The United States has traditionally been known as a land of plenty, but in recent years, there's been a growing problem of need. Food deserts are defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as areas where people cannot access affordable and nutritious food.
They are usually found in impoverished areas that lack grocery stores, farmers markets, and other... healthy food providers. Across Virginia, from Hampton to Richmond, Petersburg to Lynchburg, to Wise County and all points in between, approximately 17.8% of the population lives in a food desert.
We need more grocery stores in these neighborhoods. If nothing else, for our kids. We're getting older, we're not getting any younger, but we don't want that to fall on them that has fell on us. Kim Douglas has spent most of her 55 years living in Hampton, and she's seen a lot of change in that time.
This place here used to be Safeway. Just come over here and get fresh meats and vegetables. The neighborhood her grandchildren see every day is not the same one she remembers.
It used to be where we had grocery stores right around the area. We could just walk out, not even three blocks, and get to a grocery store. This used to be Rich's Grocery Store.
It's not here anymore. Now there's a convenience store on the corner where we used to have our supermarket. That convenience means a disappointing variety of foods packed with preservatives and empty calories with very few fresh produce options.
It also means a steep price tag. You know, you go to the convenience stores, the prices are so high. If you want to buy fresh fruit or fresh vegetables, they sell like the salads and whatnot. You're talking about $4 when you can make a salad for like maybe a buck or two yourself with the fresh produce you have. But now, we don't have that.
Kim has struggled with high blood pressure and arthritis for years. That means her wallet and her body can't afford to live on what she finds in her neighborhood. So she has to carefully plan shopping trips in search of nutritious, affordable food for her family.
It's frustrating for one because I have to spend money to catch the bus to get to there when I could just walk. It's just frustrating just having to figure out how to get to the store sometimes. Over the years, the neighborhood has lost a number of good grocery stores and even a neighborhood produce stand. They took the vegetable stand away from us in this neighborhood after they've already taken away our grocery stores. Looking down her streets today, Kim is discouraged.
You've got cigarettes, you've got alcohol. You have an ABC store in every corner. You have cigarettes in every store.
You have junk food just sitting there saying, buy me, buy me, you know? And the first thing you want to do is just grab it. Kim worries about neighbors who are content to rely on whatever stores are nearby, especially if they're doing so with low-income... and meager benefits. If you're going to these convenience stores every day, trying to get a banana or apple or orange or salad or whatever, I'm just saying, that's coming away from your household.
Even though people don't think about it. So yeah, I get food, yeah, that's fine. But guess what?
The food stamps are gonna spend just like money. And once you run out of money, what's left? What's left is certainly not good health. Poor nutrition is linked to obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes. It's also associated with poor academic performance and behavior issues in children.
All of these further strain households that are already facing financial struggles. Does anybody really care? Do they?
We're here suffering. All we ask is that you listen to us. I think that all of us can take some responsibility for not being as sensitive to the needs of those who are living in our various communities. Delegate Dolores McQuinn represents the 70th district and lives in Richmond.
I wonder why they have the same name. Well, I guess because they pulled it out of 577. She became aware of food insecurity while serving on the city council, representing a particularly hard-hit district. I was really, I guess, just a little bit taken back when there were individuals that would come and knock on my door, actually, asking for food.
And particularly young people, young families who didn't have. Yes. you know, was just struggling from day to day. When children would come and just, you know, say, Ms. McQuinn, do you have anything for me to eat? We don't have any food.
And that has always, always sort of stuck with me. That's the one you voted for, not that. I didn't sign these, though.
After her election to the General Assembly, Delegate McQuinn presented House bills in 2012 and 2013, requesting that the Commonwealth explore the issue and consider solutions. What was just so interesting to me is not only, you know, the limited knowledge that I brought to the table, but even greater was the limited knowledge that my colleagues had about food deserts. The lack of awareness meant the bill did not get far in 2012, but it got attention from organizations and leaders who reached out to Delegate McQuinn wanting to help raise awareness and be a part of the solution.
She resubmitted the bill in 2013. And out of that grew a greater number of people and organizations that were interested, as well as my colleagues who then became a little bit more sensitive to the particular issue. This time around, it was important to educate her fellow delegates on the issue so that they all had an equal understanding of it, even if they hadn't. witnessed it firsthand. How do we address this issue?
