By Nina Budabin McQuown. Originally posted on PursueAction.org.

For months now, I’ve been getting emails from food sustainability organizations with subject lines like “Kiss Your Organics Goodbye!” and “48 Hours to Stop Monsanto’s GM Alfalfa!” They’re in reference to a genetically modified strain of alfalfa that is in testing for public use by the United States Department of Agriculture.

What’s wrong with the alfalfa? Well, for one thing, it’s made by Monsanto, a corporation with a reputation for lawsuit slinging and questionable ethics. It’s also “roundup ready,” meaning it’s engineered to withstand applications of Monsanto’s herbicide “roundup,” so farmers can slather on the weed killer without worrying about damaging their crop. But plenty of sustainability advocates would simply tell you that what’s wrong with the alfalfa is that it’s a GMO–that is, a genetically modified organism produced through human engineering.

Enter Pamela Ronald and Raoul Adamchak, a couple of garden-tending, organic-eating, hen-raising, vegetarian academics who think this alfalfa is a good thing. Adamchak runs the organic student farm at the famed University of California, Davis agricultural program, hoeing melons and solarizing carrots for a living. Ronald, Adamchak’s wife, is the chair of the Plant Genomics program at UC Davis where she genetically modifies rice for traits like the ability to withstand a flood.

The couple wrote a book together called Tomorrow’s Table in which they make the case that those two activities –genetic engineering and hoeing–are just two forms of weed control. In separate chapters from their two perspectives, Ronald and Adamchak try to convince their readers that organic and genetic engineering (GE) are not antithetical to one another and there’s no reason why they can’t both have a prominent place in the toolbox of sustainable agriculture as it’s applied to fix this broken food system. They argue, in my opinion convincingly, that the genetic engineering of plants is just a tool, and that sustainability activists should be fighting for its careful application, rather than against its very existence.

There’s a second important focus of the book: transparency and the lack thereof. And this is the part that’s of special interest to Jewish sustainability activists–according to halakha (and Rabbi Steve Greenberg), in any exchange, the seller has a moral obligation to provide full information on his or her product, and the buyer has the right to full transparency. But we eat in a system that protects the rights of companies not to disclose their ingredients, and we vote in a system where hysteria and propaganda are way more common than reason and transparency, so the onus is, finally, on us both to seek transparency in what we read and to supply it in what we write. In Tomorrow’s Table Ronald hopes that by giving readers full information on what genetic engineering entails, she’ll allow them to come to their own conclusion that the process itself is nothing to be afraid of.

In terms of transparency, the most pertinent chapter is the one on politics, in which Ronald debunks some of the less-than-transparent methods of activists in the sustainability community by showing that our arguments against genetic engineering are based on limited or suspect research. Her consummate example is a flyer distributed in one California county urging voters to pass a proposition that would ban growing any genetically modified crops whatsoever. The flyer cites the results from a “study” that, as Ronald shows, seems to have been carried out by a teenager at home with no independent verification except for the pride of the kid’s own mother. It does make that particular county look pretty silly, but more importantly, it points to the sometimes-dubious rhetoric and lack of citations within the sustainability movement–rhetoric for which we can and should take responsibility as a community.

Not that Ronald is a paragon of transparency–the flyer she’s discussing is a pathetically easy target. On the same issue (the safety of genetically engineered produce in our bodies and in the fields) she might have discussed the less flashy, but more commonly cited claims of Mae Wan Ho, who’s a scientist with anti-GE studies published in peer-reviewed journals. This scientist has been repudiated plenty of times, and it wouldn’t strain Ronald to go a round with her.

Still, when it comes to transparency, her overall point is valid–we’ve been relying on a lot of alarmist rhetoric when it comes to GE, so much so that your author, a long time reader and writer on sustainability blogs and signer of petitions, is feeling a bit sheepish of late. I’ve noticed that the anti-GE alfalfa articles I read are generally characterized by calls for “more testing” while simultaneously vowing to continue the fight even if the USDA approves the seeds when the tests are concluded. Those mixed messages undermine our credibility as a group, and as individuals, they undermine our ability to respond meaningfully to questions about the issues we believe in.

