Racial Equity is Required to Achieve Food Access for All

Good Food Battle Creek is in the final day of its two-and-a-half-day workshop. It’s designed to help participants understand and take action against hidden and not so hidden mechanisms that systematically keep fresh, nutritious and affordable food from many residents.

Good Food Battle Creek is a network of individuals and organizations working together to address issues related to our community’s food system. (As Coordinator, I work to support this important effort.)

Central to the workshop will be conversations concerning the disparities, inequities and barriers that exist, particularly for poor persons of color. One might ask, why wouldn’t the workshop focus on all poor people rather than those of color? The short answer is, it does both.

Frigid winter weather has hampered attendance (there was a 100-plus vehicle pile up on I-94 yesterday, with one fatality) but hasn't dampened the enthusiasm to learn and understand.

Sobering fact: a lack of access to good food disproportionately impacts Battle Creek’s communities of color. Why? Certain policies and procedures perpetuate this condition. Many unintentionally, but some on purpose. Hard to accept? Read on.

Neither rain, snow or sleet will hamper racial equity efforts

Good Food BC believes discussions about food access can help bring together growers, distributors, government, healthcare providers, and residents to develop strategies to eliminate race-based disparities plaguing our food system.

The workshop is investigating this inconvenient truth from an historic perspective to show how we got into this mess. Then, with the help of participants, facilitators are surfacing tangible ways to begin dismantling the institutional conditions that perpetuate it, from within our respective workplaces.

Food access (or rather lack of it) touches more institutional settings than you might imagine. One familiar to most is healthcare. Lack of access to good food and poor menu choices have led to increased chronic illnesses ranging from diabetes and obesity to heart disease and stroke.

ERACCE facilitators are no joke

In the education sector, poor access to good food interferes with students’ ability to concentrate and learn. And speaking of education, there’s a belief system out there that has convinced many affected residents that it’s too darned expensive to eat good food.

According to a 2014 survey conducted by BC Pulse, 46 percent of adults (living at 200 percent below the poverty rate) say “cost” is the reason they don’t eat more fresh foods. There’s a kernel of truth in that assertion.

The survey also reported 57 percent of families eat fresh fruits and vegetables (not from the can) four times per week or less. And, more than one-third of survey respondents said “they don’t find it hard to eat fresh fruits and vegetables.” Encouraging news, until you consider that may mean two-thirds do find it hard to eat fresh fruits and vegetables.

Lack of food access also produces harmful effects in the workplace. Inadequate nutrition leads to higher rates of illness, which translates to time away from work and decreased productivity.

I’ve avoided using the term but “racism” plays a key role in supporting and perpetuating disparities that disproportionately plague communities of color. Racism harms all of us; whites and nonwhites.

Today's anti-immigration climate in America promotes racist attitudes and discriminating policies that affect migrant farm workers, most of whom are Latino/Hispanic Americans. Understanding how race can influence perceptions, policies and action helps develop greater awareness of the challenges facing all small and non-commodities farmers and the often unjust relationship they’ve historically endured from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, compared to commodity (i.e., corn and soybean) growers.

There’s no doubt about it; race is a complex topic. Heap on issues of poverty and other socially divisive constructs and we’ve got a super-sized problem on our hands. Yet it’s solvable.

Improving our existing food system to one that assures better access, addresses poverty and impacts critical health, education and other issues for people of color cannot happen without the understanding of, and collaboration with, white people. I, for one, am glad so many have RSVP’d to take action and join the conversation.

 Follow J.R. on Twitter @4humansbeing or contact him at 4humansbeing@gmail.com.