And how do, more than that, how do we bring a level of awareness to the community overall, to the Commonwealth overall, about food desert and food insecurity so that all of us are on the same page? We were asked, as leading institutions in Virginia, to do a study to say, is this really a problem? And should we really take a look at this? And we have found, through a study that we led, that this is an issue that impacts Virginia.
Dr. Jewel Hairston, Dean of the College of Agriculture at Virginia State University, along with her counterpart from Virginia Tech, Dean Alan Grant, co-chaired a comprehensive study that outlined the prevalence and effects of food deserts across the Commonwealth. She led, actually, the task force, just making sure that we're moving in the direction to bring awareness to the public about it. As well as the recommendation that would come forth that we do something about it.
More than 1.4 million people in the state of Virginia live in food deserts, and this issue impacts almost every area across the state of Virginia. When people don't have access to fresh and healthy food and food that they can afford, they're going to buy food where they can get it, and they're going to buy food that they can afford. Typically, that's going to be unhealthy food.
Ultimately, if you continue to eat cheap and unhealthy food, it's going to lead to poor health, it's going to lead to obesity, it's going to lead to a lot of the diseases such as high blood pressure and others. So that's why this is such an important issue. Dr. Hairston grew up in Petersburg, which has been identified as one of the most severe food deserts in the Commonwealth.
And she recalls that even then... It wasn't an ideal setting for families who made good nutrition a priority. We were miles from a grocery store, but we were very close to a corner store that sold lots of candy and lots of other things.
They didn't sell fresh fruits and vegetables, but that's just the way we lived. We were fortunate enough to have transportation, but many around us didn't have transportation, so their only choice was to buy their food from what was close by. Those options lead to poor health. which leads to diminished opportunities in school and work.
It's a vicious cycle, Hairston says, because food deserts are concentrated where financial... Resources are already lacking. The income is certainly a factor because when you take people's money away, you take their ability to move around, you take their ability to purchase. Also, if a business is going to come in, they're all about making money. They are not going to set up a high-end grocery store in an area where people can't afford the food that they want to sell.
A complex problem will surely not have an easy solution, Dr. Harrison says. But without a serious concerted effort to intervene, the government will have to do something. The decline will continue even further. If we don't pay attention to this issue now, it's only going to get worse. The economic downturn that began in 2008 has magnified what was already a serious problem.
Even families without a history of poverty or low income have come to find themselves with seriously diminished food budgets. And unfortunately, that typically leads to selecting poor quality food. For example, you can get four boxes of macaroni and cheese for a dollar, whereas when someone that is on a limited income walks into a grocery store, they're typically not going to stop in the produce section.
Leslie Van Horn is executive director of the Federation of Virginia Food Banks, which serves hungry citizens across Virginia through food pantries, soup kitchens, and programs targeted specifically to school children and senior citizens. And I would say the biggest group of people who we provide assistance to are the working poor, people who lost their jobs and then took another job. Possibly took a pretty big pay cut in order to have a job and are really having a tough time making ends meet. In her position, Van Horn has a panoramic view of the problem across the entire Commonwealth and has seen its rapid growth in recent years. Last year, the food banks in Virginia actually distributed over 142 million pounds of food and grocery products.
When I first started this job nine years ago, that figure was at 45 million. So as you can see, the need continues to grow. Unfortunately, children are often the hardest hit.
Across the country, 23.5 million people live in food deserts. More than 6 million of these are children. In Virginia, 16.5% of children are considered food insecure. Meaning that they cannot be sure where their next meal will come from. You can't get things right until you admit what has gone wrong.
For me as a pastor, it gives me more gray hair. It keeps me up at night. The thought, the idea that children are going to bed hungry. You don't have to stay where you are. and the ramifications of that.
Nobody can keep you there unless you give that person permission. Getting to bed hungry and then waking up the next day and then trying to function in school, trying to function, learning and preparing themselves. You're already behind the eight ball.
You're already at disadvantage. The Reverend Dr. Michael Sanders is the pastor of Mount Olive Baptist Church on Richmond's South Side. Welcome back, brother.