Ultimately, if Tomorrow’s Table’s conclusions are accurate, I think they are good news. After all, if, as Ronald and Adamchak claim, there is nothing fundamentally wrong with genetic engineering as a method of plant breeding, then we can stop trying to convince people that there is, and instead we can focus on the concrete issues of patenting, ownership, and lawsuits. We can talk about how these miracle products–like the much touted golden rice that you see in Monsanto’s TV spots and read about in Tomorrow’s Table–have been stuck in development and distribution limbo for years while somehow the financially-beneficial-but-totally-useless-to-anyone-who-doesn’t-have-a-weed-problem “roundup ready” seeds shoot through the approval process like a greased (or anyway, greasier) weasel. We can talk about how heinous lawsuits against American farmers and the lack of necessary support for their most vulnerable customers make Monsanto directly and indirectly responsible for bankruptcy and death all over the world. We can talk, in short, about the policy issues and the policy solutions that might actually make a difference in how, and for whose benefit, GE technology is deployed.

By Rhea Yablon Kennedy. Originally posted on PursueAction.org.

Last month in a post on PursueAction.org, I puzzled out the fierce public interest in healthy food that even a tragic oil spill and a coalmine disaster could not distract attention from. The grassroots groundswell for healthier food in the D.C. area included the passage of a sales tax on soft drinks. Similar bills recently emerged in many parts of the country. In this post, I take a closer look at “soda tax” campaigns and what they can teach us:

One such recent measure to apply a penny-per-ounce soda tax in New York State failed. New York Times reporter Anemona Hartocollis pinned it to a winning anti-tax campaign. She compared two ads focused on Governor David Paterson’s proposed cost jump, one aimed at promoting it, the other aimed at defeating it:

First, this radio ad from the Alliance for a Healthier New York, a name that only a health teacher could love. A pediatrician talks about diabetes, cancer and obesity, and says, “Helping New Yorkers lose weight is a matter of life and death.”

Next, this TV ad from New Yorkers Against Unfair Taxes, a name calculated to make the blood boil. A mother unpacks groceries in the kitchen as her son mixes a powdered lemonade, one of the drinks that would be taxed. “Tell Albany to trim their budget fat and leave our groceries alone,” the mother says.

…Now that [the measure] has been dropped from the state revenue bill, it has become a case study in the power of the anti-tax message.

This phenomenon is not unique to New York. Similar tax proposals tried to float to glory on public support in Vermont, Mississippi, Kansas, and Alaska, as well as Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and many other cities—at least 20 in all this year, by The Wall Street Journal’s count. Yes, 33 states have already passed some kind of soda tax. But 2010 just wasn’t the year for new ones. The vast majority failed.

Looking at this news, I started to wonder. Couldn’t there be another reason, other than a simple, straight-to-the-heart message in a TV ad? Yes, and I think it was complex brew of convoluted, top-down measures.

Trying to fund one initiative with another–simultaneously deterring people from drinking unhealthy beverages while funding initiatives to promote healthy living–makes sense over all. But try to explain all the numbers, intricacies, and the calculated cost to the consumer, and you’ve taken a good 10 minutes. For anyone trying to engage a busy and distracted public, that’s nine minutes and 30 seconds too long.

Bans on smoking and trans fats, and even limits on sugary drinks have passed in other areas. They may not have been popular, but they were simple, not tied to a revenue bill, and they passed quickly without lengthy debate in a city council or state senate.

The soda sellers got that. They made it about parents and their grocery bills, all in a succinct ad.

Likewise, the anti-tax campaigners addressed consumers at eye level: a mom to other moms. Meanwhile, the health camp’s ad had a doctor tsk tsk at the masses.

A top-down approach to get people to change their personal choices clouds the waters. Even Michelle Obama, who could have her public eating a tablespoon of cement every morning if she just wagged her finger and said we’d better get to it, grasps this. When she talked about her Let’s Move nutrition and exercise initiative at the recent NAACP convention, she simply made the argument that eating better is a wise choice for the community. She even described a wake-up call from a pediatrician about her daughters’ weight. It’s a familiar tale she has used before, but the parent-to-parent connection shines even clearer when held next to that doctor-speak ad in New York. I doubt anyone left thinking of Michelle Obama as the nation’s new dietary dictator.

