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Food Conference: Bridging the Food Access Divide

by GuestPost · December 26th, 2008
Food Justice, Video

Sarah Newman is a locavore and vegeterian. She works as a researcher and blogger at Participant Media, which is releasing the documentary and companion book Food, Inc. in Spring 2009. She’s also a panelist at Hazon’s Food Conference this year, taking part in “Will Blog for Food” on Sunday. She’ll be blogging from the conference all weekend at Takepart.com, and we’ll be cross-posting her articles here on The Jew & The Carrot.

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I just saw the short film Food Stamped, by Shira and Yuval Potash. This middle class Berkeley, CA couple chose to live off of food stamps for one week. After stealing lots of free samples, skipping and skimping on usual items such as coffee, carrots and cheese and thoroughly planning each meal, the couple successfully pulled off a week’s worth of meals on $50.

However, what about the millions of Americans who rely on food stamps every week of the year? And, what if they don’t have tidy herb gardens lining their driveway, like Shira and Yuval, to add nutritious and tasty ingredients to spice up their somewhat bland foods? What if someone on food stamps doesn’t have access to a supermarket in their neighborhood for nutritious foods? Millions of low-income Americans live in food deserts without easy access to farmers markets, supermarkets or any type of produce.

While our entire nation continues to expand their waistlines, the numbers are more alarming in low-income communities who have disproporiationately high rates of obesity, diabetes and other health-ailments from poor diets. And, they are plagued by these for a host of reasons, including limited access to healthy foods.

There are many things you can do (whether or not you use food stamps) to help to bridge our nation’s food divide. First, takepart to get involved with your local community garden and help to expand them into new communities in your city. takepart with the Food Trust, a Philadelphia-based organization that is bridging the food access divide (and whom we’re working with for our Food, Inc. campaign) If you live in the Bay Area, takepart with the People’s Grocery to learn more about their work to bring produce to communities in Oakland. Finally, if you patronize farmers markets, make sure they take food stamps.

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5 Responses to “Food Conference: Bridging the Food Access Divide”

  1. Anna Says:
    December 28th, 2008 at 8:56 pm

    I thought Shira and Yuval’s film was an entertaining, quirky and educational. It’s easy to be preachy and gloomy, and they did the opposite. Without being heavy-handed, they raised some really great questions. What, indeed, about the folks who don’t have supermarkets nearby? It makes the fact that our government believes it can feed it’s citizens on $1/day all the more absurd. I applaud their taking the “food stamp challenge” — and question whether I could take this on myself.

    Sarah — I wouldn’t quickly assume, though, that herb gardens are the purview only of the yuppie. When I was in Philadelphia earlier this fall at the Jewish Farm School Urban Sustainability weekend retreat, we saw hundreds of gardens — some just a few tomato and collard plants in a small front garden, some whole lots or ‘urban farms’. Growing food is not something that rich white people invented as a luxury — it’s an ancient craft, pasttime and fact of life for lots of people. We can learn from their example! Perhaps the best way to reform the food system — and make food stamps go farther? is to encourage more home garden plots, on any surface level enough to hold soil.

    Nice work!

  2. sarah Says:
    December 28th, 2008 at 9:27 pm

    Hey – for what it’s worth – the male half of the team is named Yoav, not Yuval.

    I think it’s important that it be mentioned that their film is a work-in-progress and that they asked for critiques both in a live Q&A and on paper at the event…I am sure they will take plenty of comments to heart about how to make the film give an even more powerful message.

    Oh, and, er, can one really *steal* free samples? I thought that was a fun and playful aspect of the film that was a wink towards the admittedly privileged, audience Shira and Yoav are trying to educate.

  3. Jen Says:
    December 28th, 2008 at 10:38 pm

    I really loved Shira and Yoav’s film. It was well suited for the audience it was shown to and they are in the process of editing different versions for different audiences.

    Their film wasn’t about whether it is possible to live on food stamps for $1/meal, it was about whether it was possible to do that with a healthy diet. Shira and Yoav addressed in the film that they were privileged to have such a great grocery store near by, and made it clear that finding healthy food in low-income communities is the challenge that we are facing.

    This film educated those of us who take our posh grocery stores for granted, that health education and access to nutritional food is almost nonexistent in low-income neighborhoods. Furthermore, obesity is running rampant and health related diseases are the biggest killer in those neighborhoods.

    Sarah- thanks for giving us some places to take action, i was really inspired to help this problem after watching their film.

  4. Fern Says:
    December 30th, 2008 at 8:09 pm

    “Growing food is not something that rich white people invented as a luxury — it’s an ancient craft, pasttime and fact of life for lots of people.”

    I just wanted to reiterate Anna’s point above. I spend a lot of time on my blog talking about ways to grow food in just a few containers on an apartment balcony, not to mention ways to be really frugal when it comes to gardening. It is definitely possible to grow your own food in an urban environment! The problem is changing the culture so that growing food in containers on your balcony or patio or sidewalk is seen as a viable, worthwhile option. To that end, I think school gardens and community gardens are definitely worth promoting and expanding.

  5. Wendy Says:
    January 15th, 2009 at 11:55 am

    I used to be an organic vegetable farmer. Now I am disabled and recovering from strokes and other problems. There is a lot about both in my blog.

    While living in Florida last year, I got $573/month disability and $30 food stamps. Here in NY I am getting $741/month and no food stamps. Who gets $50/week in food stamps!?!

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