now. Right now, if Republicans became somehow magically in power in D.C. not that much would change when you look at the way in which the city is run… for the wealthy and for the large corporations. So the Republicans being in power, the Democrats being in power, that wouldn’t change that much. Statehood Green, that would be like a revolution. So therefore, it’s very important to organizations that tend to protect the status quo to make sure that the Statehood Green Party is marginalized.”

Not only has the D.C. Statehood Green Party kept the Ward 8 Farmers’ Market going for ten years, but it has launched a creative new initiative called “the buyback program.” This initiative provides farmers with $250 a week in guaranteed sales, apart from their sales to individual customers. The produce from “the buyback” is distributed to local feeding programs, as well as to corner stores. Yes, corner stores, which have historically sold less-than-healthy items, are now selling fresh produce in southeast, D.C.

Gloster explained the initiative, “During the six-months that we operate, the corner stores provide an avenue through which produce can be obtained throughout the week or until what we give them sells out. I do find though that the typical purchaser from the corner store is not necessarily the typical purchaser from the farmers’ market. A lot of the people who are buying produce from the corner stores do not appear to have ever gone to the market, and so we’re reaching also another type of consumer, one who doesn’t necessarily think [the] farmers’ market is a place that they would logically be going to, but yet and still they’re buying farmers’ market produce through the corner stores.”

Getting the corner store owners to buy into the program wasn’t easy, said Gloster, “Well, you know, [they had] a little bit of skepticism, as you might think. But because of the fact that we have the grant and are able to subsidize it, the corner store owners…, [the] three of them that we operate with, were willing to take a chance. And even though it’s subsidized, it’s still a chance for them because every inch of space in a store is a potential profit center. So taking a portion of your space and using it for that [when] you could be selling yet more, whatever, gummy bears… or cigarettes or whatever else it might be. So that has opened up an avenue and we’d ideally like to see that replicated and see more corner store owners see the potential for selling produce in their stores.”

Gloster said, “I think it’s worked quite well. For instance, I remember strikingly the first time that it really sunk home. We had delivered watermelons on one particular Saturday and when we came back the next Saturday it seemed to be the same number of watermelons and so I remarked to the store owner, who was there, ‘Oh, you didn’t sell any watermelons.’ He said, ‘No, quite the contrary. We sold out of your watermelons about mid-week and so people were complaining that there were no more watermelons so we bought more from another supplier.’ And he looked at me, I guess to see if I would be upset by that. And of course I was delighted because that’s exactly what we wanted, for the corner store owners to see that there is potential demand for these products and they’ll eventually be able to acquire them for themselves.”

Journalist Pete Tucker reports for D.C.’s Pacifica Radio station, WPFW 89.3 FM. Tune in weeknights from 6:00-7:00 PM to catch his reports on “Spectrum Today” with Askia Muhammad.

What does access to healthy foods have to do with defeating poverty?

Not only does the presence of affordable fresh food in a community have the potential to improve residents’ nutrition and overall health, but attracting full-service grocery stores also can boost the local economy – grocery retail creates jobs, generates tax revenue, draws foot traffic to support neighboring businesses, and helps spur other development.

In our recent report, When Healthy Food Is Out of Reach: An Analysis of the Grocery Gap in the District of Columbia, D.C. Hunger Solutions, along with Social Compact, documented an alarming gap in access to full-service grocery stores in the District.

Findings from the report include:

• The ratio of full-service grocery stores to residents varies widely among the District’s wards. Ward 3 has five times as many full-service grocers per capita as Ward 4.
• On average, residents of Wards 4, 5, and 7 must travel longer distances than residents in other wards to reach the closest full-service grocery store.
• The District loses more than $112 million in annual grocery revenues to neighboring jurisdictions because existing grocery retail is insufficient to meet residents’ demand.
• Some areas of the District—particularly in Wards 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8—are underserved by full-service grocery retail, compared to other areas. (The recent closure of one of Ward 5’s three full-service grocery stores has compounded the problem.)

