The Problem
Our community directly borders a very low-income community with a high need for social services. The food pantry in our community is heavily used by the bordering community, and low-income families in our community. The food pantry has reported a large increase in demand. The problem is that most of their donations consist of low quality, highly processed food. We believe that providing low quality food to address the problem of food insecurity only makes the dual problems of food inequality and environmental sustainability worse. Because families in need are given highly processed foods, they do not experience food equality with others who are able to benefit from organic, pesticide-free foods. These highly processed foods also come from many companies that are part of the industrial food system and not from local producers. Buying more organic foods from local producers helps minimize environmental damage. Our campaign will contribute organic and locally produced foods to the food pantry, with the aim of shifting the balance away from the highly processed foods, to help with the intersecting problems of food insecurity and food equality, and environmental sustainability.