Each week, His church hosts a food pantry distributing healthy food to as many as 250 people who stand in line for 30 minutes or more to get it. Okay, you got your bag for them? Okay. If we help them in a way that we can be giving them good nutritious meals, then they've got a chance to prepare themselves for a brighter future. Thank you, Lord.
Thank you, Lord. That's right. Mount Olive's leaders believe the food pantry is essential to their mission, not only because of their Christian faith, but also because their neighborhood is one of the clearest examples of a food desert. In our community, Jeff Davis, highway and you just stroll down Jeff Davis and you see the liquor stores, you see the convenience stores, you see those stores and institutions that provide things that are not of that not the healthiest. We're located in the highest food desert in Richmond.
More children and families go to bed hungry than any other area in Richmond. There has to be a resolve to conquer this and wipe it out, and I think that we can, but we have to have the will to do it, and I'm not sure that will is there. No fresh produce at our church for three miles. No fresh produce for another two miles.
No fresh produce, three miles. No fresh produce, another three miles. This is my community, a food desert.
No fresh produce whatsoever. And so our church now is in this community, in this food desert, with this reality. And so what do we do about it?
David Olds volunteers his time for the food pantry, delivering and distributing truckloads of food each week. Still, he says, there's sometimes difficulty keeping up with the tremendous need. There are times that we make two trips in one day to get enough to supply the people that we have.
So how many more of them do you want me to do? Our hearts go out for those folks. These people here are really hurting, and they are hurting bad. And not only are they hurting, they are hungry. While it feels good to know that he's doing his part to help, he worries that others who have the power to help, in small ways and large, might be turning their backs on the issue.
We're not here if we're out forever. You never know when they're going to happen that can happen to us. So remember that while they are going to be hungry and you're going to be with leftovers and thrown away, think on those people that don't have anything. And maybe that helped them just a little bit.
Ironically, similar problems exist in the western, more rural part of the state. Lynchburg is a city surrounded by farmland, but that agricultural bounty is not always reflected in its citizens. Well, I'd say we're making a dent in a very large problem. What we do is important, but we're not reaching it. anywhere near the population affected.
John Matheson is president of the board of directors at Lynchburg Grows, an urban farm that works to make fresh produce more accessible through distribution and... and education efforts. So that's arugula.
Yeah, that's arugula over there. Most children that come here cannot identify the vegetables that they're looking at. When they see it, if they see it, it's processed. So a tomato to them is what's pizza sauce. That's a tomato.
That lack of familiarity with real food is hard to imagine for most people. But with a lack of transportation, many families have had to rely on convenient stores. and fast food for their children's entire lives. Access to healthy food is a real issue, particularly in the old part of the city, the downtown areas. There are no grocery stores.
The last grocery store in the general area closed last year. Because the problem is so localized to particular areas, many people are surprised to learn that this problem exists in Lynchburg. There's an inherent wealth in the area.
Lynchburg is well off, but on the other hand, there's another side to Lynchburg that most people never drive through, never get in touch with. That's the side we see on the van. and it's eye opening that there's that much need. Can I get it thirsty?
Yes, very much. And the need is not always among chronically poor citizens. As in Richmond and other parts of the state, many of the people being held are families whose budgets have only recently taken a hit. You say they have what now?
They're two for a dollar. A missed paycheck or a broken-down car can very quickly lead to a reliance on whatever is within walking distance. These people are not there for a handout. You know, they're just there because they want the fresh produce.
And it really breaks your heart when they can't afford it that week. We need to extend that. Derek Cunningham and Huey Trimble are farm managers at Lynchburg Grows. They've become acutely aware of the problem and its roots. Most of the residents that had access to a local grocery store now have to travel 30 minutes, 20 to 30 minutes away on a bus, so carrying 6 to 12 different things.
From bags of groceries on the bus, it gets a little bit more difficult. Food has been moved away from this right, an access right, to something that's profitable. And so the lack of accessible grocery stores or what have you is because it's not seen as profitable to feed these people. Nicole Williams is a college student who volunteers at Lynchburg Grows, making deliveries of produce to the communities where it is most sorely needed.
