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.

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.

It was also more than just wonks. Something that’s been central to conversations in DC , and at Bread for the City, is that it takes a lot more than policymakers, non-profits, and so-called “professionals” to realize true, lasting change. For that reason, I was glad to see participation by everyone from community organizers to health care workers to rural farmers to homeless advocates. I was also glad that the conference featured presentations from several different groups organizing communities not traditionally thought of as “foodies” or even part of the “food movement.” Here are a few examples:

The SW Organizing Project (SWOP), in Albuquerque, NM, is a people-of-color-led group that sees food-related organizing as one of a number of vehicles for empowering disenfranchised members of their community. One project, Feed the Hood, is a “food literacy and community gardening initiative.” It uses community gardens to create “centers of gravity around which people can gather” to build skills, share knowledge, and organize around efforts to ensure healthy food access in their neighborhoods.

POWER San Francisco is

a community-based organization working to ensure that low-income residents of Bayview benefit from the wealth and amenities generated by economic development in the City. They consider themselves “new” to the “food movement,” organizer Jaron Brown explained. A “Right to Thrive” principle that was central to their welfare worker campaign led to organizing and advocating around these workers’ right to fresh, healthy, and affordable food. So far, they have successfully mobilized around a policy mandating better food in schools, while also holding conversations about access to healthy food in the neighborhoods in which they work.

Finally, Saru Jayaraman from the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC-U) reminded us that less than one tenth of one percent of restaurant workers are unionized, and that overwhelmingly, those who serve us our food can’t afford to eat that same food themselves. She said she’s tired of having to explain to people why restaurant workers are central to the food movement. According to her, “when the largest workforce in the country is the poorest workforce in the country, and can’t afford to eat in the same restaurants in which they work – that’s a food security issue!” (Check out ROC’s DC affiliate and a report recently released about restaurant workers in DC)

The message from these and many others present was clear: to effectively craft, pass, and implement policies to genuinely move us toward a healthier and more just food system, the food movement must be built in a way that gives priority to the people most impacted by an unjust food system, who have traditionally been excluded from policy-making decisions.

Our collective efforts to build something like a food policy council in DC can benefit from these insights and experiences in other cities. Here are some tips and ideas that I heard about how building the food movement can be done creatively and mindfully:

• Food policy councils should cultivate a “democratization of expertise.” Coalitions built around specific kinds of professional expertise can reinforce exclusion from policy-making. Instead, groups need to create space for sharing and valuing different kinds of expertise.
• For most communities, “food access” does not equal “food justice.” Healthy food advocates like myself need to take the time to acknowledge and address race and power dynamics embedded in the food system to truly be able to fix it.
• Groups can employ members of an impacted community to themselves conduct outreach or research on the problems and how to fix them – such as Participatory Action Research, or the community health promoters model. (The Market Ambassador program in Massachusetts is one example

Finally, a number of cities emphasized the importance of food pantries, food banks, and community gardens serving as “community food centers” – hubs for organizing, sharing about food issues, and getting people involved for change. I’m excited to see that Bread for the City’s rooftop gardens, free farmers market, community brainstorms, and other food justice gatherings are laying the groundwork for such a vision. I’m also excited to see our clients continuing to drive some of our food justice work.

If you would like to help continue these conversations — at Bread, or around the city — please contact Joni Podschun at jpodschun@breadforthecity.org.

However, as politicians applaud themselves on taking a step to strengthen nutrition programs nationwide, a noteworthy movement to build a better food system is still ranging on in the nation’s capital. This movement is not being organized by politicians or in city hall, but in the classroom and organized by students who want a change in their school’s food program.

The ESL program at Cardozo High School is comprised of students from countries across the world, from Western Africa, China, to Latin America; which is why they are correctly referred to as “many languages, one voice”. For almost 3 years, with the help of Jenny Nelson the Education Coordinator, they have been trying to wage a campaign to change the food system in their school. Also, ESL students come from ethnic backgrounds that place an emphasis on prepared rather then processed foods, with many of the students being vegan; therefore changing the quality of foods in their school has become a very personal cause for the students.

According to Jenny, the students started out the campaign by trying to talk to the School Nutritionist. However, the School Nutritionist stated that the issue is “closed” and the students have plenty of healthy options at the school’s A La Carte line and with the weekly pizza (although pizza is one of the top 3 causes of child obesity). Jenny and the students will try to reach out to the School Nutritionist sometime in the near future, but they believe the path to changing their food program will probably not come through the School Nutritionist.