Another complication is that the soda tax debate played out on a slanted playing field. Sure—consumer groups, health organizations, and corporations all had an equal right to get in the game. But as the Times’ Hortocollis points out, when it comes to swaying public opinion, the competition all but closes to any ad campaign with a budget not subsidized by America’s most popular sugary beverages. So the public didn’t exactly get a balanced take on the issue. And when the public polls in opposition to a tax, the politicians must follow.

I don’t know—maybe the public needs a talking-to sometimes, and a top-down mandate here and there. One sure thing is that the food transformations suggested in the Let’s Move campaign—not to mention urban gardens, vegetable patches in school yards, and backyard chicken coops—have all seduced the public, and none of them did it with a bill or ad campaign. Or a ban. No intricate reasoning–just pure, simple food. No 30-second TV spots–just inspired people.

Photo by Alexander Kaiser.

A new film is being produced on Haiti’s crisis, its roots and its future.  Hands That Feed has made a short intro video about their project in order to try to raise the necessary funding for the film’s production.  The film will explore questions about what the real problems facing Haiti are, and from the video it’s clear that the recent earthquake was simply an exacerbation of pre-existing problems.

Haiti’s dependence on food aid seems to be an unnecessary and reparable problem.  The film shows how the organization, Nouvelle Vie, is working to empower young people to take back their nation’s food production.  Through education, this program creates sustainable aid that will allow the participants to learn about agriculture and teach it to others.  By employing active solutions on the ground, Nouvelle Vie seeks to help Haiti both recover and grow.

Watch the video and visit the kickstarter website.  In order to get funding for the entire project, the group needs to raise $15,000 by Monday.  If they do not raise the money, all donations will be returned and the project will remain unfunded.  However, a generous donor has offered to independently match the next $2,000 raised, so go check out the site and consider making a donation.

Haiti’s self-determination has been undermined by food aid.  Hatians have been turned into dependents, relying on rich nations for food, when they have everything they need to take back control.  Help this story be told about a new generation of leaders rising up who will create sustainable change.

From Ample Harvest

In response to the economic upheaval caused by the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, AmpleHarvest.org Inc. has announced that the AmpleHarvest.org Campaign will be focusing its outreach efforts in the Gulf States region for the immediate future.

Since its introduction in May of 2009, the AmpleHarvest.org Campaign, enabling more than 40 million Americans who grow fruit, vegetables, herbs and nuts in home gardens to quickly find a local food pantry eager for their excess garden produce, has rolled out nationwide without any specific geographic focus.

According to AmpleHarvest.org Founder and CNN Hero Gary Oppenheimer, “In the past 14 months, all states have received the same amount of attention in our effort to register food pantries while also reaching out to local gardeners.  To date, nearly 2,400 food pantries across all 50 states have registered at AmpleHarvest.org.  Since the Gulf States regions’ economy has been so severely impacted by the oil spill, many more people will be relying on local food pantries to help feed their families – possibly for years to come.  The AmpleHarvest.org Campaign is now working closely with food banks from Texas to Florida to help their local food pantries register at AmpleHarvest.org.  At the same time, AmpleHarvest.org is also working with the US Department of Agriculture, Master Gardeners and others to help local growers become aware of the opportunity they have to help their neighbors in need”.

According to David Coffman of the Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana, “AmpleHarvest.org is a tremendous resource to connect food pantries, shelters, and soup kitchens to neighborhood gardeners and farmers.  Now, with the ongoing crisis in the Gulf of Mexico, these agencies are experiencing increased demand as families struggle with the uncertainty about their futures and their livelihoods.  By using AmpleHarvest.org, agencies and gardeners can provide much needed support through nutritious and high-quality produce.”

With help from a grant from Google Inc., the AmpleHarvest.org Campaign has created a special “ad campaign” targeting regional gardeners to inform them about the opportunity to share their excess harvest with local food pantries.  “The one glimmer of hope in this tragedy is that although it will probably take many years for the Gulf region to fully recover from this, gardeners in this part of the country are able to grow food, and therefore help out local food pantries, year round” according to Oppenheimer.  “For example, LSU AgCenter reports that the state has approximately 349,000 home gardeners.  Those gardeners who grow food can make a significant impact on the amount and quality of fresh food available to hungry families”.

