FOOD JUSTICE
Higher Ed Hits Higher Purpose Southern Arizona’s institutions of higher education must collaborate with people living in so-called ‘ food deserts’ to form long-term solutions to food access. By Gary Paul Nabhan
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T ucson any which way—north to south, east to west—and it’s likely that you’ll enter at least two and perhaps several “food deserts,” during your journey. These are barrios, low-income neighborhoods, or housing developments that have fallen on hard times, where access to healthy, affordable, and culturally appropriate foods is limited for low-income families without working vehicles or thick wallets. Appearances aside, in these “food deserts” residents are not passive victims of a crippled economy and its broken food system; they are often seeking collaboration with a variety of Arizona’s educational institutions, nonprofits, agencies, and socially conscious businesses to alleviate poverty, traumatic eating disorders, and health issues facing their families and neighbors. Recently, a work group has emerged among faculty and students at Pima Community College, Prescott College’s Tucson campus, and the University of Arizona to collaborate with these low-income communities for more lasting food solutions. Anita Fernandez, the director of Prescott College Tucson, is optimistic that the emerging tri-institutional collaboration can be in greater service to pressing community needs. “Between all of us, I think we have a really strong set of resources not just for looking at food justice, but for taking some tangible actions together with communities and individuals at risk,” she said. Across town at the Pima Community College campus, Jodylee Estrada Duek talks to her predominantly Mexican- and Native-American-students about sustainable foodways in both r i ve across
nutrition and environmental studies courses. “In both my classes and in informal settings, I spend time with students in the garden we manage so that they know that they have the capacity to grow nutritious food in this climate,” she said. “Everyone goes home with some fresh food, as well as new skills and ideas.” At the University of Arizona, Tucson’s oldest institution of higher education, a new, interdisciplinary food systems network of faculty, staff, and students has emerged under the leadership of Doug Taren, the associate dean for Academic Affairs at the Zuckerman College of Public Health. As a board member of the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona, Taren is imagining a program that not only would have strong links to community nonprofits and grassroots alliances in the Tucson area but also would engage students through in-service learning in fostering food solutions. Rafael de Grenade, a post-doctoral research associate who is helping to facilitate the program, said that she hopes the network will function “as a way to facilitate collaboration and stimulate research related to food justice, applied nutrition, and integrated food systems. Our goal is to transmit new knowledge, improve practices and policies that conserve water, and strengthen our local food system to decrease food insecurity throughout the southern Arizona foodshed.” These initiatives have emerged none too soon, since both poverty and food insecurity are plaguing at least a third of all urban and rural residents in southern Arizona at this time. Select indi-
A goal to transmit new knowledge, improve practices and policies that conserve water, and strengthen the local food system to decrease food insecurity throughout the Baja Arizona foodshed.
20 M arch - April 2014