About the Campaign:
You are what you eat. Organic, local, sustainable foods are in the spotlight right now. Food guru and author Michael Pollan wrote in one of his bestselling books to “eat food”. The USDA is revamping school lunch requirements, now focusing on providing healthy choices instead of using our children as a way to dispose of our agricultural commodities.
Seattle City Council Member, Richard Conlin wrote the local food initiative which was adopted by the city council in April 2008. One goal is to “Improve public health by providing increased access to healthy, culturally appropriate, and locally and regionally grown foods, especially for low income households”. Our local public health agencies have banned trans-fats, require menu labeling, and are partnering with community groups to support healthy eating and active living. A tax on simple sugars, like sodas, may be next.
Meanwhile, the USDA recently announced new numbers for hunger in 2008, and nationally over 14% of the population is “food insecure”. This is the highest percentage of hungry people since 1995, when the agency first started measuring hunger, or lack of calorie supply to a person, in the general population.
Yes, there is a big difference between calories and nutrition. Calories keep one alive, but nutrition supports life. Food banks and meal programs receive food from grocers and distributors. Donated foods are often those with poor nutritional quality calories, donations of sodas and pastries and things that did not sell, have a long shelf life, and are now being ‘surplused’. These foods given to a population that is already compromised by their situation; broke, maybe homeless, perhaps with physical health, mental health or addiction issues.
Those who are economically challenged have a right to eat real, nutritious, even organic-when-available, food.
Somehow, that doesn’t seem radical or outrageous. We should care for those who have received less in this society; a senior citizen with diabetes should receive a fresh vegetable, a high quality protein, a kind word, a child should have a breakfast made up of more than empty carbohydrates and sugar, and a homeless person should have nutrition needs met so that they are able to think clearly and contribute to their own well being. The time has come for “real food” to not be a radical concept, but the bar to set that standard by.
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