urbanite project baltimore observed
Leading the Way In Baltimore, the effort is already underway to increase access to healthy food in food deserts. By Rebecca Messner
Fab farm: Elisa Lane (left) and Maya Kosok at Whitelock Community Farm in Reservoir Hill.
photo by J.M. Giordano
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hen we talk about Urbanite Project 2012: Healthy Food Challenge, there may be a tendency to get overwhelmed by the scope of the problem. Twenty percent of Baltimore City’s land qualifies as a food desert. That means one in four school-age children and one in four African American residents lives in one. Studies show that people living in food deserts are more likely to suffer from diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and stroke. Meanwhile, roughly two-thirds of all the city’s adults and 40 percent of high school students are overweight or obese. But that’s not to say the situation is hopeless. On the contrary, Baltimore is one of the most progressive cities in the country when it comes to tackling the issue of food insecurity. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, along with Boston’s Mayor Thomas Menino, used Baltimore as a model city as when they formed the Food Policy Task Force at the U.S. Conference of Mayors in January. This national task force will try and implement some of the initiatives already in place in Baltimore. Baltimore was one of the first cities to hire a food policy director, Holly Freishtat, who oversees the Baltimore Food Policy Initative (BFPI) and its various projects. It is Freishtat’s full-time job to see that Baltimore gets healthier. In March, the city launched Get Fresh Lexington, the first of a plan to make healthier choices available at the city’s six public markets. Five farmers markets in Baltimore City already accept EBT (food stamps)—in June the Jones Falls Expressway market will do the same. The Virtual Supermarket is an online grocery delivery service that targets food deserts, accepts EBT (food stamps), and delivers groceries for free to designated pickup locations at libraries. It essentially utilizes the same technology as Fresh Direct in New York or Arganica in Baltimore, but for people who can’t afford to pay $20 delivery fees. “We are the only city doing this,” says Laura Fox, co-coordinator of the Virtual Supermarket. “We are the only program that uses online food
ordering and accepts food stamps.” Fox is currently working on the next phase of the program, which will set up branches in senior centers and public housing complexes. For now, the program services three communities and has taken food to more than two hundred people—not many, Fox admits, when compared to Baltimore City as a whole. A number of factors contribute to this small amount— for now, services are so localized that not many people outside the communities that are already taking part in the program realize it’s there. They’re also restricted by the hours that the libraries are open. “The Enoch Pratt libraries are amazing— they are great locations, safe locations,” says Fox. “But we found that, for some people, the library is a little too far from their home. And so we’re trying to figure out how to bring this closer to where people live.” Fox also says there’s a psychological barrier to consider. More than a lack of Internet access, it’s the unfamiliarity of letting someone else pick which apples to bring home that keeps people away. “Some people like to touch their food. They say they don’t want to order their food online,” Fox says. Still, she remains optimistic. “I think it works because we’re bringing food directly to communities,” Fox says. “It’s easy. Because the technology is here. People are getting more comfortable using it.” Beyond government, there are people on the ground working to make Baltimore healthier. Maya Kosok is an Open Society Institute-Baltimore fellow who founded Farm Alliance in Baltimore City (FAB City). FAB City aims to form an
established network of urban farms, so existing and future farms can benefit from pooled resources and shared knowledge. “Right now, you have to be half crazy and have some sort of financial safety net to start an urban farm,” Kosok says. The aim of FAB City, she says, is to increase the viability of urban farming, thereby increasing the city’s access to urban-gown food. Although it’s a little blurry where community garden ends and farms start, Kosok estimates there are ten to twelve operational urban farms in Baltimore. She hopes that at least eight of those will be formal members of the alliance this summer. “An urban farm, in my mind, is not going to in and of itself solve the problem of food deserts, but it’s one piece of the puzzle,” she says. “A lot of these farms are running de-facto afterschool programs. This kid at a farm stand I visited recently was pushing the carrots really hard, because he grew them, saying ‘They’re so good!’ Would he be doing that at the grocery store? Probably not.” Urban farming, Kosok says, is tough work, no matter where your farm is in the city. “Most of the urban farms are inherently in low-income neighborhoods,” she says, “because that’s where the land is.” Regardless of location, she says the effort is most effective when it starts within the community. “It’s definitely been shown time and again that the stronger the relationship with your neighbors, the stronger your farm is going to be.” Entries to Urbanite Project 2012: Healthy Food Challenge are due May 31. For more information, go to www.urbaniteproject.com. Urbanite #95 may 2012 29