Going to Bed Hungry

As a kid, I would sometimes act up, and my punishment would be that I couldn’t have my usual cookies and milk before bed. On those nights, I felt distressed, because even though I’d eaten a good dinner earlier in the evening, I would get hungry later that night, and would look forward to a little snack before I went to sleep. 

I’d lay in bed with my stomach growling. I would toss and turn, feeling deprived. It probably would have been easy to sneak downstairs and grab a little something, but at the time I was too young to even think of that as an option. The fact that I had the opportunity to do so, however, says a lot about how fortunate I was. 

Some children in the Binghamton area can’t tip downstairs and find anything to eat. They don’t go to bed hungry because they’ve misbehaved, they go to bed hungry because they have no other choice. When they’re supposed to be sleeping, they’re tossing and turning, and yet they’re expected to get up and go to school the next morning, nutritionally fortified for the day.

The recent Public Service Announcement the Half A Loaf team created on Broome County’s Breakfast Program is one of 10 PSAs in the “Never Go Hungry” campaign. It lets people know the resources available to address food insecurity in our area, and it’s one of the reasons I’ve enjoyed working on the HAL project. We’ve used the resources from a Ross Foundation grant to address this challenge in the Binghamton area.

During my time on the project, I’ve learned a lot about mapping, analyzing, and collecting data, particularly as it relates to food deserts and available resources to combat that issue. We’ve collected hundreds of surveys from people of many different backgrounds.  We’ve done outreach and, I hope, touched a few lives along the way. 

Robert Mansell

Half A Loaf Team

Deciphering the Data

Though the United States is one of the wealthiest nations on Earth, our nation bristles with complex, sometimes unprecedented social challenges. And ‘hunger’ is a complicated adversary. The Half a Loaf (HAL) project is exploring how to address this issue in the greater Binghamton area.

 

It’s a hybridized social problem, complicated by poverty, a recession, industrial food systems and suburbanization. Childhood obesity, diabetes and a near total vacuum of fresh, nutritious produce in some places—referred to by the FDA as Food Deserts—confront us. First Lady Michelle Obama brought attention to the problem; the media has covered it extensively; and some of us experience it first hand, because with no supermarkets nearby we have to shop at corner stores or gas station minimarts.

 

Recently, the HAL team set out to collect more information so that we could be a part of the solution. We visited neighborhood meetings, community Thanksgiving dinners at the YMCA and lines of folks queued up at a mobile food pantry. We were privileged to receive the congeniality and cooperation all those we interacted with. At our side, we carried surveys containing questions related to food security. The willingness of the survey participants to respond in great detail was stupendous. We witnessed the inspiring compassion and hard work of our community support agencies, while collecting a substantial amount of survey information. 

 

Our mission is to use this information as the basis of guides to area food resources that are available to everyone and Public Service Announcements that raise the visibility and accessibility of area food agencies. This is critical, because 68 percent of respondents weren't aware of local food agencies hours of operation.

 

These food agencies can be a lifeline when one is facing hunger, so 68 percent is unacceptably low. Financial stability can turn into hardship and hunger with one walk to mailbox, or a single phone call. Our 68% represents citizens of varying income levels, but when and where help is offered should be unanimously public information. Every one deserves to know. 

We’re here to do for food pantries, soup kitchens, local farms and farmers markets what a prime time advertising slot does for Frito-Lay: Turn up the volume. 

 

In a perfect world, everyone would have something to eat. Though we've always been capable of picturing an idyll society in our minds, we’ve never quite realized it.

 

This year, we look forward to engaging more of our community. Hopefully, we'll inch our society closer to perfection, and do with a host a happy stomachs and healthy hearts all around. 

Roots of a Movement

            To me, the formation of healthy and wholesome food needs to start at the foods’ very beginning; the planting of the seed or the birth of the animal. While I grew up with a sense of importance for what I eat, I have never felt so connected to the process from farm to table as I do now after founding, growing, and working at Binghamton Acres Farm.

 Acres is Binghamton University’s campus farm, a project that aims to raise awareness about our food system to students and faculty. Our farm’s food is grown entirely off-the grid, and all of this local, pesticide and herbicide-free food is served as a part of the meal plan in College In the Woods dining hall.

Spring of 2013 was the farm’s opening season, and I have never worked so hard as I did digging beds, planting crops, and being a true steward to the land. I felt extremely proud of every successful harvest that came out of our farm. I realized that I was doing much more than simply growing food, I was growing food with integrity, which is something we unfortunately do not see often enough in this country, and more specifically in our city.

Here in Binghamton, there are many neighborhoods that are considered “food deserts”, meaning that peopleliving in these food deserts have very limited contact with healthy food due to limited accessibility, affordability, or availability. They are forced to eat unhealthy meals grown and processed hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away. These items tend to be cheaper and are more available in corner marts or fast food restaurants. Many of these high-sugar, high-fat content foods contribute to conditions that cause chronic disease and shorten lives; this disturbing trend can be traced back to the roots of the problem: food created without care. 

            Through various means, the Half a Loaf team is exploring how this might be changed. I had the privilege of learning about our local food system from my mentor Sean Cummings, the garden supervisor for Acres and the manager for Volunteers Improving Neighborhood Environments’ VINES’s urban farm. The Urban Farm is a half-acre farm in a reconstructed urban lot on the North Side of Binghamton. There’s also a market garden on the land, meaning that the food is not only grown there, but also sold for a modest profit and local benefit. The money raised goes back into the land, for further development, payment of employees, or development.

There are many things that set the Binghamton Urban Farm apart: food is not only grown organically and grown in the city where it is sold, it can also be purchased using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Women, Infant, and Children (WIC) benefits. A community member can purchase a certain share of produce throughout the season; prices vary on the amount of produce one wishes to purchase. Produce can be purchased for one person, a couple, or an entire family. This urban farm serves as an incredible example of positive action towards turning food deserts into a colorful, nutritious oases in Binghamton. 

While our urban farm can’t grow enough food to feed every Binghamtonian, imagine what we could do if we started five more urban farms in the city; finally got that grocery store put on the North side, which has gone two decades without one; and think about the potential impact of farmer’s markets in re-devloped and new city parks. If those among us who are passionate for change combine our efforts, we’ll begin to create a different picture for the future of Binghamton; it will be a place bursting with great food and flush with good health. 

For more information about the Binghamton VINES Urban Farm, visit: http://vinesgardens.org/urban-farm/