Anyone knowing of a food pantry their community should urge the pantry manager to register at AmpleHarvest.org.  Food pantries do not need refrigeration for the produce (most produce except for leafy greens will store for several days without refrigeration) and they do not need an Internet connection to take advantage of the AmpleHarvest.org Campaign.  There is no cost to the food pantry for participating in the campaign.

AmpleHarvest.org, Inc. is a not-for-profit organization which has received backing and support from the US Department of Agriculture, Google, Inc., National Gardening Association, the Garden Writers of America, Rotary International, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and numerous faith groups.   The AmpleHarvest.org Campaign works to diminish hunger in America by enabling gardeners to easily find a local food pantry eager for their garden bounty.  For more information on the campaign, visit www.AmpleHarvest.org or call AMPLE-6-9880 (267-536-9880).

Follow AmpleHarvest.org on twitter and on facebook.

Originally posted on Food Forever – The AJWS Food Justice Blog.

When I think about international food aid, what comes to mind are the challenges of distribution—who’s getting what and how much of it? But then there are the hidden costs of shipping. A recent IRIN article discusses the results of a Cornell University study that revealed the alarming fact that U.S. taxpayers spend about $140 million every year on non-emergency food aid in Africa. They spend roughly the same amount to ship food aid to global destinations on U.S. vessels.

$280 million. That’s a LOT of money. And the truth? It only benefits a very small constituency at the expense of taxpayers and recipients.

The article explains:

“Little has been written about the costs and effects of a policy called the Agricultural Cargo Preference (ACP), which affects the shipping sector of the “iron triangle” [comprised of agribusiness, the shipping sector and some NGOs] and USAID, the world’s largest food aid programme. The ACP requires that 75 percent of US food aid be shipped on privately owned, US registered vessels, even if they do not offer the most competitive rates. Some of these costs are reimbursed by the Department of Transportation’ Maritime Administration, but ultimately the US taxpayer foots the entire bill.”

It’s clear that there’s an urgent need to reform our food aid policy. Most donors have moved toward cash transfers or vouchers so that recipients can buy food, instead of providing food as aid, but the study points out that most countries have agribusiness and some NGO interests to contend with while reforming their food aid policy.

Just think: The $280 million we spend could be a game-changer to help many more people grow and distribute their own food sustainably. We could help local farmers invigorate their livelihoods and stabilize local markets.

To this end, we’ve been by calling on friends and supporters to encourage their senators to pass the Haiti Empowerment, Assistance and Rebuilding (HEAR) Act—a piece of proposed legislation that clearly articulates U.S. aid priorities for the $2 billion committed in U.S. aid to Haiti, sets up benchmarks for success and requires local procurement. It also includes a transparent reporting and accountability system so both U.S. taxpayers and Haitians can see where money is going and whether or not it is achieving the desired impact.

There is absolutely no reason why we should be wasting our tax dollars on the cost of food shipments that are benefiting so few. We need to start getting money into the hands of those who have the knowledge, skills and creativity to make sure food is produced equitably and is distributed fairly.

By Joshua Chasan from Seattle, Washington, on his experiences during the PB&J conference.  Photo at Kayam Organic Farm.

When I was preparing to come to Washington, DC, for PB & J I really tried to get myself into a business mindset.  I wanted to be mentally prepared for a lot of learning and the serious nature of the topic of hunger.  Beyond that, I really didn’t know what else to expect.

On Thursday, I arrived in Washington, DC, with more than 70 other teens from around the country.  Some I had met at other BBYO events and the rest would soon become my friends.  We started the seminar with an eye-opening event, the Oxfam Hunger Banquet.   The activity broke the 72 of us into the world’s populations; the majority being low income and without food, and a very small majority having access to food regularly.  After our learning banquet we were joined by Hazon founder, Nigel Savage for our real dinner and later he spoke to all of us.

Mr. Savage spoke to our group about the answers we all came to Washington, DC, to answer:

• How does what I eat impact the environment?
• What is Kosher, and why does it matter?
• How can I promote healthy eating?
• How can I fight hunger?

