Food Activism

School lunches are often unsung heroes of many modern American households. Frequently overlooked and disregarded because of their stigma, school lunches are a key ingredient that may help make the world a better place. Unknowingly, great numbers of individuals in our communities deal with food insecurities every day of their lives. It baffles me that in an advanced society many people do not have the resources to provide food for themselves or their families. Until it affected me personally, I was unaware nor passionate about the struggles of food insecurity. My passion for solving food insecurity in my local community has led me to gain both experience and leadership through understanding and advocating for those around me.

The problem with food production in America is the mistreatment of livestock, the overproduction of corn in America, and the amount of corn feeded to the animals ; these issues affect consumers’ health because of the amount of diabetes has been increasing over years. Michael Pollan in "When a Crop Becomes King” he explains that the government pays for corn to be grown a lot more then it should be ,David Barboza in the article “If You Pitch it , They will Eat It” the way companies just want to get into kids mind by tricking them into telling their parents to buy them unhealthy food just for the toy it comes with, In “Pleasures of Eating,” Wendell Berry most of the people just rather be eating out then making food. There is uncertainty about the way food is produce because we cannot control people on what they

Considering the following statistics, it is clear why Hunger Free Colorado’s work is so important: Nearly 1 in 7 Coloradans struggled with hunger in 2013, facing times when there was not enough money to buy food for their families or themselves (Colman-Jenson, Gregory, & Singh, 2013). More than 1 in 5 Colorado households with children (22%) reported food hardship, facing financial challenges to put food on the table (Food Research and Action Center, 2013). More than 1 in 8 Coloradans lived in poverty, including 1 in 6 kids, during 2013 (Bishaw & Fontenot, 2014).

One huge problem that the United States faces today are the large numbers of food deserts. A food desert, according to the United States department of Agriculture, is a neighborhood that has a difficult time getting quality and affordable food to their home. This means that people are not properly being fed and getting the nutrition needed for a healthy diet. The good quality food that is needed to maintain this balance is not near or affordable for the people living in these areas. Food deserts affect many people across the United States, especially those that are on the lower end of the social economic spectrum and live in rural areas. Many of these low-income families do not have the means to get to the supermarket and get the right products they need so they settle for lower quality but more cost efficient foods. A great example for a food desert would be the great city of Chicago who is ranked in the top two worst food deserts in the United State according to newsone.com.

Food deserts are one of the biggest problems in society, as the authors of Food Justice bring up (Gottlieb & Joshi, 2010). In fact, Indianapolis is ranked worst in the nation for food deserts. So what is a food desert? A food desert is when places are left with the lack of availability of nutritious foods and high rates of poverty. Often times, these are known as grocery gaps because grocery stores move out of the area, normally located in low-income communities. It makes sense that they would move to make more profit, but it leaves those in the community left with essentially nothing. Also, most people living in a low-income community do not have access to transportation, so they cannot get to grocery stores that are outside of walking distance. This is why Gleaners, a local food justice organization, steps in and fills in places where grocery stores have left. The program that works to fix this is Mobile Pantries. As I will explore later, Mobile Pantries allows people who cannot reach grocery stores the ability to get nutritious foods they need. Mobile Pantries give people a sense of going to the grocery store and picking out healthy foods. While consumer choice is limited, as Patel mentions, Mobile Pantries still gives people healthy options (Patel, 2014). Gleaners is a part of the Food Justice Movement because while they are not changing consumer choice, they are providing individuals with the option of healthy foods and working to end hunger and obesity

Many of the people living in food deserts are people with low income. These low-income families often turn to the junk food provided at the convenience stores and fast food restaurants because it is all they can afford. Socio-economic status is a defining characteristic of food deserts. Food deserts are most commonly found in areas dominated by minorities and low-income families. Studies show that wealthy areas have about triple the amount of supermarkets as poor urban areas do. In addition to this, predominantly white communities have about 4 times as many grocery stores as predominantly black ones do. Studies also show that grocery stores in African-American neighborhoods are usually smaller and have less option when it comes to the

However, many corporations still avoid neighborhoods that have food deserts. For example, “Food retailers promised to open” at least, “1,500 grocery stores” in food deserts by 2016, but only about 250 have actually been opened (Associated Press 1-4). Many supermarket chains have made empty promises that they have no intention of fulfilling. By not going through with their promises, companies have ended up harming many people’s health. Due to businesses not building grocery stores in some areas, individuals from a lower social class are not given the chance to fix their

