Nashville must confront the growing problem of families facing food insecurity | Opinion – Tennessean
opinion
Charles Robert Bone, Judge Sheila Calloway, Tom Negri, Avi Poster and Patricia Glaser Shea Guest Columnists
Published 10:59 PM EDT Oct 9, 2019
In Nashville, almost 24% of residents (164,000 people) live in food deserts. According to the latest Community Needs Evaluation by Metro Social Services, Food/Nutrition was the top area of need based on the clients surveyed.
Food insecurity is a pervasive issue having a deleterious effect on child development, mental and physical health, behavior, and life expectancy. So, as a community, it’s not a problem we can ignore.
However, while there have been substantial and necessary efforts to address our transit and housing woes, there’s been no comparable initiative to confront the systemic roots of our food insecurity. Even though doing so would cost a fraction of a fraction of the money needed for transit and housing.
We must lower prices so that people can feed their families
Amazing organizations are doing all they can to provide food and services to those who need them. But, they require community-wide support to substantially impact the underlying causes. Providing food and meals to thousands of people is incredibly difficult, but ensuring that fewer people need to be fed is a different matter entirely.
Thus, over the past 3 years, Fare Nashville has been developing and advocating for a plan to address gaps in Nashville’s food system. Through conversations with local nonprofits, government, politicians, advocates; integrating research done by Metro and other cities; incorporating best practices recommended by national experts; and understanding this city’s current landscape, the Fare Nashville plan was born.
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From building infrastructure to creating and updating policies to developing programs, the plan is designed to comprehensively confront accessibility and affordability in our food economy. Improving accessibility encompasses breaking down barriers standing between residents and stores selling nutritious food. Enhancing affordability involves strategies to lower the prices folks have to pay to purchase the necessary amount of nourishing food to feed their families.
To support the implementation of this effort, an event series, dubbed Fare4All, was developed. The Fare4All events strive to raise public support, political will, and funding to implement the Fare Nashville plan throughout Davidson County. Attending and supporting these events is how people can engage on issues in our food system while directly contributing to the success of the plan.
Join Fare Fight events
Please consider joining us on Friday, Oct. 11th at the Fare Fight Forum, The Phila Awards, & FeedBack Nashville with Clark Beckham. More info and tickets at: www.Fare4All.org.
Here’s a snippet of the Fare Fight discussions (Tickets: www.FareFight.org):
- Women in Food – led by chef and author Louisa Shafia with Mignon Francois, Melissa Corbin, and Sarah Gavigan;
- Food Waste in Nashville – led by Urban Green Lab’s Todd Lawrence with Seema Prasad, Tallu Quinn, and Matthew Beadlecomb;
- The Effect of the Current Immigration Climate on the Food System/Industry – led by Conexion America’s Ariel Safdie with Tom Negri, Karla Ruiz, and Stephanie Salazar.
- The Fate of Food, led and based on the book by author Amanda Little.
The Phila Awards celebrates Phila Hach and those carrying on her legacy of using food virtuously.
The awardees are: Thistle Farms, TIRRC, Louisa Shafia, and Tallahassee May. This event features food by treasured restaurants; a Phila-themed Dirty Pages exhibit including: Arnold and Anna Myint, Randy Rayburn, Sarah Worley, Lakendra Davis, among others; the ceremony; and a concert by Clark Beckham. Tickets: www.ThePhilas.com.
You can learn more, donate, and/or email us through our website: www.FareNashville.org.
Written by Charles Robert Bone, Judge Sheila Calloway, Tom Negri, Avi Poster and Patricia Glaser Shea. The authors are board members of Sow Good, a Nashville nonprofit that develops social innovations that create equity, access, & inclusion.
Published 10:59 PM EDT Oct 9, 2019
