In Grant County there are many people who live with the realities of hunger and food insecurity daily. The people who utilize the Grant County Food Pantries have many different situations that lead them to food distributions. Sometimes it just takes an unexpected car problem, overdue utility bill or a medical expense and next thing they knows there is no money left in the budget for food.

Unfortunately, many of the stories we hear are not just about occasional hunger, but are about the ways that food insecurity is woven into the makeup of our community members' experiences. These stories give us clues about the root causes of food insecurity and could help us understand how to make economic and cultural shifts locally that would begin to lower the need for emergency food. For now, the reality is this, our pantry numbers are up and rising. In March of 2013 we had 130 pantry recipients. In March of 2017 we had 213. This year, we had 238.

The Volunteer Center (TVC) began years ago when a community campaign called Lift Every Voice happened in Grant County and the overwhelming awareness drawn from the conversation was that hunger and poverty were the things that needed the most addressing. As a result, our food pantries were started. The pantries address emergency food need, but Alicia Edwards, Executive Director of TVC at the time, recognized that food pantries—though incredibly necessary—are a band-aid for a deeper systemic wound. By just providing food, we would not be helping to change the systems that are causing poverty and hunger in the first place. So, The Commons: Center for Food Security and Sustainabilty was created. The Commons, now equipped with a fully stocked commercial kitchen, educational and demonstration garden, food pantry, walk-in cooler, greenhouses, hammermill, and more, is meant to be a tool for community members to not just learn about what a fair and local food economy could look like, but to be co-creators in that food economy.

Consider the following story :

One day a resident of the community sees a baby floating down the river. She rushes out to save it, and, with the help of her neighbors, finds dry clothing, a crib, a blanket. The next day two babies are rescued, and the day after that, several more. Soon the babies are arriving in large numbers, and they become a regular feature of life in the village; very nearly the whole village becomes involved in rescuing them. Finally, one of the villagers suggests making an expedition upstream, to see how the babies are getting into the water in the first place. The villagers, however, are afraid to take time and energy away from the immediate rescue project, afraid that babies will drown if they are not there to save them.
— Janet Poppendieck, Sweet Charity?: Emergency Food and the End of Entitlement

It is so easy to get stuck in the state of emergency food need and continue to focus efforts on the needs of the hungry people who are immediately in front of us. Food banks across the nation have been doing this since the 1960s. But, like TVC, there is a new trend to try innovative and, sometimes risky, approaches to addressing the root causes of food insecurity. Unless we "head upstream" and start working to heal the underlying wounds that cause poverty, the food pantry numbers are just going to keep rising. A report from the Reinvestment Fund gives some examples of the ways that food banks are playing new roles in the fight against food insecurity.

Very close to home, the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona began Caridad Community Kitchen, where an executive chef gives 10 week career-focused cooking classes to community members so that they can develop the skills needed to find work in food businesses. The participants are also linked up with social workers to provide job training, childcare support, and more. What happens to the food they make? Well, they serve 14,000 meals a month to those in need in their community.

Lansing Food Bank in Michigan started the Garden Project 30 years ago and provided community members with leadership training to lead gardens around the community. Now, 1 million pounds of produce are provided to their food banks from these gardens each year in addition to providing neighborhoods with access to the fresh garden produce. With this success, they have also started Lansing Roots, a business incubator for small-scale farmers that provides land and financial and marketing support.

The Mid-Ohio Food Bank owns and operates the Southside Roots Cafe + Market. They call themselves a mixed income shopping experience and operate on a pay what you can model giving customers the decision to give what their incomes allow them whileThe Food Bank of South Jersey worked with regional farmers who had thousands of pounds of damaged peaches that could not be sold and brought an idea to Campbell's soup company (in a neighboring town) to make peach salsa that they then sold to support their food bank programming.

As I read these stories of success I was surprised to realize that some form of each one of the ideas these organizations have implemented is being considered for the long-term use of The Commons. Though creating sustaining funding sources for innovative approaches is challenging in rural areas, we are dedicated to adopting programs that address the root causes of poverty while providing food for those in need.

We've considered a Pay As You Can Cafe. We've started gleaning produce that would go to waste to make preserves and fruit leathers for an income stream. We are working with youth and volunteers in the garden and the kitchen to see where our food comes from and connect with each other around the table. TVC will be the initial storing and packing site for the Southwest New Mexico Food Hub. We want to expand our gardens and encourage community members to start their own market gardens.

Ultimately, we want to help support the creation of a healthy, local food economy that provides fresh and just food for all of our community members, not just the ones with privilege. We want to grow and make food ourselves, but we also want to share resources and skills so that community members may feel empowered to create food businesses for themselves that may alleviate the stresses of poverty and systemic injustices. We are the only ones who will strengthen our food system, no one from outside of Grant County can do it for us.

And so, I return regularly to the stories of hunger which people bring to our doors. I believe that listening to these stories can show us where the injustices lie in our food system. By addressing these injustices, we can begin to put together a puzzle, creating a healthy, local, and restorative economy where our community members will find peace in food security, never needing to worry about where their next meal may come from.

For more information or to share ideas contact Kristin Lundgren at (575) 388-2988 or kristin@tvcgrantcounty.org.