Food-for-Thought from Food Inc.

Why is it that we can get a cheeseburger for 99 cents, while a head of broccoli is $1.50?

My Morning of Urban Gardening ...

Food for Thoughts

While researching for my final paper (on why eating/buying locally is necessary for food justice) I stumbled upon an amazing book, that i think every person should read: Manifestos on the Future of Food and Seed, by Michael Pollan, Carlo Petrini, Jamey Lionette, Prince Charles and Vandana Shiva. This book explores everything we have been discussing in this class and more. Here is some food for thought from the Manifestos...

"We live in a world where of the 80,000 edible plants used for food, only about 150 are being cultivated, and just eight are traded globally. A world where we produce food for 12 billion people when there are only 6.3 billion living, and still, 800 million suffer from malnutrition. A world where food is cultivated to survive long distance travel rather than be nutritious and flavorful."

"Distance is the enemy of awareness." Smith & MacKinnon from Plenty, Eating Locally on the 100 Mile Diet

If you knew the history of your food... where it came from, how it was grown, how it got to you, etc... would you still want to eat it?

My Service Learning Experience

"There are people in this world so hungry that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread." - Mahatma Gandhi

Potatoes, onions, garlic, apples, oranges, lemons, pomegranates, carrots, celery, broccoli, kale, mushrooms, parsnips, avocados, baby spinach, greens, and parsley… Between my farmers market bag and grocery basket, I fill up on items like these every week. In my mind, my grocery list is simple. To others who are deprived of basic access to good, healthy, fresh food, these items are rarities. As I have shared previously, People’s Grocery has designed a collaborative effort, called “Grub Box”, similar to CSA boxes, to make these basic food items available to those in West Oakland who are without access to a grocery store. There are a few different distribution sites, making the “Grub Boxes” equally available to people throughout West Oakland.

"When eating fruit, remember who planted the tree; when drinking clear water, remember who dug the well." - Vietnamese Proverb

This past month I have been volunteering with People’s Grocery’s “Grub Box” program in West Oakland. Each day, we meet with the “Grub Box” leader at 9am in an open lot and get to work. The produce, purchased by People’s Grocery from local farms, is usually waiting for us in the lot. Depending on how many helping hands we have, each volunteer usually is in charge of distributing certain produce into each bag. For instance, in the past I have been responsible for the distribution of apples, oranges, celery, broccoli, baby spinach, parsnips and carrots. Everything put into the bags is in pristine condition and almost everything is grown organically. While I apportioned the produce, I wondered who would be consuming these items, how they would be prepared, if the people purchasing these bags knew what to do with some of the items, like parsnips (-I had no idea what to do with those?), I wondered if they had access to recipes, I wondered if any of these items would go to waste, and if these items would make someone feel nourished, as they should. I felt lucky, not because I have access to these items on a regular basis, but lucky that I was there, preparing these bags for families and bringing justice into their lives. I am very passionate about healthy eating, I have seen and felt the difference of eating empty caloric, processed foods versus eating fresh, nutrient rich foods that truly sustain our bodies. I was so excited to be a part of this project and have the opportunity to share my passion, by helping make these healthful foods available to a community that is forced to be dependant on the processed junk at liquor stores and fast food restaurants to get by.

"Make soil, not war." - Graffiti

We are usually done distributing the produce into the bags within two hours. Some mornings there are orders for around 25 bags, while other mornings there are orders for around 60. Last Wednesday, we prepared over 200 bags and then had the opportunity to distribute the bags to their owners. After we made about 100 of the bags, we waited for their owners to pick them up. A slow stream of people flowed into the lot; each was greeted by a huge group of volunteers from our class. I was excited to see who these bags were going to. The majority of people who picked up the “Grub Boxes” walked to the distribution site and were Hispanic, and seemed to be very appreciative of two girls in our group who served as Spanish to English translators. Many came with small children in tow, while a few were elderly, some also came from the Saint Mary’s Center across the street. Each of us volunteers took turns giving the “Grub Boxes” to their owners. They had the option of choosing a bag with spinach or greens, and many of them choose the bags with spinach. They were all very grateful when they received their bag or bags, looking inside to see what this week’s bag would bring them. Watching the people take the bags home, I continued to think about the questions I contemplated while packing the bags… it felt good to be a link that connected healthful food to the people I saw, especially the little kids. This food will strengthen their bodies and minds, giving them more opportunities in life. I thought about how these kids that we are nurturing are the future of this community... the ripple effect is endless. I wondered if they enjoyed receiving these big bags and what items inside are their favorites, I wondered if the schools they attend provide food and if so, is it healthful food? I also wondered if the people passing by and lingering on the street had access to these foods and if not, how these "Grub Boxes" could be made more even more accessible. I noticed that the "Grub Boxes" are building community, from the group of volunteers that put the bags together, to the people who interact with the volunteers and each other as they pass by with their fresh food.

