Although hunger is often characterized through media to exist solely in developing nations, food security is an issue that plagues varying parts of the modern world, including King County and the University District. The idea of hunger is no stranger to the US, as an estimated 41 million people suffer from food insecure issues, 13 million of that being children. Food security is defined as “The state of having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food” (Oxford Dictionary), which includes but is not limited to issues of food shortage, inequality, social services, homelessness, and food deserts. While food security derives from the idea of a scarcity of food, food waste in contrast is from an abundance of production and the city of Seattle report 40% of food being wasted. By using up resources and buying more food than needed, this consequently increases market prices for food due to lower supply and a consistent demand. This altercation in food prices furthers the existing harm in lower income communities where food is already unaffordable.
Food deserts in Southern Seattle (http://www.communitiescount.org/index.php?page=farm-desert-map)
For our action project, our primary goal was to tie together the idea of food security to food wastage in a way that would somehow help bridge the gap between the two and simultaneously create an effective and sustainable change in both areas. Our original idea was to take food from a catering company or restaurant and deliver it in the form of a meal to a food insecure community, such as a tent city.
One of the tent cities, previously located in the University District (https://placesjournal.org/article/tent-city-america/)
As apart of this, we were also hoping to have a conversation with those living within the tent city about their own experience with food insecurity and changes they feel would be beneficial. However, due to the stigma of food insecurity, members within these communities are often embarrassed and choose not to speak out about their experiences, we were unable to facilitate a space to have these conversations. Coordination also proved difficult, and we were unable to create a dinner. As an alternative, we created a brochure that outlined food donation laws, as well as resources for both tent cities, catering companies, and restaurants for donating food to food insecure communities. Our hope was for this brochure to create lasting change by informing companies on the resources available to them, connecting them to grassroot organizations, as well as educating them on how this issue affects communities in Seattle.