Nutrition is important for healthy life. Many people are still hungry around the world even though there is mass production of food. This is because of unhealthy food production. In today’s world we see many obese people because of high intake of high fat and cholesterol containing food. It is important to have a healthy diet/ nutritional intake for individuals to have good foundation for physical and mental health. Now a day’s healthy food is getting more expensive rather than unhealthy food. Poor people are forced to eat unhealthy food, while the rich can afford to eat whatever the please. Food insecurity is caused by individuals not having healthy food for their families due to their low income or political and

In the Journal “Decolonizing Food Justice: Naming, Resisting and Researching Colonizing Forces in the Movement” the author Katharine Bradley and Hank Herrera talks about how there's this disconnect of diversity in food justice and how food is being distributed. Activists on this topic speak about how based on your race and class is how you are accessing to these healthier options of food in the United States. There is this group called Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC), that is, a group to work on the gap of how certain demographics are receiving food. Moreover, it is a network of activist that work with low-income communities, and ultimately are standing for food justice. The food movement is really connected and is in a lot of ways

In her presentation “what’s wrong with school lunches” Ann Copper (2007) stats that school lunches is a social justice issue. In the United Stats there are a series of problems in the food system . only few companies control the most of the commercially produced seeds in America, it makes people’s grocery choose lack. Also there are a lots of chemicals be used in animal husbandry, but government allow these kind thing happened. Further more many companies invested huge amount of money on advertising non-nutrient food, this will mislead our children on their food chooses. Moreover the thing is much more prisoners than farmers, so we do need import food from other countries. These kind things bring out very considerable consequences such as our

Food Justice is communities using their right to grow, sell, and eat healthy food. “Healthy food” is food that isn’t just nutritious but also affordable, culturally-appropriate, and grown locally with care for the well-being of the land, workers, and animals. Food insecurity is when someone is without sufficient access to affordable, nutritious food. In the U.S. 83.5% of the population was food insecure in 2016 (Coleman-Jensen). Food insecurity seems to be quite common so why haven’t I ever heard of it before until I took a college level course on food studies. My family has been food insecure for most of my life, yet I thought we were just poor when everyone was just poor, or at least 80%

In the story The Good Food Revolution, Will Allen talks about his struggles as an African American male trying to live out his dream of sustaining a profitable farming career while doing well for the community. What started as a small roadside market is now a national business which helps low-income families gain access to healthy foods and also helps build a better community. Throughout his journey, Allen experienced countless setbacks and was exposed to several issues dealing with race. Access to healthy food is a struggle for the poor, and in particular, African Americans.

Many subjects have come across during class analyzing how food justice relates to race, class, and sustainability. Some of the topics brought up connected with my core beliefs and made me think about them more in depth. Some arguments taught me about things that I didn’t know about before and has opened my eyes to more beliefs I didn’t know I had. One of the core beliefs I have is all people are equal in a social, political, and economic way. I don’t believe in one group’s oppression being more important than the other, Patricia Hill Collins article goes more into this concept. Another issue her article touches on that supports my beliefs and has made me see there is more to it is that our past affects our personal background immensely. Lastly,

The student activism literature finds differences in the occurrence of campus activism based on institutional characteristics (Kane 2013; Van Dyke 1998; Reyes 2015; Soule 1997). For example, one study found that religious institutions were far less likely to have campus LGBT groups than non-religious institutions (Kane 2013). In contrast, more selective institutions and institutions with larger endowments were more likely to have LGBT student groups (Kane 2013). In addition, larger schools seem to have more student activism (Van Dyke 1998). Institutions with a greater percentage students living in the dorm seems to have more student activism (Van Dyke 1998). During the 1980s,

This problem presented in society today, in regards to the food industry, is a huge process in which we are seeing today as a vicious circle. The enriching processing, a process uneducated consumers assume as healthy, is ultimately a factory’s means of breaking down, taking out components, dehydrating, disinfecting, and even radiating food that was, at one time, nutritious. This process makes it cheaper for producers to manufacture foods. For example, specifically looking into meat, the profit ratio per packaged product verses the “refined” grain fed to the animal is outstanding! This process makes meat a lot less nutrition than Americans tend to assume. The lack of nutrition in the foods we, as consumers, purchase create deficiencies, which in turn cause major societal problems mentally and physically. The mental and physical problems inevitably create the need for western medicine, which then oftentimes creates the need for even