In the area of West Oakland there is currently only one grocery store for thirty thousand people. Instead of relying on a supermarket to obtain fresh produce the majority of people obtain food from corner stores, liquor stores, and fast food chains. Due to the lack of food readily available for its citizens, West Oakland is considered a food desert. Furthermore, in the Seattle area the University District has one of the highest rates of food insecurity. While food desertification in West Oakland and food insecurity in the local UW community are not directly link, our group action project successfully linked the topics of food desertification, food justice, and food insecurity into one event.
For our project, our group hosted a documentary night where we screened “Food Justice: A Growing Movement,” a documentary about food injustice in West Oakland. Concurrently, we also hosted a food swap where participants could bring in canned food for a free Chipotle burrito. The canned food collected was donated to the UW Pantry which provides food for students at the UW. While the issues faced by the people in West Oakland and Seattle are different, our discussion touched on how solutions for the two problems are interconnected. Local organizations in West Oakland were working to teach community members farming techniques, provide fresh produce, and provide greater access to just food that had been sustainably raised. These organizations in West Oakland could be replicated to solve problems of food insecurity within the local UW community.
In the future when creating organizations in the Seattle area that aim to combat food insecurity and food justice it is important to listen to every collaborators idea in order to decide on one idea that positively impacts our community. Furthermore, our action project was a learning experience for future group political activism. One takeaway from the action project is the need to be flexible with changing plans and the need to improvise. For future group activist work, it is necessary to be open to different ideas as well as being open to combing elements from different people’s ideas in order to create a synthesized version
Hello Orla, I like how your group managed to link topics ranging from food insecurity and food desertification into one big presentation. Talking about these topics to the general public can help people understand the food system as a whole and how the system can result in food insecurity and/or food deserts in certain areas. I also liked the idea of a food swap. The fact that people can exchange canned food for a free Chipotle burrito is a great idea because people are incentivized to donate instead of keeping canned food they may never eat. Also I loved how you guys used a documentary to show how different places have their own food problems. Linking the problems faced by the community in East Oakland to the problems faced by people in Seattle and around UW paints a bigger picture about the food system as a whole. Giving people this awareness may encourage them to donate more (if they have the means to donate of course). You guys did an excellent job, congrats!