As food advocates, we grapple with everything from personal challenges to staying healthy, to structural challenges around food access. We've been unpacking some key terms around food justice through the Good Food Force Facebook Group, and better yet: developing our own shared working definitions of these concepts. Check out the latest conversation, on food security, below! As always, feel free to jump in on Facebook.
TERM: FOOD SECURITY. How would you define Food Security, and what role can we each play in promoting it? Please share!
JL: One having the resources to adequate FOOD. For me, everything begins with mommie. Because I want them to eat well, I buy the seeds, plant and harvest them. I prepare and preserve our food. By allowing my children to participate they are learning first hand how to respect food. When I feel that they are being careless with the food, I have them fast. ( true story) Missing one meal has never harmed anyone. By the next offering comes through, they are back on track. And should they have company, they let them know off the top not to waste or play with our food. They know good food and that mama will feed you,as long as you don't waste it.
DM: Food security means access to adequate food and the means to buy or be taught how to grow. I love the idea of community gardens in urban areas. I also feel strongly that communities should host good food drives (collect healthy goods instead of the usual processed garbage) or host gleaning projects.
JD:: I like the idea of good-food drives. I often think about fundraisers with bake sales and candy drives for XYZ walks (usually cancer or diabetes) and I know I'm not the only one who thinks this makes no sense. I'd be the gal at the table with veggies, hummus (made with olive oil), organic tortilla chips and other gluten-free healthy chips, nuts and seeds for sale in cups. smile emoticon
Anon: I also think food security includes upping the education around healthy eating. I used to be a recipient on the WIC program when my son was born. I was disappointed to see that most of the foods they cover are filled with HFCS and other inferior ingredients. I emailed them several times asking that they offer better, healthier foods and especially offer more foods without HFCS. Fast forward a few years, we got back on for 6 months when my husband was out of work and I noticed they were spending more time educating recipients how to prepare foods from scratch. I was happy to see these changes. I also was able to get fresh fruits and veggies (or canned or frozen) - I usually chose fresh or frozen. I gave my milk to someone else as my husband is the cow milk drinker and we choose organic. They had changed their food choices to include other options that didn't have HFCS (at a minimum). It has been several years since I've been in the program but am thankful that WIC is listening to the recipients and offering more education because when they're no longer eligible to receive WIC they can take what they learned and apply it later.
Anon: Food security is learning how to stretch the dollar (for many families). How to repurpose or use the same whole chicken for many meals. How to use and eat more veggies. How to store foods for longer use.
Related Posts
The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of MomsRising.org.
MomsRising.org strongly encourages our readers to post comments in response to blog posts. We value diversity of opinions and perspectives. Our goals for this space are to be educational, thought-provoking, and respectful. So we actively moderate comments and we reserve the right to edit or remove comments that undermine these goals. Thanks!