Low-income residents bear the brunt of the grocery gap’s effects. For families struggling to make ends meet, lacking access to full-service grocers impacts both their wallets and their health.  Families whose budgets are already stretched to the limits don’t have the extra money to pay for additional transportation costs to reach distant grocery stores or for the typically higher prices in small corner stores.

And the grocery gap is detrimental to the health and viability of city as a whole.  However, it represents opportunities for economic development, job creation, and a more vibrant city.  Thus, the report concludes with a recommendation that D.C. follow the lead of Pennsylvania, New York City (and state), and several other cities and states, and launch an initiative to attract full-service grocers to underserved parts of the city.

Councilmembers Mary Cheh (Ward 3), Kwame Brown (At-Large), David Catania (At-Large), and Tommy Wells (Ward 6) in July introduced the FEED DC Act, which, according to Councilmember Cheh’s press release aims to:

• Create a public-private partnership to attract and renovate grocery stores in food deserts;
• Designate a “Grocery Ambassador” in the District government;
• Help District grocery and corner stores offer healthier foods by providing grants, loans, tax credits, equipment, and other financial and technical assistance; and
• Provide incentives for new or existing District food retailers to purchase energy-efficient commercial refrigeration and freezer systems in the District.

Closing the grocery gap in the District by encouraging more grocers to locate in underserved areas would help reduce hunger, improve public health and nutrition, and reduce costs for low-income residents – and it should be a centerpiece of the city’s current and future health, economic development, job creation, and community revitalization initiatives.

If you are interested in learning more about access to healthy food and efforts to close the grocery gap, visit our website: www.dchunger.org.  There, you also will find updates on the FEED DC Act, and potential opportunities to get involved.

As I reported during the Social Forum, many of these principles and intentions can be seen in practice in Detroit. My reporting there only scratched the surface of the work that’s been done — and one of the things I learned was how much discussion and collective self-reflection had come before (and in the course of) meaningful action.

In the particular case of Detroit, the local food movement engaged in a series of workshops (facilitated by the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond) focused on confronting and dismantling racism in both the industrial food system and the movement itself. Participants analyzed race and power dynamics, and emerged with a shared set of ideas and vocabulary with which they can collaboratively work to restructure those dynamics.

Images c/o Jessica Beaumont of the NYC Food Justice Delegation

During the People’s Movement Assembly on Food Justice at the Social Forum, participants formed a breakout group to focus specifically on this process of dismantling racism in the food system. As a white person of privilege working towards food justice in low-income, largely black communities in DC, I was grateful for the opportunity to join this group and learn more about my own role. Several leaders of Detroit’s movement helped facilitate the conversation, and we worked hard to consider what broad lessons could be drawn from their experience. The need (and desire) for greater dialogue was shared by all at the table, but many local food movements might not yet be at a point where it’s possible to gather the right set of people together in a room for a deep analysis of race, power, and white supremacy.

Yet we have to start the process somewhere (and, like it or not, that process is really best started in a place–not on a blog).

I was using that mobile device to take notes -- swear!

Fortunately, one promising answer can be found within the very stuff of this movement: food itself. More specifically, the way that social capital is generated by the growing, preparing, and eating of food. Several participants of the subgroup shared insights into how simple, deliberate community meals are used in their community to create spaces for dialogue and relationship-building. The Detroit folks recalled that their community’s dismantling racism workshops were, in fact, an idea that germinated in the course of a series of dinners among the movement’s leaders.

And so our Dismantling Racism subgroup of the Food Justice People’s Movement Assembly at the 2010 US Social Forum concluded with the presentation of what some may consider a “radical notion”: that we should gather people together in our communities to collaboratively prepare food, eat the food, and talk about the food.

Diners at the DC Food For All's launch: the Great Harvest

Personally, I was energized and encouraged by this experience; after all, the DC Food For All launched 9 months ago in this very way. Relationships forged in the course of these early meals continue to bear fruit today. So I’m sharing the text of the proposal forged in Detroit here in hopes that we can experiment with these accessible, social, and political community-building meals here in DC.