She says the experience is a great experience. has made her think about what she takes for granted. Food to us today, like if we can afford it, it's just food. It's something like, oh, it's food. But to them, because it's not, it's such a great of a need to even eat, that it's like, it's just very grateful, and it just shows like how the simplest acts can be good.
So it just, I mean, it's just a credible feeling. Like I said, you have to see it. Lynchburg resident Charlotte Smith grew up planting, harvesting, and canning a variety of fruits and vegetables, but her declining health has made those days a distant memory and her shopping choices are limited. I think it's a horrible situation for people like me because I could ride my wheelchair into a grocery store if it was one here close. And right now it's not.
A supermarket moved out of the neighborhood years ago, leaving an empty building behind. Over time, convenience stores began moving in on the surrounding streets. I don't like it. They should at least have one grocery store in this area that is a grocery store, not a junk food store, where guys can go down and buy beer and cigarettes, candy. a grocery store, not a damn junk store.
You want two more? You want bundles? Twice a week, a van from Lynchburg Grows comes to Charlotte's neighborhood to distribute fresh fruits and and vegetables. Would you like anything else?
I don't think so. Are you sure? Yeah. It makes me feel better knowing I can get some fresh vegetables. I have to watch the clock.
My aide leaves early today. I don't have to kill myself for them. And I mean it's disgraceful that we can't have what other people have. Because I live on Social Security and you know that ain't much.
Some people that can barely hold the grocery bag because they're shaking half the time when they're picking it up. These are elderly people that need help just trying to get decent food. It's hard especially when you have seen for yourself how hard it is to find food, I mean healthy food, have access to healthy food because of the price and the availability of it. It doesn't look good. It's eye-opening to come out on the van and meet the folks we're helping and realize that this is a broad spectrum of folks and there's a tremendous need.
Folks like you come out here and help us grow food. We have school groups, corporate groups, families from the neighborhoods we work in that all come out here. We talk about food and why it's important to get access to healthy food and how it's hard to get access to healthy food in lots of parts of the city of Richmond.
Back in Richmond, several organizations are working to meet the need in a similar way. Shalom Farms grows a variety of organic fruits and vegetables and works to support the community. to increase the availability of fresh food to areas that lack a good supply. For us it's really important to find things that the folks that we work with and the communities that we work with really like.
And so the majority of what we grow are things that we've learned from working with folks are most popular. So our most popular crops are tomatoes, sweet potatoes, collards, cabbage. Dominic Barrett, the farm's executive director, has a passion for making sure that people who want good food are able to get it. For us, good food is food that's good for our bodies, good for the environment.
and good for our communities, meaning can we all afford it, can we all access it, is it food that we like, can we share that food. So we'll grow a small amount of unique varieties of fruits and vegetables so folks have a chance to be exposed to them and if we find out, hey, our friend's in Creighton Court or our friend's By donating its harvest through food banks and its own outreach programs, the farm's contribution to hungry Richmond families has reached staggering proportions. This year we'll grow about 85,000 or 90,000 pounds of fresh, local, sustainable food.
get to the areas of Richmond where it's hardest to find that good food. There's a level less than 100,000 items in like an average supermarket. So that's a lot of decisions to make, right?
We're not talking about there's 100,000 cans. We mean there's 100,000 different products that we're going to have to choose from. Farm manager Steve Miles says that Shalom Farms could not complete their mission without plenty of generous people to offer helping hands. It's a volunteer business.
based farm. I mean we have three full-time staff and three interns. Without the volunteers, you know, none of this would get done. We couldn't possibly, you know, harvest 85,000 pounds of produce or whatever we plan on harvesting without the volunteer help.
So we're planting tomatoes or planting cucumbers. We can plant our little transplant, our seedling, right where that slit is. But operating on a small budget to help people in need doesn't mean that the quality is diminished in any way. The produce that, you know, someone that lives in a food desert, in urban Richmond, the produce that they get from Shalom Farms is going to be as good as you would find in the higher end grocery stores in Richmond.