"You can change the world with every bite." - Food Inc.

This Thursday I will be working in the California Hotel community garden and am hoping that I will have the opportunity to work alongside some of the residents, like Mickey, who open up their world and bring our readings and ideas from class to life. Throughout my service learning experience, along with our field trips, our class discussions and readings have echoed throughout my mind… I have met incredible people like the “Street Farmer” Will Allen in Milwaukee who are dedicating their lives to food justice in their communities and leading us “Back-to-the-Land”, I have seen what it actually means to go “Beyond the Food Bank” and create food sovereignty, I have seen why it would be more destructive than helpful for Foods Co. to come into West Oakland. I have connected H.C. Flores’s words (from her book Food Not Lawns) with the faces I have seen in West Oakland along with seeing, first hand, why she believes in the power of urban gardens. When reading one of Petrini’s thoughts from his book Slow Food Movement, “….if we consider the problem of satisfying the PRIMAL NEED FOR FOOD…” (page 22) my heart jumped, everything we have discussed, seen and read throughout this month immediately came to mind and cramped themselves into these four words, this is what we mean by food justice, these four words, the primal need for food. People are being kept away from a fundamental right all around our globe, and West Oakland, my neighbor, only represents a tiny section of this malnourished world. Something has to be done. We are all a part of the problem, we all need to be part of the solution. What are you doing to promote food justice? Or what will you do?

Food Matters

Today we watched Food Matters in class.... check out this trailer.

For more info: http://www.foodmatters.tv/

Nourish

"Norish is a multi-year media and education initiative. The purpose of Nourish is to open a broad public conversation about our food system that encourages citizen engagement..."

http://vimeo.com/nourishlife

Bryant Terry: Urban Farms from Nourish on Vimeo.

San Francisco's Urban Garden

This week our class took a field trip to Alemany Farm in San Francisco, an urban garden that was once a bog, surrounded by a freeway and housing developments. Upon arrival, we had a discussion about Alemany’s activism in food justice and food sovereignty. As we have read in class, food justice is when good, healthy food is accessible to everyone, whereas food sovereignty is when people are educated about how to grow their own food and have access to land where they can grow. Alemany provides land to grow, environmental education and opportunities for people in San Francisco to thrive. People in the community volunteer at the garden along with other schools in the area. The man we met with told us that they provide a farmer’s market/ CSA boxes once a week, while there is a good amount of harvest, to the local community. At this weekly event, the community is not charged for the produce, however they keep a donation box for whatever amount the people are capable of donating each week.

On our tour of the garden we saw beehives, a small creek that flows through the farm, their compost bins, their cover crop and the nitrogen its harvesting, and many plants beginning to grow food like strawberries, garlic, apple trees, peas, and more. We learned that the local horse stables bring their dung to the garden to use as a fertilizer, which helps the stables out since they get to dump it for free, and helps the garden out by providing free fertilizer. After our tour, we broke up into groups and fertilized the apple trees. Some of us scooped the fertilizer into wheel barrels, others brought the wheel barrels to the trees and dumped it, others spread the fertilizer around the trees, above the roots. After the fertilizer was spread, we laid mulch over the fertilizer to prevent erosion and retain moisture. Then, we turned the compost piles, which keeps the compost aerobic. Through this volunteer work we all have contributed to urban food justice. By spreading the manure, we brought nutrients to the soil, improving an area that would normally have poor soil, so that the trees could actually grow and produce fruit and feed more people in an ethical and sustainable way.

