Bridging Food Access and Food Justice Initiatives: A Pilot Study with a Home Gardening Program and Food Pantry

Keywords: food justice, food sovereignty, food security, emergency food assistance, urban gardening
Session Type: Virtual Poster Abstract
Day: Sunday
Session Start / End Time: 2/27/2022 02:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/27/2022 03:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 62

Abstract

Direct food distribution may alleviate community members’ immediate food insecurity, but it ignores—and even directly contradicts—community members’ deeper desire for food sovereignty, in which they may produce, distribute, and consume culturally-relevant and healthy food. This community-based research project aims to integrate direct food distribution and urban gardening programs to improve the sustainability of emergency food assistance, creating a system that facilitates food sovereignty long-term, while alleviating immediate hunger. Our multifaceted participatory action research approach is rooted in a long-term partnership and includes mixed methods. We conducted interviews with eight food pantry volunteers from Sacred Heart Community Services (SHCS) and 13 La Mesa Verde (LMV) urban gardening program members. We transcribed the 21 interviews and began coding and analyzing the data using ATLAS.ti to better understand how the SCHS pantry and their LMV program can collaborate to share a racial and food justice approach that builds food sovereignty. Our preliminary results suggest that community building is integral to both pantry volunteers and to LMV members, but that LMV members have more sophisticated understandings of food justice, including in talking about power relations, the right to food, race, and the structural causes of hunger and food waste. Both LMV members and pantry volunteers desire a greater degree of collaboration between the two entities and suggested mutually beneficial ideas including a shared compost bin and a Kids’ Club. Ultimately, this project will expand the community's understanding of food sovereignty and food security and invite them to generate solutions that benefit their communities.