Food Illuminates the Chasms Between US Citizens

It was more than ten years ago when my close friend Adriana Ballen, who also happened to be both a Columbian immigrant and a program officer at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation told me, “I feel my privilege most when I eat.”

As our culture becomes more and more engaged in conversations about sustainable agriculture and food deserts and the “slow food movement”, I am regularly reminded of the perspective Adriana provided more than a decade ago as someone not born to the agricultural bounty so many in the US possess.

The Metro Section of yesterday’s New York Times could have carried Adriana’s statement as its overarching headline. Instead, it casually juxtaposed two articles that capture the economic chasm food issues represent in our culture. The main article, called “The Lost Supermarket: A Breed in Need of Replenishment”, which features this photo of an abandoned Associated store in Queens, states:

A continuing decline in the number of neighborhood supermarkets has made it harder for millions of New Yorkers to find fresh and affordable food within walking distance of their homes, according to a recent city study. The dearth of nearby supermarkets is most severe in minority and poor neighborhoods already beset by obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

Right below that article, "Parents, Meet Your Coach in the Organic Aisle" which describes the efforts of "certified wellness counselor " Nancy Weisner's work at the Whole Foods in White Plains, New York:

Teaching people how to return to a simple lifestyle — not to eat anything, as Ms. Weiser says, “that wouldn’t grow in the ground” — turns out to be a complicated proposition, involving a bounty of reading materials and 12 educational sessions over the course of six months, not to mention the tour. Ms. Weiser considers it as much her job to teach mothers basics like how to cook kale (or at least, how to teach their help to cook kale), as to help them learn to say no “to all those volunteer types of projects that they consider obligations.”

Several points of consideration for discerning donors:

- Food deserts described in the first article illuminate the fact that systems, not lack of self discipline, play a major role in diseases like obesity and diabetes. That means solutions must focus on these systems issues as well. It makes no sense to educate young moms to eat better, for instance, if they can't afford or access fresh produce at affordable prices. (Hear it firsthand from folks featured by PhilanthroMedia in this video.)

- These issues beg for market-based solutions informed by Michael Porter's ideas on "The Competitive Advantage of the Inner City."

What incentive could encourage Whole Foods to bring Nancy Weisner to Queens?

Susan Herr