What is Food Justice?
Love and Dignity in every meal.
Quality, Nutritious Food - For Everyone!
Ever wonder what we mean by Food Justice? Inspired by the Cornell West quote, we like to think that food justice is love made visible through food served with dignity. Access to nourishing foods is a human right, and we work hard to ensure all our community members can feed themselves and their families with dignity. That means every meal and box of groceries we pass along is crafted with care to include various ingredients that allow recipients choice in how it’s enjoyed, along with deliciously prepared premade options to make healthy eating easy. It’s our goal that the items our recipients receive are the same quality of food they would purchase themselves in a grocery store or at a restaurant. Read more about all the care and consideration that goes into our food in our previous post “Serving Dignity Through Food Made With Love.”
Just because someone is food insecure doesn’t mean they don’t deserve delicious meals! This Chicken Scarpariello was made with donated chicken, onions, and fresh peppers from local farms.
Sometimes, the little details elevate our food, like these little calzones made from Trader Joe’s pizza dough, a regular donation in the kitchen. They’re easy to fill with healthy mixtures of meat, veggies, and homemade sauces. The beautiful folding from our volunteers is just one more little way to show we care.
Yes, we make a lot of soup. But! Our soups are filled with fresh farm produce and are an excellent way to add healthy veggies to diets that need a boost. Soups are also easy to eat, which matters when we feed seniors or our unhoused neighbors.
Making Healthy Eating Easy - Now, Not Later
We love all the current and proposed legislation around hunger relief. Still, at Second Chance Foods, food justice means addressing the immediate need and finding solutions that we can implement immediately to reduce hunger. Because, not everyone can wait for tax credits or government benefits and not everyone will qualify or be able to prove their need.
In Westchester and Putnam counties, 4-out-of-10 households are living paycheck-to-paycheck or in poverty. According to the United Way, a single person in Putnam County must earn $42,636 a year or $109,236 as a family of four with two children. These numbers are based on the bare minimum survival costs of the area for housing, utilities, transportation, food, taxes, etc.
However, the federal poverty level is significantly lower then the living standard in our area. Because government food assistance programs like SNAP and WIC use the Federal Poverty level to determine benefits, many community members are still left struggling to put food on the table. Additional barriers to federal support include lack of awareness of programs or eligibility, the stigma of participation, and general administrative burdens/red tape to sign up. That’s why our solutions remove these common deterrents that exist, along with other barriers to participation, like transportation, access, and awareness.
Food Justice to Improve Access to Nourishing Foods
How often do you use your car for groceries? Imagine if that weren’t an option and the nearest store was out of walking distance or off the path of public transit routes. Making nourishing foods more accessible was one of our top priorities when developing our Wednesday Distribution program and our Bountiful Meals partnership program.
Improving Access to Nutritious Food is Essential.
We’re always looking for new ways to connect more food with people who need it, including our dream of developing a mobile food program that can fill the gaps in food access by providing it in areas of need! Explore the interactive Food Insecurity Map below created by Cornell Cooperative to see more about where food is harder to get and the area’s income levels.
Are you passionate about Food Justice? You can help feed more of our neighbors in need with a gift today! Consider making a monthly donation a regular part of your giving or ask us about corporate matching and make your generosity grow.