do just food

I've really been enjoying my participation in the CSA this year, the ability to eat local sustainable produce is a great option to have. However, I also realize that having easy access to fresh fruits and vegetables is not an option for a lot of people. This has led me to wrestle with two main questions. Should fresh produce, in this case local, sustainably grown produce, be made widely available to low or fixed income individuals? (There's actually a lively debate going on about that on various blogs.) And if yes, then how do we make that happen? Myself, and our church, felt that accessibility was important and our answer was to create a program called Just Food. This year we applied for a grant through our denomination's central conference to purchase additional shares that we could then give away for free. We've partnered with the Lakeview Food Pantry to identify families in our neighborhood who would most benefit from a free weekly supply of produce.

The recent news of LA's one-year ban on the opening of new fast food restaurants in the impoverished South LA neighborhood has once again gotten me thinking about disparities in class and access to healthy food. While I'm a little nervous about the government determining what we can and cannot eat (ahem, foie gras my fellow Chicagoans) I at least appreciate the fact that they are recognizing the somewhat predatory nature and long term health effects fast food companies are inflicting upon poorer neighborhoods. I also ran across this article, a few months back, which takes a very interesting look at the effects of rising food prices and the lack of quality food options on low income individuals.

For those of you who are interested in what that specifically looks like in Chicago here is an in-depth study I found which was done in 2005. It's not a light read, but it's really fascinating. I do think that Chicago has made some progress on this issue since the report came out. Several grocery stores have opened in the so-called "food deserts" and multiple farmers markets have opened throughout the Southside but there is still a lot of work to be done.

So what role, if any, should we play in this issue in the coming years? What do you think Just Food could/should become? I'm really looking forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas as we continue on this journey together.