Tag Archives: food insecurity

From Tiny Seeds, Mighty Collard Greens Grow

Saleh Murshed, whose family runs the Clay Street Market, stocks the shop’s new refrigerator with fresh greens.

 by James A. Bacon

To grasp the challenge that faces the reformers who want to introduce wholesome fruits and vegetables into the food desert of Richmond’s inner city, go visit the Clay Street Market in Church Hill. Step through the front door and glance around. To the left, you’ll see Shawn Algahein or one of his relatives behind the cash register ringing up sales of cigarettes, lottery tickets, food and other convenience items. Sweeping your gaze to the right, you’ll view shelf after shelf of food so unhealthy that just looking at it hardens the arteries. Near the door is an array of candy: Twix, Skittles, Hershey chocolate bars and dozens of other brands. Nearby, racks groan under six-packs of Miller beer and big plastic bottles of Coca-Cola. Counters display an endless assortment of snack foods: Dorito’s, Lays Potato Chips and varieties of pork rinds you’ll never find in a suburban store. Toward the rear, you’ll spot shelf space devoted to real if not especially nutritious food, like rice, potatoes, ketchup, canned peas and and canned spaghetti.

Amidst the cornucopia of salt, sugar and fat, set just behind a case loaded with ice cream bars, stands a small refrigerator, a little bigger than one you might find in a college dorm room. Through the glass case you can see a dozen or so bundles of locally grown collard greens and salad greens.

Sales of fresh vegetables are a little slow, says Algahein. He hopes they will pick up in the beginning of the month when many of his customers get their food stamps. “When people see [the fresh food], they say it’s good we have it,” he says. “People are excited that we have it.”

In the past when he tried fresh fruit and vegetables, he lost money. He stocked green peppers, bananas, apples and oranges, he says, but “we threw a lot of stuff away.” Eventually, he gave up. But this time is different. He is taking no financial risk. Tricycle Gardens, a non-profit urban farm, provided the refrigerator at no expense, and it promises to reimburse Alghahein for any produce that goes bad. Give it time, he says, and the vegetables could catch on. “People are looking for stuff that is healthier.”

The Clay Street Market is one of two convenience stores — a Valero market in the Fulton area is the other — participating in a pilot project that Tricycle Gardens and its partners launched this month. The short-term goal is to sell enough fresh fruit and veggies to justify taking up permanent shelf space in the two convenience stores. A longer-term goal is to replicate the project elsewhere. The ultimate goal is to obliterate food deserts, where fresh food is inaccessible to anyone without a car, across the commonwealth.

Sally Schwitters, executive director of Tricycle Gardens, is under no illusions that the task will be easy but she is optimistic. The launch has met expectations. “Within the first week,” she says, “we sold out of collard greens.”

The Healthy Corners initiative arose from conversations involving Tricycle Gardens, the City of Richmond, the state health department, Virginia Community Capital and the Bon Secours of Richmond Health System. City Councilwoman Cynthia Newbill chaired a series of meetings beginning in December 2012. All parties shared a concern that poor nutrition was a root cause of obesity, diabetes, hypertension and other maladies afflicting the poor.

“Everyone saw the need and said, ‘Yes, let’s do this,” recalls Teri Lovelace, vice president-corporate development for Virginia Community Capital, a community development financial institution. What she found remarkable, she adds, is the speed with which things came together. People started talking in December and food was placed in two markets by April.

Inspired by the experience of Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., in distributing fresh food through inner-city grocery stores, the Richmond participants put their own spin on the idea. For starters, they had less money so they decided to start with a pilot project rather than a city-wide roll-out. On the other hand, Tricycle Gardens already had built a strong network of relationships in the East End, so it held a series of community meetings to test the waters. Read more.

We May Be Fat but At Least We Have a Sense of Humor

Hat tip: Martin Davenport

Hens and Self Sufficiency

Sheena and Valerie, activists with the Chickunz urban-chicken movement. Photo credit: Chickunz RVa Facebook page.

In a victory for urban chicken lovers everywhere, Richmond City Council adopted yesterday the final set of regulations that will make it permissible to own up to four hens in residential areas. In a setback for gender equality, however, the ban on roosters still applies. (See the Times-Dispatch article.)

