“Kids go to school, they get to sit in desks, they get to drink from water fountains, they should get to eat healthy meals,” Reinhardt says. “It should just be a given.”
6. Support resources that make it easier for people to grow their own food.
While some of these solutions to increasing food access may take longer than others—in particular, rectifying the legacy of racism—some people are able to grow their own food to lessen their food insecurity.
Ichikawa says urban agriculture is one way that people can achieve food sovereignty (as long as they have the space, time, or zoning support to do so, which unfortunately is not the case for everyone dealing with food insecurity). Urban agriculture can include raising hens in your backyard, establishing a community garden, or working on a local farm. Some of these community-based options can be particularly helpful for establishing food sovereignty for those who live in urban areas without access to a backyard, or who have zoning laws that make farming on their own difficult.
Through urban agriculture, “a lot of people in urban, semi-urban, and even rural contexts are feeding themselves,” Ichikawa says. “A lot of food is cultivated and changes hands, and it’s not about buying or selling—it’s about doing it for yourself.”
Programs such as the International Rescue Committee, a refugee organization that establishes successful farms led by immigrants, can be important ways for people to get involved with agriculture when they may not know where or how to start.
“There’s no shortage of enthusiasm for urban agriculture, but what we do need is policy support,” Ichikawa says. We also need the creation of careers in this field, Dr. Ratliff says, which would decrease the burden on people who are involved in urban farming as a way of feeding themselves while also working one or more full-time jobs.
Additionally, urban agriculture requires the support of people who are food secure, especially those who live in areas where urban agriculture is taking off. That support can look like voting in favor of zoning laws that allow its development, or establishing or serving on a food policy council. Buying their offerings, if they’re available to the public, can help, too.
7. Support food banks and pantries.
Feeding America has a network of 200 food banks and 60,000 partner pantries and meal sites to help reduce food insecurity in every county across the country. But it’s still not enough. “We are not going to be able to food-bank our way out of ending hunger,” Nguyen said.
This is especially true since Feeding America estimates that food banks will see a decline of USDA foods of 30 to 40%, when the need at food banks has increased about 60%. The reason for this decline? Food banks relied on food from The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) to provide more than a billion meals last year, but with the USDA ending the Food Purchase and Distribution Program at the end of 2020, they’ll be missing out on the food that program provided. “That is a lot of missed meals that many American families are going to need to come from their food banks,” Nguyen says.
Now, Feeding America is actively working to make sure families aren’t harmed by the possibility of less food coming in, by fighting against disruptions in the USDA food supply chain and for funding to purchase more USDA foods. You can help on an individual level, too, by donating food or time to these food banks.
8. Use your voice.
Just as powerful as policy is people—whether they’re food insecure or not—using their voice to advocate for those who are struggling.
“I hope that one of the silver linings coming from this pandemic is that there’s an increased awareness of how hunger is pervasive in our communities, and that people look for opportunities where they can really add their voice—where they can volunteer, or where they can consider donating to ensure that this crisis doesn’t continue,” Nguyen says.
Nguyen knows not everyone can afford to donate to food banks and food pantries or even volunteer, but she believes everyone can take a step like making a call to Congress, sending an email to your representatives, or writing a note to local leadership about the long lines of people trying to get assistance to access food in their community. “If you’re able to just use your voice, you can change the lives of so many people.” For more specifics on how you can help, check out these tips on how you can help people facing hunger in your community.
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