Community Food Security
What is Food Security?
The term “food security” is a policy-wonk term with real life impact. It is global, national, regional, and local. It incorporates disparate concepts like justice (access and price), nutrition, economic market forces, and environmental impact, to name a few. So, if we bring it closer to home—to our communities—we might have a better handle on what it means to us.
Community food security is a condition where all (or most) community residents obtain a safe, culturally acceptable, nutritionally adequate diet through a sustainable food system that maximizes community self-reliance and social justice. That’s a wide swath.
In our world today, where more and more of our food is divorced from our daily life, food shows up on our supermarket shelves with a non-negotiable price tag attached—packaged, prepared, and chemically-hyped up. On average, New Englanders get their fruits, vegetables, and animal protein a week after processing (and almost 2,000 miles of travel from California, Mexico, Florida, and Costa Rica).
If we are to shift these market practices so that we, as a community, are in control of our food rather than some mega-corporate structure, we must first begin to understand the basic principles of the community food philosophy.
Following are some basic principles of community food security (CFS):
Low Income Food Requirements. Like the anti-hunger movement, CFS is focused on meeting the food needs of low income communities, reducing hunger and improving individual health. This is part of the food justice movement. (Food justice is a broad term. In some cases, the term “food justice” is used to describe food availability for lower income families; in some cases it describes fair wages for and treatment of farm workers; and in some cases it describes fair pay for the producer.)
Broad Goals. CFS addresses a broad range of problems affecting the food system, community development, and the environment such as poverty and hunger, disappearing farmland and family farms, inner city supermarket redlining, rural community disintegration, rampant suburban sprawl, and air and water pollution from unsustainable food production and distribution patterns.
Community focus. A CFS approach seeks to build up a community's food resources to meet its own needs. These resources may include cooperative markets, farmers' markets, community and family gardens, transportation, community-based food processing ventures, and urban farms as examples.
Education and next generational thinking. Bringing children and young adults into the CFS movement is vital, as generational shifts begin to occur. Older citizens who remember and practice their traditional food practices are dying. Younger kids are more separated from the origins of their foods. Today’s kids have grown up in a world of convenience where planting, nurturing, and harvesting carrots are not typical practices. Programs like the Edible Schoolyard have become successful in an effort to educate our next generation.
Self-reliance/empowerment. Community food security projects emphasize the need to build individuals' abilities to provide for their food needs. Community food security seeks to build upon community and individual assets, rather than focus on their deficiencies. CFS projects seek to engage community residents in all phases of project planning, implementation, and evaluation.
Local agriculture. A stable local agricultural base is key to a community responsive food system. Farmers need increased access to markets that pay them a decent wage for their labor, and farmland needs planning protection from suburban development. By building stronger ties between farmers and consumers, consumers gain a greater knowledge and appreciation for their food source.
These are the basics of Community Food Security. There are a number of ways to approach the many challenges of CFS. We at greatgrandmother.org start by spreading the word, hoping that each person selects one or two areas to focus on.