At the moment, Jenny and the students are at a standstill. They are still meeting weekly to think of new ways to organize around their cause. They have been trying to reach out to organizations like the Capital Area Food Bank and also officials in D.C. Public School System. Some other options have been to reach out to the Cardozo Alumni Association and also the Cardozo Student Government. Sadly, it has been very difficult because ESL students are marginalized, given their foreign backgrounds.

However, Jenny and the students will not be deterred, and their quest for a better food program is ongoing. While First Lady Michelle Obama is working on her “Let’s Move” campaign on the national level, these students have been moving, fighting, and are becoming an inspiration for a better food system for all of Washington, D.C.

As the campaign continues, I hope to have an update for DC Food For All soon. To get more invovled in projects like this, please visit: http://dcfarmtoschool.org/

Jeremiah Lowery can be reached at jeremiahalowery@gmail.com.

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.

As someone with a lot of plains Indians blood, it sometimes becomes difficult for me to know how to fit into the food movement, because I know, politically, how much things have become turned around. When CFSC says, “we’ve got to save the farmland for farming” there’s no explanation of “why do you have that land?” and “why can’t I have that land?” – this causes some personal roadblocks at times.

I did see a good example of how tribal people are successfully changing the direction of disease with proper nutrition and exercise. One workshop was led by members Mvskoke Food Sovereignty Initiative, which has had a lot of success in stressing returning to and learning from tribal diets. They have seen big changes, an 80% increase in controlled diabetes, with the installation and implementation of their program.

I have some questions: 1) How do we frame the conversation for Indian people who have had their diets altered & changed by the dominant culture with disastrous effects? 2) How do we bring this conversation to the inner city, where many members tend to be more people of color, many who have eaten badly for generations? 3) How do we do that in keeping in mind that, more often than not, eating well is determined by one’s economical access?

The issue for me is to have these conversations in a good way, a way that does not disrespect anyone’s connection to their food. Then, there’s the sense that being able to eat well is for the privileged – it almost feels sometimes like a glass ceiling.

Takeaways and next steps

Overall, a lot more work to be done to fight the fact that many of the people who feel excluded from society then feel excluded from the movement as well. Prioritizing inclusion was central to this conference, and there was a real attempt to do things differently. They did a good job at bringing all these diverse people to the conference, but there was no clear sense of how the different policies affect different communities of people.

Here are my recommendations for CFSC and others in the food movement going forward:

• This entire conversation needs to be demystified. I think I have a fairly decent command of the English language, and I can only imagine how other people felt, listening to fairly conceptual discussions.
• Climate-food connection: If we do not consider the effect that climate is having upon our food sources, we are only destined to continue the cycle of having our food be a mess, as well as being an unreachable goal for many low income people. Things need to leave the realm of concept and become much more concrete.
• There needs to be space for the spiritual connection we have with the earth, with the food, with the relationship with what the food does to our body.
• There need to have more conversations about the politics of class & race, and the issues that cause food deserts, or poor health, in rural and urban settings.

For that final point, here are some articles I’d recommend to people who want to learn more:

• Divided we eat: http://www.newsweek.com/2010/11/22/what-food-says-about-class-in-america.html
• Strive to be average: brooklynmovementcenter.org/node/23
• Cultivating Food Justice …for whom?: http://wordsandnosh.wordpress.com/2011/04/18/cultivating-food-justice-2011/

We can all do our part to fight the culture of elitism and parliamentarianism that comes with movements like these. But it will take time to chip away at these issues.

Here’s what I’m going to do: start posting conversations about food justice on facebook. I want to begin asking people, what do they think food justice means, or food sovereignty? I want to make sure other people of color need are included in this conversation, and I want to start doing what I can to make these conversations accessible to people who have never considered food or food justice issues before.

I’d also like hoping to convene a summit or conference this fall, in order to create more of a climate for indigenous and other people of color to have conversations with those who do work in the food justice arena. Let’s have those who are working in food policy translate their work, and let’s have those who are impacted set the terms for the discussion.

If you are interested being involved, please contact me: indigneousfirstpersons@yahoo.com

In recognizing the intersection between sustainable agriculture and a fair and just food system, we have invited farmers, policymakers, community leaders, and advocates to address such topics as agricultural policy, food sovereignty, building local and just food systems, achieving food access, and the connection between the environment, our health, and our food. With this series, we hope to cultivate insight and conversation among diverse members of the community, demonstrate opportunities for action with locally based initiatives, strengthen our solidarity, and develop an awareness of the pressing need to restore justice to our food and our land.

