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Let's End Hunger!

© Bob Ewing

The way to end hunger is to end poverty. I am a member of the Thunder Bay Economic Justice Coalition. This year we are holding our first ever community forum: Lets Talk Food. We decided to put the focus on food because we all eat or at least we all need and want to do so.

I will be delivering two workshops at this forum. One, "Cooperatives and other alternative food sources," will draw on the subject matter of this article to form the workshop's substance. The other, "The Economics of Food" is a look at food as a commodity, rather than a human right, a subject that I have explored here previously. Much of what follows you will have read in earlier articles here at the Suite. However, I wanted to give the reader a context from which to consider the articles that will follow over the next few weeks as I explore the relationship between the micro (individual,community) and macro (national, global) food systems. I favour solutions over complaints but an analysis is essential to give the topic its proper setting.

I believe that there is much truth in the statement that the way to end hunger is to end poverty, but the simplicity of the words belie the complexity of the path. I feel that it is easier to approach this from a micro level (individual and community) than from a macro (society or global) level.

Our perception of food and how it makes its way to our table gives us a place to begin understanding how we can reduce hunger and eliminate poverty. You see this is a situation that can be solved by increasing our awareness of the role plants play in our economy and how we can work with plants to eliminate hunger and poverty at the same time. The way this begins is by changing our attitude towards food as the first step; rather than seeing it as a commodity that we purchase at the grocery store, we need to understand where food comes from and how it gets to the table. This opens our eyes to other possibilities from growing our own food to forming food buying clubs and other food-based cooperatives.

This week we'll look at methods other than buying food from the grocery store that enable us to feed ourselves and create a cash flow. Perhaps the best way to get the community involved in hunger issues is to run a Grow a Row campaign. People can donate the surplus they grow or plan to grow to a local food bank or other food project. Programs such as The Good Food Box can provide the members of the program with fresh food and vegetables throughout the growing season for a relatively low price while providing a local farmer or farmers with a market. The food box is either delivered to the member or picked up at a central location. The members and farmers may even meet. This personalizes the operation and encourages the buy local concept.

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