He spoke to us about how we can play an active role now in creating a healthier and more sustainable community, and about our Jewish responsibility to not just act, but also to learn and think.  He asked us to learn about food, where the food comes from before it is served to us and to think about our choices, and the difference we can make with our choices.  Mr. Savage’s presentation really opened my eyes to the ways that I wasn’t thinking and to how I may have been taking life and the environment around me for granted.

Sunday was probably my most fulfilling and inspiring day.  We all went to an organic, kosher farm to participate in some real manual service.  At Kayam Organic Farm we learned about the Jewish connection to the acts of planting and harvesting.   When we were harvesting tomatoes, garlic, onions and other herbs, we made sure to practice Pe’ah, setting aside a portion of the field for those that need it most: the orphan, the widow and the stranger.  This activity really opened my eyes to the life cycle of food and also the Jewish connection to food that goes beyond what we eat for holidays.

My participation at Kayam Organic Farm really inspired me and motivated me to look into these similar opportunities in my home town of Seattle.  I would really like to participate in the urban garden initiatives that are taking place in my own community.

This weekend’s events really prepared me for the finale on Monday, my visit to Capitol Hill.  I was really lucky to meet with Moire Duggan, the Legislative Assistant for Education, Science, Energy and Environment Issues, of my Senator, Pat Murray.  Happily my Senator and I tend to see eye to eye on a lot of the issues.  In my meeting I shared my gratitude for Senator Murray’s support and talked to the assistant about increasing funding for the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act as well as improving public transportation and light rail in Washington.

After my meeting I felt so good about what I had accomplished.  I didn’t know what to expect from this entire program, but at the end I feel informed, and passionate about this issue, and even better I know how to work to solve it.  After PB & J there are 72 more teens who are ready to Stand UP together to fight hunger and make our world a better place.

Originally posted on Food Forever – The AJWS Food Justice Blog.

Today’s heart-breaking New York Times story about Haiti’s orphans is a painful reminder of the earthquake’s enduring devastation. The article offers a harrowing portrait of Daphne, a 14-year-old girl who watched her mother’s mangled body get carted away in a wheelbarrow from a shattered marketplace. Daphne then lived in a makeshift orphanage founded by Frades—a grassroots collective that specializes in microloans and began supporting abandoned and orphaned children after the earthquake. Daphne was just beginning to feel at home until she was claimed by a distant relative.

The article goes on to profile other children who have faced similar hardships—a 13-year-old named Michaelle who lost both of her parents in the earthquake and resides at Frades, cooking for the younger children with whatever food she can procure.

Frades’s board members and volunteers all shared similar thoughts: that even with so many international aid groups in Haiti, sustained help is hard to find. Mattresses, latrines, showers, medical care, psycho-social counselors and, most importantly, a consistent food and water supply are profoundly limited.

Nearly six months after the earthquake, cries for help are falling on deaf ears and efforts to hasten Haiti’s reconstruction have been stalled. It is absolutely unthinkable that countless other Haitian orphans could be profiled in the New York Times six months from now.

Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen. Tell your senators to pass the Haiti Empowerment, Assistance and Rebuilding (HEAR) Act to ensure that Haitians get the long-term aid and attention they need to build a sustainable future.

Photo from Earth’s Promise community garden at the Kalisher Absorption Center.

The World Zionist Organization took major steps to green Israel by approving four resolutions put forth by the Green Zionist Alliance at the World Zionist Congress. The resolutions address a wide swath of environmental concerns, including water, energy and food justice. All of the votes were near unanimous, uniting all religious and political streams of Zionism for the cause of Israel’s environment.

“The resolutions will play a major role in helping shift an environmentally imperiled Israel onto a sustainable path, and provide a greener Israel for future generations,” said Dr. Richard Schwartz, a GZA delegate to the Congress.

The resolutions call for the WZO and its subsidiaries — Keren Kayemet L’Yisrael (KKL / Jewish National Fund in Israel) and the Jewish Agency For Israel (JAFI) — to install energy-generating solar panels and rainwater-savings systems on their buildings’ rooftops and to transition to energy-efficient lighting and fuel-efficient vehicles.