When I imagine the city and the suburb, I see pavement and buildings in the city, and plants and open fields in the suburbs. As we traveled to the Alemany Farm, yes there were trees around, however, it was mostly pavement, buildings, houses, apartments, and condos that I saw. I was excited to see that some of the houses we walked by had found ways to grow grapes and oranges in their small yards. I have never lived in a city like San Francisco, but I can imagine that it would be very refreshing to see what real “earth” looks like as you pass by the Alemany Farm, instead of never ending pavement. It was so nice to walk on grass and dirt once we arrived at the farm in comparison to the concrete that lead us there, it helped me feel more connected to and aware of the earth. Usually there is a hustle and bustle environment the city, but in the garden, surrounded by the hustle and bustle, there is peace.

In the documentary, The Garden, we follow the people of Los Angeles South Central Garden through their battle to keep their land. As the camera zooms out, you are given a bird’s eye view of the South Central Garden- brown, grey, and black makes up the city, until a little rectangle of green appears- here is the garden. The garden seems to be a little patch of hope for this concrete jungle. In LA, similar to SF, pavement covers the soil below. Main access to food is at supermarkets and grocery stores where produce and food has been shipped hundreds of miles. One of our most intimate connections to the earth is disconnected from people in the city. The people of the South Central Garden were given a big plot of land that was once a junk yard, and before that a place where trash was burnt. These people, along with the people who created the urban gardens in West Oakland and San Francisco, found ways to utilize the limited land that they have and become reconnected to the earth. In both the Los Angeles South Central Garden and the Alemany Farm, the land that grows magnificent fruits, vegetables and plants was once a dump, a land full of waste. They have made it possible for low-income people, who deserve good, healthy food just as much as wealthier people, the chance to grow their own food. I have noticed that at all of the urban gardens we have seen, big and small, the garden has become an important part of the people’s lives.

Volunteering, Day 1: Grub Box

Friday morning, six of us from our class woke up at the crack of dawn to help pack "grub boxes" in Oakland. Every week, People's Grocery purchases fresh produce from farms, sorts them into "grub boxes" and sells them to residents in West Oakland, where fresh produce is very difficult to find. These bags, similar to a CSA box, sell for $12 to residents on food stamps, and $24 for other residents.

We met with the grub box leaders, set up 2 "easy-ups" and a few tables, and began preparing the 43 bags to be stuffed with a beautiful array of fresh food. Each of us was in charge of packing certain fruits or vegetables, check out this week's list below. I helped pack: garlic, onions, oranges, celery, baby spinach, and greens.

I was delighted to find that included in each "grub box" is a newsletter from People's Grocery sharing a few recipes that include some of the produce provided this week. A few of these items might be foreign to people, so the recipes and ideas are very important. Here is a crucial aspect of food justice- they aren't simply giving them food, they are also educating the people with ways that they can get the most out of the food provided.

Nikki, from People's Grocery, met us at the site and informed us that Dig Deep Farms, another local organization that is focused on bringing gardens into urban areas, would be meeting us soon to see the "grub box" process. A camera crew that is working on a documentary (I believe about urban gardening?) came along with the Dig Deep group and all of us volunteers were introduced and then filmed in action. :)

With so many helping hands, we finished the "grub boxes" in record timing and packed them all into the van to be taken to different distribution sites. It was such a gorgeous, sunny morning. This was a wonderful way to start the day. Healthy eating is one of my main priorities. We all deserve access to nutritious foods. I believe that the path to a healthier planet is through healthy people. By planting more gardens- not only are we making fresh and healthy produce available to more people- we are taking better care of our earth. I really enjoyed being a part this process that brings food justice to the people of West Oakland and am looking forward volunteering again this upcoming week.

West Oakland's Battle...

West Oakland is a community surrounded by freeways. I drive by it every time I go into San Francisco; it's only 13 miles away from my apartment in Moraga. This large section of the city does not have a grocery store, only liquor stores and fast food restaurants. Our class' community partner, People's Grocery, has been working hard to bring food justice to the people of West Oakland. They are currently building a market (planned to open later this year) in West Oakland that will provide healthy, fresh and affordable food (and fair jobs for locals) versus their other option of processed and packaged foods found at the local liquor stores. Recently, the low-end grocery chain Foods Co. has threatened to use eminent domain to bring a store into West Oakland, creating a debate between many people who simply want access to any food, and the many others who want access to healthy, good and fresh food. Here is an article about Foods Co. and the people of West Oakland's battle for access to food. Today our class took our first trip into West Oakland to meet with People's Grocery and visit a few urban gardens.