The first event on March 31, to honor Cesar Chavez Day, will explore the struggle faced by farmworkers and other workers on the land across the globe. Tirso Moreno, leader of the Farmworker Association of Florida, and Board Member of the National Immigrant Farming Initiative and the Rural Coalition will share the experience of farmworkers today. Delegates from the Rural Coalition and National Latino Farmers and Ranchers Trade Association will report on Via Campesina’s Global Forum for Life, Environment, and Social Justice in Cancun. Kathy Ozer from the National Family Farm Coalition will discuss food sovereignty and grassroots policy advocacy. We will then have discussion and socializing, and possibly a special guest.

Each event will be held at the flagship location of Busboys and Poets (14th St. and V St. NW), a progressive community gathering place that reaches a diverse audience of artists, activists, thinkers, and dreamers.The series will take place on March 31, May 12 (Food Access), September 22 (Building Local Just Food Systems), and November 17 (Environment, Food and Health) from 6:00 to 8:00 pm.

The events are free and open to all, we will be accepting $5 donations at the door. For more information or to find out how you can support the series, please check out our website at www.accokeek.org or contact Molly at 301-283-2113 x32.

What’s up with food and hunger in DC? In what ways is DC “food insecure”?

First, some figures. According to the USDA’s analysis, over one in eight families in DC classifies as “food insecure,” of not having sufficient access to nutritious food over the course of a year. Of all households in DC with children, 40.6 percent have had times when funds were not sufficient to put food on the table. The Capital Area Food Bank, which serves over 478,100 local residents, released its own comprehensive profile of hunger in DC in 2010. They find that 1 in 3 DC residents is at risk of or experiencing hunger. The food bank has seen a 25 percent increase in food clients in recent years.

Economic hard times in the city exacerbate the impact of an industrialized food system in which lower-quality foods are produced on the cheap. Diseases related to diet and lifestyle are at an all-time high across the country. In DC, where the obesity rate is 22.2% and levels of residents with hypertension reach beyond 28%, these challenges are disproportionately felt in low-income communities and communities of color. For example, Ward 8, which is 92% Black or African American, has a median income of around $25,000 and an obesity rate of 41.9%. This can be compared to Ward 3’s 84% white population with median income of $72,000 and 11.7% obesity rate. (For more on obesity in DC, see the report from the DC Department of Health.)

Communities that are already struggling to afford fresh and nutritious food might not be able to find these staples in their own neighborhoods. So-called “food deserts” result from policies and development practices that have left many lower-income neighborhoods without access to full-service grocery stores or alternative sources of fresh food. DC Hunger Solutions has led the research on the “grocery gap” phenomenon in a 2010 report that identifies the areas in the city, particularly Wards 7 and 8, most impacted by uneven distribution of full-service grocery stores and draws connections to issues of unemployment, obesity, and the local economy. The DC government has launched an effort to combat this phenomenon, though based on experiences with similar initiatives in New York and Pennsylvania, reducing food deserts alone is insufficient to bring down obesity rates.

More than just hunger at a given moment in time, these studies capture the impact of what is increasingly recognized as a broken food system. If recent headlines are any indication, it’s clear that the factors affecting our ability to feed ourselves in a way that is healthy, equitable, and sustainable are complicated and difficult to track, predict, or control: housing and development trends in DC make it difficult for DC residents to access food pantries and federal nutrition programs; battles on the national level over funding for school lunches and for SNAP benefits have been drawn-out and wonky; though farmers and consumer groups across the country have recently been putting up quite a fight, corporate concentration across the food and agriculture sectors continues to result in lower prices for farmers and higher prices for consumers.

So what would it mean to talk about “food security” in DC? According to the standard definition, a community is “food secure” when all residents obtain a “safe, culturally acceptable, nutritionally adequate diet through a sustainable food system that maximizes community self-reliance and social justice.” This perspective is useful in that it considers all the factors that influence the availability, cost, and quality of food to area households, but gosh, trying to think about all those factors and how to make them work better for DC can be a little overwhelming.

The good news is that, while there’s a lot of work to be done, there are a lot of folks already doing it. Recent developments at Bread for the City, as well as a range of stellar projects, programs, and legislative victories captured on the DC Food For All blog, lead me to believe that DC can take the power of making healthy, sustainable food choices into its own hands.

Check in next week as I begin to explore the federal nutrition programs serving District residents!

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!

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.

902 million people starve globally on a daily basis, with some 16,000 children in that population dying of malnutrition daily and averaging out to one child dying every five seconds. Some 1,400 people died during the course of the film.