Additionally, JAFI is instructed to incorporate environmental education into the immigrant experience at absorption centers, and to develop community gardens at absorption centers for immigrants’ use.

“Growing food from the land is an incredibly potent way of connecting to the land,” said GZA President David Krantz, head of the GZA delegation to the Congress. “For the first time in the history of the Congress, we have brought the issue of food justice to the Zionist table.”

The resolutions will green the Congress itself by requiring the WZO to offset the carbon released into the atmosphere by the event and by the transportation of its delegates to Jerusalem. They also call for at least half of the food at the Congress to be procured from local and organic producers.

“Ensuring that we serve food that comes from locally grown and organic sources helps ensure sustainability for Israel,” said GZA delegate Aviva Melissa Frank.

The GZA resolutions were written by a team of environmentalists from Israel and North America.

“Because of the resolutions approved today, we will be helping to protect Israel’s land, water and air. This may be the best Congress for Israel’s environment since the KKL was founded in 1901,” Krantz said. “One of the resolutions declares that Jewish environmental education and support for local agriculture are globally important values within the Jewish community. It’s an amazing statement — and we’re backing it up with action.”

This article is crossposted to Gothamist and was written by Zoe Schlager.  Red Jacket Orchard often donates apples to Hazon events.

Since 2005, the Department of Health has been developing an initiative to provide fresh produce and low fat milk to neighborhoods that rely on the nutrition-devoid wares of their local bodega. Progress has been slow, and while the low fat milk initiative was deemed a success in 2008, the produce side of things has been anything but. Finally, the Healthy Bodegas Initiative [pdf here] is gaining some real momentum, thanks to the NY state farmers that have begun to revitalise the project.

One such farm is Red Jacket Orchards, located in the upstate Finger Lakes region, which has had a presence at NYC greenmarkets with their apples, juices, and just about everything fruit-related for years. They’ve been working with the DOH but have taken it a step further, hoping to not only bring their fruit stuffs to the underserved neighborhoods in East and Central Harlem, the South Bronx and Central Brooklyn, but also outfit them with proper refrigeration. Those beer fridges just don’t do the job when it comes to produce. We spoke to Justone Bossert, the director of the orchard’s greenmarket goings-on, to see where the initiative is headed.

Tell me about your involvement with Red Jacket Orchards, and with the Healthy Bodegas project. How did you get started? My involvement with Red Jacket Orchards stems from my own family’s farming history, a now-defunct dairy farm in New Hampshire, that had a bigger impact on me than I realized growing up. When fate led me to Red Jacket Orchards it connected in a deep way.

Red Jacket Orchards is a 3rd generation farm located in Geneva, NY owned and farmed by the Nicholson family. I’ve been working for the Nicholson family for 7 years now and I currently run our farmers market operations here in New York City. Farmer markets are a big focus for the farm because they allow us to connect directly with the customers that eat our food. We are currently at over 30 farmers markets in NYC and we really pride ourselves on our relationship with NYC customers. To make our NYC operations work, we’ve had to create new infrastructure to support and extend local food systems, which we also use to help other local farmers reach customers in NYC.

Our Healthy Bodegas Project started when Michael Hurwitz of Greenmarket and Donya Williams of the Dept. of Health of NYC approached us to help solve the problem of the lack of healthy food access in under-served communities. We are a small family farm, but we have a unique capacity in NYC and we began discussions on how to use that to help battle the inequities of our food system. Our Healthy Bodegas Project is what came from those conversations.

I see you guys at Union Square Greenmarket all the time, and in McCarren Park this past weekend. How long have you guys had a presence in the city? What’s your best-selling product? I love your juice, by the way. It’s great to hear you’re a fan. The McCarren Park Greenmarket is one of our most popular. It is every Saturday and it goes year-round. We have been attending markets in the city since 1992 and unlike most farms, when we chose to commit to the Greenmarket program we also chose to become a part of NYC. We established a hub in Greenpoint and began to hire NYC-based staff so that we could become a part of this community that has given us so much support. Our best-selling product varies with what we have available as the seasons change, but some perennial favorites are our apricots, Honey Crisp apples, and our 100% Fuji apple juice.

