Food Deserts and a Food Education Drought - Kaitlin

When my friends and family members ask me what I am doing with my time this summer, I get excited when I tell them that I am learning about slow food. This summer I have had the opportunity to help run the Know Your Farms CSA, volunteer at the farmer's market, and cook community meals made from whole, fresh ingredients. I have had the luxury to get to "know my farmers" and eat organically and learn how to grow my own food. Sometimes, I even find myself judging people who do not make the choice to buy foods that follow good, clean, and fair practices. I find myself scoffing at non Fair Trade coffee on a restaurant menu. I silently disapprove of my friend who orders a mango and banana smoothie at Jamba Juice. I start wanting to stop every car that pulls into Harris Teeter and yell at the driver, "Don't you know anything about eating locally!!" And that's when I have to stop myself. Not only am I acting like a slow-food psycho , but I am also forgetting about the 70,000 people in Charlotte Mecklenburg County alone who don't have the option to choose affordable and nutritious food.

Yesterday, Christy and I attended a presentation from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Food Policy Council. At the presentation, Dr. Elizabeth Racine, the Assistant Professor of Public Health at UNC-Charlotte shared information on the food system in Charlotte Mecklenburg. Dr. Racine addressed major questions about food deserts in Mecklenburg County. According to the 2008 US Farm Bill, a food desert is an "area in US w/ limited access to affordable and nutritious food, particularly such an area composed of predominantly lower income neighborhoods and communities" (2008 US Farm Bill). The Food Policy Council's study concluded that 60 food deserts exists within the 373 CBGs in Charlotte-Mecklenburg. People in food deserts do not have the ability to settle for food that comes out of a warehouse or even a convenience store. Without access to transportation, these individuals cannot even reach food centers outside of the food desert without paying the price. According to research from the University of Arizona, people in lower income neighborhoods spend more on groceries than in higher income neighborhoods. This is due to the money that individuals end up spending on transportation to reach the food center and due to the fact that individuals must shop more frequently and buy smaller quantities which end up making the entire food purchasing experience more expensive. People living in food deserts have to take what they can get. We talk about the importance of buying fair trade coffee, chocolate, or other foreign goods but it is easy to forget that there is a food system in our own county, right next to our own neighborhoods, that is not providing good, clean, fair food to its residents. Many of us have the luxury to turn our noses up at high fructose corn syrup and artificial flavors, but those standards do not exist for so many individuals, especially in food deserts. The bottom line is that 70,000 individuals living in Charlotte-Mecklenburg County do not have the ability to easily make healthy choices every day.

So where do we go from here? Marilyn Marks, a member of the Food Policy Council, brought up the importance of tackling these food problems within the food deserts. We have to motivate the people in these communities to voice their ideas if we want change to come about. The problem here is that these food deserts are not only lacking affordable, healthy food, but they are also facing a food education drought. Individuals in these areas need to gain knowledge on how to effectively generate changes in their communities by demanding healthy, affordable food choices. This starts with providing food education along with the SNAP program in schools, encouraging churches and neighborhoods to start community gardens, and giving the populations living in food deserts the support and confidence to voice the changes they want to see. I'm interested to learn how the Food Policy Council continues to raise awareness and spread knowledge about food deserts and the changes that must be made. Through this kind of education, individuals involved in food systems in Charlotte can start making connections between educating populations in food deserts and helping these individuals gain the ability to make healthy, affordable choices.