Kspitz’s Weblog

In the United States, we have grocery stores the size of warehouses, fast food restaurants lining every major city street, and huge farms overflowing with grain. In the midst of all this bounty, it’s hard to imagine that many people in this country don’t have enough food or enough money to buy food on a regular basis. This is known as food insecurity. In the United States, food insecurity is a growing problem in both rural areas and major cities.

Food insecurity often runs parallel to another situation – food deserts. A food desert is an area in which grocery stores are either nonexistent or too far away to be easily accessible. While there may be some food sources available, such as convenience stores, the types of foods offered are mostly packaged junk food with inflated prices. Low income inner city neighborhoods are often food deserts. This is one of the reasons why the people in this sector of society suffer the highest rates of obesity and diabetes. It’s difficult to choose healthy foods if they are not available.  

Recently, food activists, often working in partnership with social organizations, are trying to bring healthy foods back into food deserts. In addition to starting community gardens and food centers, they are establishing distribution networks that will bring more locally grown, fresh fruits and vegetables to residents of these areas.

In Vancouver, an organization called Food Roots is establishing pocket markets throughout the region. These pocket markets are smaller versions of a farmers market set up on a seasonal basis. The site for a pocket market might be a local church, hospital parking lot, or community center. Food Roots purchases produce from local farmers and drops it off at the various pocket markets. The produce is reasonably priced in order to be affordable by all. Food Roots currently coordinates 12 pocket markets in the Vancouver area with more planned for next year.

Food insecurity and food deserts are vivid examples of the shortcomings of our industrial food system – a system that trucks food in from far away and makes it available only to those with ample income. Pocket markets and grassroots organizations like Food Roots, are proof that many people are fed up with this system and are taking it upon themselves to change it.