How receptive have you found bodega owners to be to stocking the fresh fruit and using the refrigerators, when they may be taking up real estate in the store for the prepackaged products that they may initially sell more of? We are just getting started, but overall the bodega owners have been extremely supportive and excited to be involved. Many of the bodega owners want to serve healthier food but they are limited in what they are capable of doing. Beverage companies give them free refrigerators but then limit what they are allowed to put in there. If they want to sell healthy food, many of them don’t have the refrigerator space based on their agreements with the larger companies that push the unhealthy stuff. Additionally, the distributors that supply the bodegas normally don’t have healthy options and so some bodegas have gone so far as to buy fresh produce at retail and then resell it in their communities. The outcome of this is that people in these neighborhoods are paying more money for lower quality foods.

Our goal for this project is to create a sustainable and viable distribution model that will allow bodegas to sell healthy local options. A large part of this is to create a model that allows the bodega owners to profit while still creating affordable options. We want to copy the methods that have worked for junk food companies and use them for healthy local food.

How do you choose which bodegas to partner with? Our program is partnered with NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene of NYC’s Healthy Bodegas Initiative. They have done a lot of great work over the years reaching out to bodegas but unfortunately don’t have the ability to actually supply them with products. Our part of it is to create a new distribution system to pick up where they left off.

The Department of Health has an extensive network of bodegas and they act as our matchmaker, finding the best bodegas to be involved with our program. We are just starting the program but we already are working with a dozen bodegas. Our goal is to have it grow much larger. We’d like for it to be a scalable model to connect farms to food deserts in NYC and elsewhere. We need support to get it there.

How much of this initiative relies on the bodega owner, once they agree to stock the fresh product?The bodega owner has to be interested in supplying healthier food. Thankfully many of the owners we have spoken to are interested. But it has to make financial sense, so we help them with signs, display, informational handouts and storage, and we work to get the word out to the community to let them know that these bodegas have healthy food for sale. The bodega owners are the ones selling the product on a day-to-day basis, but we try to offer them education and support so that are able to better do it.

Are you reducing the prices of your fruit and juice to make them comparable to the prices of the less-healthy products that are already in the bodegas? In addition to the investment we are making in getting the program up and going, we are lowering prices as much as we can to make this work, but for this to be a viable option in the future we can’t create a price that relies on outside funding. The goal is to prove that this model can bring the good food movement to those communities that have been left out of it thus far. If this is something that we want other people to adopt and adapt around the country it has to become self-sufficient at some point.

As far as comparable pricing with cheaper stuff, like junk food, that’s why the program is starting with apples. Apples are a cheap, snack-ready fruit that can compete on price with a lot of the processed stuff.

How are the customers of these bodegas reacting to the presence of new produce? Are they hesitant or receptive? Does it ever feel like a lost cause in regards to some of the customers? It has been challenging for sure, but already we’ve had quite a few success stories. Sometimes it’s a challenge to get customers to try something new; however, once a person tries fresh picked, tree-ripened fruit the “Wow” factor is huge; combine that with it’s high nutrient density and it’s the best value in the store. People notice things like that in any neighborhood. There may be some people who don’t seem interested, but there are even more who are grateful to finally have access to good food. It’s definitely not a lost cause.

Once people learn that their bodegas have healthy options, customers are reaching out to their friends and family to let them know and that is the key. If this program is going to succeed we need everyone in these communities who want fresh local food to be available to come out and support it now that it is.

Has the presence of your fruit caused demand for other produce in the bodegas? Bodega owners are excited to have a distribution route dedicated to getting them fresh local produce. Right now, it is just Red Jacket products, but we plan to grow to include other produce from our neighbors’ farms. We need to build up our capacity to get there, but the interest is there and we plan to build to meet it.

How much will you be relying on volunteers, if at all? Right now, we do not have any volunteers. While getting the program going we have been maximizing our current capacity, and many of our people have donated a lot of their time to help because this is something we all believe in. We would be open to volunteers to help get the word out in the community and do cooking demos at the bodegas.

If there are people interested in supporting this project, we need people to get the word out about ourKickstarter campaign so we can raise the funds we need to make this a success. We will be announcing the bodegas we are working with on the Kickstarter campaign website and people can shop there to show their support.