We visited a surprising number of urban gardens throughout West Oakland. (Long Beach needs to step it up.) The first garden we visited was at the California Hotel. This hotel is very rich in history... today I learned that this is where traveling people of color stayed during the time that Jim Crow laws were still in place. Many famous musicians and activists stayed at this hotel during this time. (There is a good number of songs that reference the California Hotel.) The first floor was once a ballroom where the local high school would have it's prom. Today, the hotel is home to about 30 low-income residents along with some non-profits on the first floor. The building is in poor condition but there are plans for improvements in the near future. It looks like it must have been beautiful during its prime.

People's Grocery has helped the residents here grow a beautiful urban garden behind the hotel. This community garden has replaced an old parking lot that used to store cars and motorcycles. We met with two people from People's Grocery along with a resident of the California Hotel, Mickey, who has spent much time working in the garden and with the chickens. Mickey was very excited to show us around, I could tell that this garden means a lot to him.

"Flowers are not the only thing that bloom in the garden- people do." H.C. Flores, Food Not Lawns

People's Grocery has taught the residents how to compost and they have worms in boxes with the compost to digest it and turn it into fertilizer. There are raised beds and boxes so that the residents who are in wheelchairs can also participate in gardening and harvesting. Right now, there are fava beans, kale, herbs, potatoes, shallots, lettuce, flowers, chard, chickens, and much more growing in this urban garden. It's an amazing place that brings good, clean, and fair food to the struggling tenants of the California Hotel. This is so different than a soup kitchen or a food donation. This is food justice at it's finest. These people are not simply given food, they are being taught how to grow and care for these plants that produce their own food. West Oakland is described as a "food desert" since grocery stores are absent. However, the people there are transforming their community. They have taken matters into their own hands and have worked with NPOs to grow small yet magnificent urban gardens throughout the neighborhoods of West Oakland. Through this, not only are they strengthening their bodies, they are also strengthening their community.

"The old adage still rings true: Give a person a fish and feed her for a day; teach her to fish and feed her for a lifetime." H.C. Flores, Food Not Lawns

SPROUTS!

In our last class, our professor brought in supplies for each student to grow our own sprouts. There are many other ways for people who do not have access to land to grow their own food, and this is an example of one of those ways. It's simple, cheap and pretty exciting to watch the seeds grow. All you need is a jar, wire mesh, water, and seeds. Watch my sprouts grow below ... :)

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Journal #1: My Relationship to Food and Food Justice

I vividly remember sitting at the dinner table with my family when I was younger and staring at the veins in my steak as I begged my parents to let me eat something else. My mom, who grew up in a traditional Italian home in upstate New York, was persistent that I eat my meat, regardless of how disturbed I was about eating an animal, because she knew I needed protein. After eating all of my vegetables, I would cover my steak with mounds of ketchup to disguise the cooked carcass on my plate in attempt to follow through with my mother’s orders. I still struggled. My mom worked hard to prepare well-balanced, healthy meals for us, and everything was always homemade. However, the idea of not eating meat seemed unhealthy to my family. Where would I get my protein at meals? What would I eat other than carbohydrates, vegetables and fruits? Because of my mom's Italian background, things like tofu, seitan, almond milk, quinoa and wheat berries were completely foreign and absent from all of her cookbooks. Until I was in high school, I had to eat meat.

My mom and I maintained a garden in front of our house for as long as I can remember. In our little garden we have grown tomatoes, parsley, basil, zucchini, peas and sometimes corn and sunflowers. I loved gardening with my mom when I was younger and was always very excited when we cooked with the produce and herbs we grew ourselves.

When I was in high school one day, a friend asked if anyone had Advil and I offered her my Advil liqui- gel capsules and she declined stating that there was gelatin inside of them. I thought, “Gelatin? Like… what is in jello?” Long story short, she explained to me what gelatin is and that she was vegetarian. I had finally met someone who also did not like to eat meat and was still healthy. I asked her many questions about being vegetarian and went home that day proclaiming that I felt that I was old enough to make the decision to become vegetarian. That night I researched about the vegetarian lifestyle and learned about the horrifying ways animals are raised and killed along with the terrible effects industrial meat factories have on our environment. I became even more passionate about my decision to be vegetarian. After a week of carbohydrate loading, I felt terrible. But, there was no way I would ever go back to eating meat. So, I started looking for healthy vegetarian recipes and began thinking about what I was eating, why I was eating it and how much of it I was eating. I could not just have the same dinner my family was having, minus the meat, because that would limit me to vegetables and carbs. I had to learn about new sources of protein and how to make them taste good. My meals became balanced and I focused on getting a sufficient amount of protein through legumes, nuts, beans, cottage cheese and began eating whole grain items. After a few months I noticed how great I felt after learning how to be a healthy vegetarian.

