#food accessibility

[autisticadvocacy]

A little over a year ago a tweet went viral. Image Description: tweet with a picture of peeled oranges in plastic containers on a grocery store (whole foods) shelf. Tweet reads “If only nature coul…

Why do We Keep Having to Demand Food Accessibility?

[uneco]

A significant number of Torontonians face economic and geographic barriers to accessing healthy food on a regular basis. While low income is the biggest barrier, many also live in neighborhoods that have few quality and affordable food retail options within easy walking distance, along with relatively poor access to public transit. One of the solutions is the Mobile Good Food Market: a truck that travels across Toronto selling affordable fresh food in these neighborhoods.

[crisscrosscoalesce]

This seems like a really good way to both reduce food waste and make quality, healthy food more accessible. Currently only available in NY but check it out! Also, the creators seem most or all poc, which is really neat. And I can see how this could especially benefit poor, working class folks.

[no-more-ramen]

note from the mod

readers, i was VERY hesitant to answer a question asking my opinion, because i was worried folks would take me sharing my experience as dictating what should be the reality for everyone else, and exactly that happened. i've never said my experience is "truer" or "more correct" than anyone else, and yet i'm receiving asks and seeing reblogs where people are explaining their experience and how my narrative conflicts with theirs. why does it have to conflict? why can't they just exist separately and both be equally valid?

i live in a smaller town in the midwest where food prices are relatively low. i wasn't counting in my answer the food my boyfriend and i spend on going out to eat, or that there is a community garden less than a mile from us that provides us with tons of fresh produce for free. i wasn't including the smaller grocery trips we take a couple of times a month, just the ONE BIG grocery trip we do for staples.

but, at the same time, why do i have to justify my personal life? i know and want to acknowledge that all of you will have your own situations with grocery shopping and budget. 

i apologize to anyone else who might send me something, but i won't be publishing or answering anymore asks like that again. it continues to feel like people are waiting for an opportunity to see the worst in what i say, and it honestly sucks. 

when i talk about what works for me, in my own life, i never, ever mean it as what should work for someone else. everyone's lived experiences and abilities are different. we all live in different environments with different food accessibility. i know that. that's why i can only answer from my own perspective. 

from now on, though, i'll only answer technical asks about food with concrete answers. i'm sharing this because i want to be transparent about how i run this blog, and i don't want to get attacked for not answering questions in the future. at the end of the day, i have to be mindful of my mental and emotional well being. if i don't take care of that, there's no way i can take care of this blog the way it deserves to be taken care of.

[feedingmyboychick-blog]

On the limitations of strict food ideologies

"I don't think peanuts count as Paleo."

"Is breastmilk really vegan?"

"But is this [homemade, lovingly crafted] casserole healthy?"

I hate this shit. Seriously, really, super-mega-awful HATE IT. This is the problem with having a strict food ideology, rather than being open to weighing foods on their merits, rather than being able to consider that EVERY food has both nutrition* and insufficiencies. Instead of asking "Do I want to eat this?" or "Will this nourish me in some way?", we are trained to ask "Does this adhere to the rules that will tell me what to eat?" Essentially, we are asking "Will I be a good person if I eat this? Will I be warding off death?" We seek good-or-evil, yes-or-no delineations in a world of lipids and memories and subjective tastes and trace minerals. We seek a nonexistent simplicity in a breathtakingly complex system, and in doing so, we lose the scent of what is important. We lose touch with flavors, of meanings, of cravings, of nourishment, of relationship, of survival, of love.

(Maybe it's necessary for you. Maybe you need the checklists for a while, whilst you learn how to feed yourself. That's fine. Stay in that place for as long as it serves you. But I'd encourage you to remember that the goal isn't to have "a perfect diet", to follow the checklist exactly: the ultimate goal, for me, and I hope for you, is to eat. That's all. That's enough.)

*Even Diet Coke has H20.

[foodinglyslanted-blog]

A new USDA report examines the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of food desert "tracts", or areas where people have limited access to a variety of healthy and affordable food. 

This study finds that:

Food desert tracts have a greater concentration of all minorities, including Hispanics. In urban food deserts, this difference was nearly 70 percent in 1990, approximately 60 percent in 2000, and 53 percent in 2005-09. The proportion of minorities in rural food desert tracts is around 65 percent greater than in non-food desert tracts in 2005-09 and in 2000, down from an 80-percent difference in 1990. 

These neighborhoods also tend to have lower levels of education, income, and employment. In rural food desert tracts, the proportion of the population with at least a bachelor's degree is 20 percent lower than in other rural areas; the difference is 47 percent for urban areas. The gap between unemployment rates in food deserts and in other tracts is even larger for urban areas than for rural: unemployment was about 60 percent higher in food deserts than other urban tracts in 2000.  

In terms of mobility, food desert tracts tend to have smaller populations and abandoned or vacant homes are more prevalent in these tracts than in their counterparts. This reflects a general movement of households out of these neighborhoods, leaving behind smaller populations and abandoned homes. Data from urban food deserts also suggests that the percentage of households without access to vehicles is anywhere from 24 to 38 percent higher than in other urban areas. Access to a private vehicle plays a large role in determining the east of obtaining sufficient, healthy and affordable food.

For those of us that have been tuned into the food justice movement, this study does not come as a shock. Where can we find food deserts? In neighborhoods plagued with low income, low educational attainment and high unemployment. In the parts of town that are run-down, underinvested, and lacking in basic human services. In places where the majority of the population is composed of immigrants, minorities, and the forgotten.

I'm convinced that the access to fresh food remains a significant barrier for many low-income people around the country that keeps them in poverty. Not everyone has the luxury to linger in the aisles or buying free-range this or that, and living within reasonable distance of an actual grocery store is a dreamworld for some. There is no choice in feeding your family a cheap, easily accessible, fast food meal when you have to work three jobs or tend to a sick family member. For some, that situation is characterized by an "and" instead of an "or." The answer to this crisis is not found in a clever Twitter hashtag or a Pinterest board, which is why I'm happy to see a study that takes into consideration patterns that tie in with issues of accessibility. Education, employment, infrastructure. These are policy issues that we need to start addressing if we want to produce real results. How should we start? Well, I'm only a green 22 year-old trying to change the way we think about food, but something tells me we need to garner the support of living, breathing people outside of social media accounts and RT's. We need to start getting people to show up.

[kingstonbyfork-blog]

events! events! events!

Check out our new events page! We are partnering up with some excellent members of the Kingston community for new KBF events!

1. Espresso 101 - learn the history of espresso and proper tasting techniques with Kingston's own Richard Ottenhof! August 1st we will be meeting at 6:00pm at Coffeeco's Market Square location for the course. Spots are limited so call or email to reserve your space!

2. Food Awareness Week - come explore the issues of food accessibility in Kingston. Meet with the lovely people at the Loving Spoonful who have helped reclaim over 100 000 lbs of fresh food and redistributed it to meal programs throughout Kingston. 

[the-enhampment]

“The recovery of the people is tied to the recovery of food, since food itself is medicine: not only for the body, but for the soul, for the spiritual connection to history, ancestors, and the land.”

- Winona La Duke