Why Does Race Play a Role ?

In America, eating well seems to be wholly for the rich. Race is scarcely, very seldom directly addressed in terms of the food system, especially when you’re talking on a broad scale. The American Society has  the idea that low income communities are a bunch of overweight urban black and brown people who don’t care about their health,stuffing their faces full of McDonald’s. I believe the counterpart to that is the middle class or upper class communities that have grocery stores in the closest radius possible which makes up the two poles of the food system.To me it feels very inappropriate and dehumanizing to act like people eating crappy food in America are getting what they asked for. It systematically has been made easier for people to eat unhealthy food and so difficult to eat well.

Who has heard of the Republican war on food stamps ? It came to my attention recently when reading an article on Truthout.org  which stated that in the month of September 2013 , Republicans in the House passed a bill that would cut lurching $39 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, otherwise known as food stamps, over the next decade. A spokesperson of this article noted “Whether Republicans like it or not, access to enough food should be a right in this country, not just a privilege. If the free market fails to provide food for the people, then it’s the responsibility of the government to step in and provide it” (2013). It can’t be seen in any other vision because this has been reality for many years now.

 A lot of time  and energy  has been put into building a food system that issues and distributes to economies of scale and what we are investing which has made this world so technological and capable of turning out potato chips and creating the substitute of kale chips. They just are  not so efficient of making sure that high quality produce gets into all neighborhoods. As well as cutting down on the distributions of food stamps that just goes into another topic of wanting people of the poor communities to starve. Food stamps aren’t even all that great if you want to get technical, they are mainly accepted by liquor stores and places like 7-11. Those places don’t sell any sort of healthy option goods. An article for Colorlines notes “18 percent of of the U.S adults have received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance benefits in their lifetime,the majority of which as people of color. That total number becomes more illustrative when broken down in terms of race and gender.The Pew data show that nearly 40 percent of black women and 30 percent of Hispanic women have used food stamps at some time in their lives,compared to nearly 20 percent of white women” (2013).   

The cut of food stamps can boost the poverty rate as well as make people go hungry. It’s sad to read this decision taking place in the congress because not only is it bad that poor communities aren’t getting the proper nutrition but now we have to worry that they have to suffer starvation.

IMAGE BY

IMAGE BY

It has hit my hometown

One community I am familiar with that has a very high poverty rate is Oakland Ca, reaching a percentage of 41.30% in poverty level out of a population 30,077. I grew up in this community and I have over time seen  the poverty rate  only worsen. Communities have been distorted and  the majority of elders and children have been impacted by obesity and other major health risks I will further explain in the future. One 2012 study found that 42.3 percent of  k-12 students were overweight or obese. Jamalia, a mother, was interviewed in a Michael and Susan Dell Foundation blog and she stated “I knew I needed to give the kids fruits and vegetables, but it was hard to get them. Most of the grocery stores didn’t have fresh foods. My kids could find a gun where we  lived easier than they could find fresh vegetables” (2013). Low income communities are only getting worse as the high scale communities progress. A way to end this is by organizing a community garden , which is what West Oakland has been doing.

IMAGE BY

While the poverty level in the Oakland Hills is nonexistent, the conditions just a couple miles away down the hill and all around other parts of Oakland have a sky scraping poverty rate. Shockingly, eating healthy is something only the well-off can do as well. The country’s food system is built to assemble exactly that outcome. A community in West Oakland has decided to take action into their own hands, living  without a grocery store let alone having access to healthy, fresh food has finally been reaching progression.

A People's Grocery has found it's way back to the city, being a Black Panthers Project in 1969 and now being organized by the Grassroots Foundation. From my understanding this has been the light that has finally shined over this part of Oakland. It is inspiring to hear Executive Director Nikki Henderson say, “ We collaborate with health and economic development organizations, gather residents for food celebrations, and work to raise the consciousness about structural racism and the role it has played and continues to play in creating and maintaining food deserts. We grow food,maintain urban gardens, and pursue effective systems change” (2013). This is a positive change to look up to, and take into planning for our own communities because from my understanding the issue is not going to be solved anytime soon by our capitalist system.

IMAGE BY

Why Food Deserts ?

       Food deserts occur in poor communities that are extremely underfunded, and I happen to be from that sort of community. Luckily I had parents that worked very hard to keep me healthy and go out of their way to another city's grocery stores, to buy food that positively affect my health. Not everyone has that opportunity ,USDA’s Economic Research notes “23.5 million people live in food deserts. More than half of those people are low-income” (USDA 1).

      The lack of access to grocery stores contributes to a poor diet and can lead to higher levels of obesity and other diet related disease, such as diabetes and heart disease. Instead of supermarkets and grocery stores, these communities may have no food access or are served only by fast food restaurants and convenience stores that offer few healthy, affordable food options. Being from a low income community myself I would feel guilty if I didn't make this knowledge available to people. I no longer live in the projects of Oakland California but my parents still reside there, and when I go for visits all I can see are liquor stores building up on every block and the nearest grocery store is in the next city.

       I believe that the number 1 death in these poor communities is heart disease. This issue is also something that attacks specifically minority groups of people. I need this blog to bring attention as well as create justice for these communities that have now felt voiceless , and not because they lost hope but because they are being fed foods that are affecting their bodies in all the wrong ways. When you eat unhealthy food it is possible for your mind to weaken and your cells began to die off because they aren’t getting the proper immunity that helps them fight off disease.This issue in equitable access to healthy food is a symptom of larger structural injustices such as racism, poverty, lack of community control and representation in local government,inequity in housing and health care, and ecological degradation.