Austin's Food Security

I live in East Austin, an urban area that is known as "the ghetto" of Austin. Historically it is the segregated area of the city for Blacks and Hispanics to live. The Sustainable Food Center has doc**ented some of the problems facing the East Side community in their publication "Access Denied" which was written in 2008. The main problem with many people's food security is that they become dependent on the government and private organizations that are trying to provide food relief, causing them to remain in this insecure state of being. The reasons they are experiencing food shortages and a lack of security is that there is little supply of supermarkets on the East Side, and transportation to those is difficult. Many residents are reported to rely on expensive convenience stores, which can't get their groceries from wh***sale grocery companies, which don't provide the supply of balanced and healthy food that people need.

The people that live in are born in East Austin generally stay in the neighborhood, sometimes in the same house, as adults. The sense of community has been extremely strong with many neighborhood watch programs and high rate of family occupied houses. That has been the case in the past at least. Currently, a process of gentrification is happening in Austin and many long time residents are being forced out do to raising property taxes and prices of goods. This is happening due to a boom in population caused by local government incentives to develop downtown and an influx of residents from places like California that have jumped on lower costs in Austin. Their willingness to pay more for a loft downtown is changing the quilt of East Austin into a new and hip modern housing development that is loosing its soul.

Solutions that the Sustainable Food Center is implementing are education on growing food and preparing healthy meals through their "Happy Kitchen" (La Cocina Alegre), that houses their cooking cla****, and the "Sprouting Healthy Kids Program". The kids program is a "farm to school and food systems education program" that provides locally grown food to school cafeterias, in class education programs including the farmers that grow the food that the cafeterias serve, and after school programs that get kids involved in gardening. Their Farm Direct program works to supply residents of Austin, especially low-income neighbors, with locally grown and healthy produce. The program "connects hospitals, universities, schools and worksites", provides support to farmers through workshops and help with business planning, created a opportunity for farmers markets to accept food stamps and provide support to the Austin farmers markets. The Grow Local Program is helping to provide resources for people to start, keep up and find community gardens close to them. They are creating the coalition of Austin community gardens that will provide more information on the existing gardens. Through this program they have their "Spread the Harvest" project which helps participants by providing seeds, transplants and compost and the skill sets needed to share the bounty of community or personal gardens with the neighbors and community food pantries.


I think that The Sustainable Food Center is doing exactly this where I live.