from the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development |
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Although many community-based urban gardens already emphasize food justice, most lack strong connections to food pantries. The 60,000 food pantries in the U.S. are well known for charity-based emergency food assistance and edible food recovery, serving 53 million people in 2022. A new JAFSCD article, Toward a justice approach to emergency food assistance and food waste: Exploring pantry–urban gardener partnerships in California’s Santa Clara County, explores how food pantries and urban gardens could partner to transform pantries into food justice education spaces through workshops with staff and volunteers as well as the construction of shared composting infrastructure for surplus food.
Authors Bacon, Gleicher, McCurry, and McNeil assess the potential of these types of collaborations through a participatory action research case study with a midsize social services provider in San Jose, California. The provider’s programs support both organized urban gardeners and a food pantry that coordinates some 5,000 volunteers and serves more than 25,000 people annually. After conducting interviews, doing participant observation, and tracking food flows within the pantry, the authors identified several differences between the wealthier and whiter food pantry volunteers as compared to the organized urban garden network, consisting largely of moderate- to lower-income Latinx and mixed-race residents. Contrasting interpretations of food justice and charity vs. rights-based approaches to emergency food assistance offer an invitation to deeper dialogue and the possibility for developing intercultural understandings and cross-class alliances to address basic needs today while working to change the policies and attitudes that structure the conditions that lead to poverty and injustice.
KEY FINDINGS
The authors found that while both pantry volunteers and gardeners expressed concerns about increasing healthy food access for those in need and reducing food waste, pantry volunteers were often unfamiliar with food justice and uncomfortable talking about race and culturally rooted food preferences. Urban gardeners, in contrast, emphasized food justice as a right, including gardening and access to land, and emphasizing the importance of high-quality, organic, culturally relevant food. Much of the scientific literature on food waste focuses on environmental impacts and technical solutions—which are important—but more work is needed to link proposals for change to different cultural contexts and develop a justice-oriented response.
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Diverse Understandings of Food Justice: Urban gardeners consistently exhibited more complex and nuanced definitions of food justice compared to food pantry staff and regular volunteers. Pantry staff from three out of five external food pantries showed limited familiarity with food justice, while other urban gardeners interviewed emphasized equity, access, and community autonomy.
Varied Approaches to Food Waste: Urban gardeners displayed a stronger commitment to reducing food waste, employing strategies such as composting, sharing excess produce, and implementing innovative measures. In contrast, pantry volunteers demonstrated less extensive knowledge, and preferred to rely on individualized strategies such as reduced portion size and food storage to reduce food waste.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR POLICY, PRACTICE, AND RESEARCH -
Develop Comprehensive Food Justice Education Programs: Establish educational programs within food pantries that emphasize a nuanced understanding of food justice, incorporating perspectives from diverse stakeholders, including organized urban gardeners. This should include training sessions and materials that draw from existing knowledge and experiences and address diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice approaches, while also highlighting a human right to food, access to land, and the strategies to access high-quality, culturally relevant foods.
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Foster Community-University Research Partnerships with Food Pantries and Gardens: Encourage collaboration between organized groups of civic urban gardeners and food pantries through community-university action research initiatives. These partnerships can serve as a valuable starting point for developing educational programs and proposals to fund infrastructure aimed at closing the food waste loop, with a focus on local composting and sharing produce. This approach facilitates the exchange of knowledge, resources, and expertise between urban gardeners and pantry stakeholders.
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Meet Basic Needs Today and Advocate for Transformative Policies: Lobby for policy changes that recognize the right to food and promote justice approaches within the emergency food assistance ecosystem. Pantry staff, volunteers, and partner organizations could assume new roles as advocates for a comprehensive, ethical, and political response to welfare. Building alliances with organized urban gardeners can strengthen a broader food justice coalition addressing root causes, emphasizing the need for systemic change as well as meeting short-term food needs.
SHARE ON YOUR SOCIALS
Are you interested in a food justice approach to both emergency food assistance and sustainable surplus food and food waste management? A review of the literature identified very few studies that link urban gardening, food waste, and food justice. Check out the recent JAFSCD article that aims to help fill this gap and contribute to regional food system transformation. #participatoryactionresearch #foodjustice #urbangardening #foodpantries #openaccess #JAFSCDNewsFlash Read the @JAFSCD article for free: https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2024.133.017
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Figure above is from the article: Visualization of Key Terms in Existing Literature on Food Justice, Food Pantries, and Urban Gardening, from Web of Science and Displayed Using VOS viewer Interact with the data online.
Note on figure production: Using Web of Science, the authors searched the literature using the following query: All Fields: “food pantry” OR “food pantries” OR “food justice” OR “urban gardening” OR “urban garden” OR “food waste” AND Publication Date: 2013-01-01 to 2023-04-01. |
Please join the USDA National Agricultural Library on Tuesday, May 14, at 2:00 pm EDT for an Heirs' Property Update to discuss emerging funding, programs, and grassroots organizations working on this issue over the past several years. (This event was rescheduled from April 25.)
According to the USDA, “Heirs’ property is family owned land that is jointly owned by descendants of a deceased person whose estate did not clear probate. The descendants, or heirs, have the right to use the property, but they do not have a clear or marketable title to the property since the estate issues remain unresolved. . . . Without proof of ownership, it may become difficult for heirs to obtain federal benefits for farms and could also force partition sales by third parties.”
By the turn of the 20th century, African Americans had acquired 14 million acres across the U.S. Due to discriminatory financial lending practices and federal policies, along with denied access to USDA programs managed by locally elected boards — among other causes — 90% of the land amassed by Black farmers and families has been lost. Heirs’ property is considered one of the contributors to involuntary Black land loss; in the American South, approximately 3.5 million acres of land (or more than a third of Black-owned land) is heirs’ property.
The session will feature three speakers: -
Francine Miller, senior staff attorney from the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems (CAFS) at Vermont Law and Graduate School;
- Savi Horne, executive director of the North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers Land Loss Prevention Project and member of the USDA Equity Commission Agriculture Subcommittee; and
- Ebony Woodruff, director of the Southern University Law Center Agricultural Law Institute for Underserved and Underrepresented Communities. (The SULC Agricultural Law Institute for Underserved and Underrepresented Communities is a partner of the National Agricultural Law Center (NALC) in Fayetteville, Arkansas.)
This event is hosted by the Agricultural Law Information Partnership, which consists of the USDA National Ag Library, the National Ag Law Center, and the Center for Ag and Food Systems at Vermont Law and Graduate School.
Register for this event to receive a day-of reminder and the Zoom link.
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