How successful would you say the city has been with the Healthy Bodegas project? And with healthy food promotion in general? They’ve done very well considering their limitations. We are very pleased that this inequity is being addressed at some level by the city government.

Your Kickstarter video talks about getting proper refrigeration to these bodegas. That sounds expensive. Will that be donation-based or will it be out of pocket for you guys? It is expensive, but it is necessary. The produce is only as good as its handling and that’s part of the reason why we need to raise funds to get this program launched. If we really want to get healthy food to these underserved areas then we also need to get the tools to keep the food healthy and fresh. Healthy, natural food needs to be refrigerated. Since most of the current refrigeration is sponsored by soda and beer, that’s what you find in them.

So long as the food is handled and stored correctly it will always win people over who try it. That is how good food has made a comeback, by winning first on pleasure with good health as a most welcome bonus.

Tell me how you envision this project in 5 or 10 years. My hope is that we will raise the money we need to get the program expanded to the point where it becomes self-sufficient and then use it as model for other places.

In five years I would like to see Red Jacket’s own program grow to include food deserts in all five boroughs. The next neighborhood we are targeting after Bushwick is East New York and the Department of Health has identified bodegas we could work with in Harlem and the Bronx as well.

By the time ten years have passed I would hope there is a national discussion and consensus on how to get a vibrant local food system in every neighborhood in the country. All Americans should have access to food that will nourish not only their bodies but their communities and environments as well.

Related:

- Food Stamps and Farmers Markets

A long-time reader of The Jew and the Carrot, it’s easy for me to see the importance and power of conversations within the Jewish community regarding eating, nutrition, food politics, and sustainability. However, the Jewish imperative for justice does not allow us to stop at environmental or personal levels. Rather, we have to continue our pursuit of justice to ensure that everyone has access to fresh, seasonal produce, healthy food options, and the skills to prepare healthy meals. The Nourishing Kitchen of New York City is an organization working to do just that for the East Harlem community.

Founded in 2008 as a “healthy soup kitchen,” The Kitchen is the only emergency food organization providing nutritionally balanced food for immune-compromised individuals struggling with diabetes, obesity, and malnutrition. East Harlem has one of the highest rates of hunger as well as the highest rate of obesity in New York City, with 62% of the population reported overweight or obese. The East Harlem community also has the densest concentration of diabetes in any borough. These apparent contrasts can be explained by the heavy presence of affordably-priced yet nutritionally void fast food and the scarcity of affordable fruits and vegetables.

The Nourishing Kitchen has expanded its mission in an effort to incorporate healthy eating into clients’ everyday lives. In addition to a hot meal service, The Kitchen offers a food pantry, produce distribution, nutrition classes, and yoga classes – all free and open to the community.

A foundation stone of The Kitchen is not just providing food for low-income clients, but connecting an otherwise marginalized and underserved community with the green movement. As the only certified green soup kitchen in the country, The Kitchen does this primarily through the use of a number of community garden plots. The produce harvested in these plots is served in our hot meals and distributed in our Urban Free Produce program. The Kitchen also runs educational programs and events that expose the community to recycling, composting, seasonal eating, and growing their own produce at home.

One of The Kitchen’s most important projects is the Junior Chef program, a summer program that takes kids ages six to thirteen and gives them hands-on culinary and nutrition workshops. This program was created to connect underserved and undernourished youth to the culinary arts while educating participants and their families on issues of nutrition and wellness. In addition to direct training, participants receive ingredients and recipes to prepare meals at home with their families, plus a local gym membership to engage in physical activity. Through this curriculum, participants learn how to protect themselves and their families from the threat of diabetes and obesity raging in their neighborhood while having fun and gaining comfort in the kitchen.

I’m writing about this organization today because The Nourishing Kitchen (specifically the Junior Chef program) needs your help. The Kitchen is currently a finalist in the national Post Grant for Good Health for $25,000 to support and expand the Junior Chef program. The catch is that it all depends on votes. Each person can vote once per day until July 12 and the winner will be announced on July 22. It takes less than a minute of ‘e-volunteering’ a day, just one click and you are on your way to pursuing food justice for all. Click here once a day to help.