When I came to Saint Mary’s it was a challenge to keep up with a healthy, balanced vegetarian diet with the limited options in the dining hall, however, I found ways but always noticed how gross I felt after eating an occasional slice of cheese pizza or grilled cheese. I began reading about veganism and was flirting with the idea for a few months. In my sophomore year I was given the opportunity to have lunch with Michael Pollan, the author of Omnivore’s Dilemma, on campus. This opportunity, along with reading his book, helped changed the way I think about food, how it is grown/ raised, how it gets to us, and how we eat it and how these processes effect our environment, the people involved in this process, the animals involved in this process and ourselves. Michael Pollan shared with the group of us at lunch that day some of the food rules he has for himself, such as, if he can not pronounce the ingredient, then he will not eat it, and it there are more than five ingredients then he will avoid that food item.

When I moved off of campus my junior year and finally had my own kitchen I decided to take my vegetarianism a step further and try being vegan. I was vegan on and off until I went home for Christmas and decided that my new years resolution would be to go vegan. I knew that after being vegetarian for about four years, I was ready for this new challenge. While I was home on break I examined how all of the food I was eating made me feel. I kept lists of what made me feel satisfied yet light and energized and what did the opposite. I re-read my book about veganism (Skinny Bitch) and bought a vegan cookbook from my favorite vegan restaurant (Native Foods). Within the first few months of being vegan, taking to heart what I had heard from Michael Pollan, was when I began to buy mostly organic and locally grown produce and foods as much as possible. I like to know where my food has come from. Not only do I feel great, I also have found that I get sick less often than before I was vegan, and believe that I have lessened my carbon footprint on our earth by my way of conscious consumption. By being vegan, I am forced to look at labels and read ingredients, which I believe is incredibly important. I like knowing exactly what I am putting into my body. My knowledge of different kinds of fruits and vegetables has expanded. I have learned how to cook and eat things that, a year ago, I didn’t know existed. Despite the rumors that vegans loose some of their hair and their nails become brittle, I have now been vegan for a year and still have strong nails and a thick head of hair. When I first became vegan, I started a vegan blog in hope to inspire my friends and family and prove that being vegan is possible and not as pricey as people think. I update my blog with my favorite vegan recipes that I have made as often as possible. (Here it is: vegalicious )

Food has always been available to me. There are many grocery stores in the neighborhood I grew up in such as, an Albertsons/ Lucky’s, Ralphs, Costco, Bristol Farms and Trader Joes. There are also many fast food restaurants, small family owned restaurants and big chain restaurants. Food has been a big part of my life. With an Italian grandmother who could spend her whole day cooking and my mom who also loves to cook, the passion was passed on to me through my time spent with them. Cooking has and continues to be a social aspect of my life, and I am so grateful for the access I have had to good, healthy food.

So far this course has shone a new light on how I can share my passion for, and demand the access to, clean, fair and healthy foods with others who are not given the knowledge and access to the kinds of foods that I have learned to prepare and enjoy. My sense of feeling “starving” is much different than many others around our world. I have never been without food and have had the privilege to know about and consume healthy foods, whereas many people around the world, including people 13 miles away from Moraga, are malnourished. As a future teacher, I have read and heard about how food effects children’s learning and believe that healthy eating habits are so important to teach young children and teens. I have learned that there is more than enough good food for everyone, however, there are injustices in our food systems that are preventing access to good foods for people in certain areas and believe in the movements that are taking place to create change in our current, unjust food system.

“Gardening may seem like just a hobby to many people, but in fact growing food is one of the most radical things you can do: Those who control our food control our lives, and when we take that control back into our own hands, we empower ourselves toward autonomy, self-reliance, and true freedom.” Flores, Food Not Lawns