Just kidding about the gender-equality thing. Roosters are a nuisance. Nobody wants to be woken at daybreak by a cock crowing next door. In all seriousness, lifting the ban on urban chickens marks a big step forward for the locally grown food movement, which is gaining momentum across Virginia.

There are a couple of layers to the issue worth examining. The first is the matter of individual rights. Why shouldn’t people be allowed to raise chickens in their back yards if it doesn’t pose a nuisance or health hazard to neighbors? What business is it of local government to restrict the practice? The City of Richmond will charge a $60-a-year permit to offset the cost of subjecting chicken coop owners to inspections by the Department of Animal Control and Care. That’s a reasonable concession to ensure that sanitary conditions are maintained.

The second issue is aiding and expediting the growth of the locally grown food movement. If Virginians increasingly have a taste for chicken and/or eggs that aren’t raised under the conditions of industrial agriculture, with all the hormones that are fed to the chickens and all the chicken waste that is produced, then public policy should encourage them to raise their own hens.

Furthermore, in a time of chronic economic hardship, when thousands of Virginians are short on cash and long on spare time, food self-sufficiency strikes me as a good thing. Poor people, in particular, should be coaxed into supplementing their food stamps with eggs, chicken and garden produce they raise themselves. We all know the old saying, “Give a man a fish and feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime.” Substitute “chicken” for “fish.” Self-sufficiency — now, that’s real social change!

— JAB

Food Insecurity… or Child Neglect?

by James A. Bacon

We read today in the Times-Dispatch about the trials and tribulations of one Ashley C. Williams, who recently tested positive for cocaine last month while awaiting trial in Richmond for the death of her two-year-old son.

The boy died of starvation and dehydration on May 30, 2009, weighing only 14 pounds. Prosecutors charged Ms. Williams with child neglect and felony murder. Her attorneys say the death was not her fault. The lad, they assert, died from a failure to thrive — a medical condition beyond her control.

Undermining her case is the fact that Ms. Williams appears to have a drug abuse problem. She had been released free on bond after her son’s death but she was soon re-arrested on a drug charge, in which she pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. After serving her sentence for the drug charge, she appeared in a custody hearing to determine the fate of her three other children. Toward the end of the hearing, she was given another drug test. Testing positive for cocaine, she was sentenced to another six days in jail.

Her attorney has since disputed the result of the test, suggesting that Ms. Williams might have tested positive for cocaine without actually having used it. “Did she touch a dollar bill that someone used who may have been snorting cocaine?” the attorney asked.

Meanwhile, it transpires that Ms. Williams is enrolled in mental-health counseling and searching for a job. A pastor is trying to find her a “nursing-type job,” avers her attorney.

Bacon’s bottom line: Let us set aside the question of whether a substance abuser who permitted her own child to starve to death, whatever the circumstances, is a suitable candidate for a “nursing-type job.” I would not want to engage in what Peter G. refers to as “Calvinist” sermonizing. Let us focus instead on the public policy questions that arise from the incident.

When we compare the health metrics of the United States with those of other developed nations and the U.S. falls short, who are we really indicting — the U.S. health care system or the rampant scourge of drug abuse and its horrendous medical consequences for both drug abusers and the children entrusted to their care? If a cocaine addict allows her child to die of malnutrition without ever seeking medical treatment for the child, does that really justify tighter government control over… health care providers?

Likewise, if a Richmond child dies of malnutrition, do we accuse an uncaring capitalist system of failing to equitably distribute food to all sectors of the population? Do we blame the miserliness of a welfare state on the grounds that existing programs for food stamps, free school breakfasts and lunches, Women, Infant and Children (WIC) nutritional benefits, and USDA food distribution to soup kitchens are insufficient?

Or do we shake a finger at the woman who attributes her child’s death not to her own actions but to a “failure to thrive?”

If we’re looking for “root causes” for why malnutrition persists in the wealthiest country in the world, perhaps we should focus on the problem of substance abuse. How many parents starve their children to feed their addictions? We should assume Ms. Williams’ innocence until she is proven guilty in court. But there are other cases like her’s. How many? What programs does Virginia have in place to address substance abuse, how well are they funded, and what mechanisms have we put into place to ensure that the money is well spent? Few people are asking these questions, it seems to me, but they are fundamental.

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