A proposal for dismantling racism: Let’s eat together

We affirmed the radical notion of sitting down and eating together as a starting point for building relationships, gaining historical perspective, sharing culture, learning from each other, offering practical tips for healthy cooking/eating, supplying food for those is need, discussing future action, recognizing who is missing from the table, and action to bring them into the circle next time. Many of the key ingredients to dismantling racism.

Building on the example of the People’s Kitchen Collective in Oakland we see endless potential in this model. Here are some ideas:

• Work to raise $$ so the meal can be free to all or on a sliding scale
• This example was a meal for 200 people
• Invite 20 people to come help prepare the meal
• Invite 4 people to teach one dish each
• Set up 4 stations and have each cook discuss the role this dish plays in their culture, where the ingredients come from (work to include the growers whenever possible), and how food can be used for organizing in their community
• Have the 20 cooks report back what they learned to the larger group
• Collectively say grace/thanks for the food!
• Offer discussion questions for each table
• Send each guest home with the recipes and whatever ingredients you can provide (especially cultural spices or things harder to find)
• Discuss who is missing from the table and what collectively can be done to include them next time
• Set a date for next meal!

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 the new plaza at 14^th Street and Park Road NW. Organizers made local foods a keystone of this weekly event, bringing in fresh produce, eggs, dairy products, meat, or baked goods that the vendors grew, raised, or prepared within 150 miles of Washington.

But that’s not all.

“[T]he Columbia Heights Community Marketplace will act as a place for local community members, organizations, and artists to come together and celebrate the diverse cultures and activities present in this neighborhood,” a press release declares, explaining that the scene is “more than a farmers market.”

The “more” includes live music, dance, yoga and tai chi classes, and cooking demonstrations. The Columbia Heights Community Marketplace’s Youth Market Program combines educational activities to show neighborhood youngsters where their food comes from with opportunities to intern with nearby farms, bakeries, and vendors.

As the crowning touch, the inaugural market will unite Mayor Adrian Fenty, D.C. Council Chair Vincent Gray, and Council members Jim Graham and Kwame Brown when they kick off the opening ceremonies. Come at 11 a.m. to see these sometimes contentious figures share a stage.

The Ward 8 market, located in the heart of Congress Heights, has a social justice mission to serve the community east of the Anacostia River. As it has for the past 11 years, this market will bring fruits and vegetables to a part of D.C. where many residents do their food shopping at corner stores, where fresh foods make up just one percent of the inventory. This year, shoppers can also find herbs and plants at the farmers market, all sourced from no further than Pennsylvania and Maryland.

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. The market will expand this year to include a weekday afternoon market, starting on June 8. That arm of the market 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. For the days in between, the farmers market organizers plan to continue to provide excess produce to corner store owners, who then agree to sell it at a fair price.

Right on the line between D.C. and Maryland, the Mt. Rainier Farmers Market will open for the first time this Saturday on the 3200 block of Rhode Island Avenue (NE on the D.C. side). It will take place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. each week. Though long known for establishments like the non-profit grocery store Glut and and the Mt. Rainier Bike Co-op, this neighborhood has yet to host a farmers market. Residents can now look to their own backyard for local produce, baked goods, bread, grass-fed meat, ice cream, tea, and coffee.

Opening day will feature live music, free tote bags, and balloons for the kids. The market’s website features community health news and links, including a weekly health tip and a guide to eating healthfully on a budget.

If you can’t make it to all three markets on the first day, not to worry. Each runs every week through the fall. The Ward 8 Saturday market runs through November 20 and the Tuesday market continues through October 26. The Mt. Rainier market also lasts through November 20. The Columbia Heights Community Marketplace does not list an ending date, but with so much community involvement, it’s sure to endure for a while.

Photos taken by the author at the 2009 Ward 8 Farmers Market at the old Congress Heights School.