In addition to farm stands run by area youth, one creative way Shalom Farms has made good food available to the people who need it is a partnership with Bon Secours Health System called the Prescription Produce. plan. Our goal is to treat fresh fruits and vegetables as medicine and writing prescriptions for folks in these communities where we're trying to close this gap. Each week folks pick up their prescription. It's equal to one serving per person per day for the whole week for the household.
And there's some really wild looking beans, or pea pods up there with the purple flowers. Yes. Tricycle Gardens operates an urban farm in Richmond.
Director Sally Schwitters said its location underscores the irony of food deserts, where good, healthy food is often so close, but so far away. My feeling is that everyone should have access to good quality healthy food. Particularly when we're seeing that food deserts are identified just three miles from our farm. Three miles.
And in the surrounding neighborhood, you can see what remains when the supermarkets people once relied on move to suburban areas and leave them with few options. We have a location just here in our neighborhood that... was a grocery store, it's now a dialysis center and it tells the story.
This is what happens when food access moves out, lack of health moves in. Like Shalom Farms, Tricycle Gardens relies heavily on volunteers, but farm manager Dennis Williams says they have a small staff for management of everything from crop rotation to greenhouse building. They also manage the farm stand which It's a way for us to get produce out into the Richmond community by selling it to Richmond community members.
Well, Zeke was saying that during this time of year there's less, there's not as many flowers out naturally. Farm assistant Emily Reynolds says there are plenty of opportunities for people who want to help with the chores involved in feeding Richmond's hungry citizens. We hold workshops, volunteer days.
And we're always welcoming like any any member of the community to come Help us out on those days the dark beige color on the map are low-income census tract areas That also are not within one mile of a grocery store And then all through its healthy corner store initiative Tricycle gardens has found a way to help neighborhood convenience stores offer more than just chips and soda One of the solutions to those problems is to begin to collaborate with those corner stores and say, you know, I'm not going to take your apples away, I mean your candy bars or your chips, but why don't we create a space in this store to make sure that there are fresh vegetables. and fresh fruits and those things that are healthier for an individual. Claire Sadegzade delivers an assortment of healthy produce to the stores, along with help on all the details of selling it.
I'm checking in with court store owners about produce sales, feedback from their customers, answering questions, providing opportunities to kind of increase marketing. Sales of the produce. How are things going?
Good. Good? Good.
Good. Okay. It also means sweetening the deal for consumers by offering recipes and even free samples of the produce. A lot of the produce we grow Families might not be as familiar with or may not have cooked with them before or may just not even know if they like them and so we like to provide no-risk opportunities for families to try produce before they invest their limited dollars into the foods that we grow.
I don't think a lot of people realize how beautiful okra flowers are. They don't and they're amazed at what it is. Schwitters says that efforts to educate people about produce and encourage a demand for it are especially important for Richmond's youngest residents. You know, I think about a small child who goes to school and engages in a program on nutrition education and hears that they're supposed to eat five fruits and vegetables every day.
And then they go home and they pass a form store and they walk into it and there's candy, there's cigarettes, there's potato chips, and lots of soda pop. But there's nothing. That their teachers have told them that they should be putting in their bodies. And it's the same thing for their mother, or grandmother, or auntie, or dad.
Whoever's preparing their food for them, they too don't have access to their help. And so by changing this, it's changing the culture and it's changing the morale of our community members by saying, We care about you. And you're going to get the best quality food that can be grown in our community. And if you see any of the old pods, we save the seeds. So we can plant again.
Renew Richmond has several sites in the Richmond area, including some that are affiliated with churches and schools. That tomato on the ground, it's going to rot. What we're going to do as well, you see the dead leaves and everything.
They attract. Jerusalem Connection is its largest site, producing more than 5,000 pounds of food in a season. We're conserving energy. We're conserving, making sure that we're not wasting.
John Lewis, director of Renew Richmond, believes that even people who can access good food have gotten too detached from its source. We want everyone from communities, people from all walks of life, to know how to grow their food and know where their food is coming from. Unfortunately, Lewis says too many families are getting their food from convenience stores and fast food restaurants.
Richmond is one of the largest... Cities or largest concentration of food deserts, we have food deserts in East End, South Side, North Side, Richmond, where individuals that are either at or below the poverty line are eating garbage, just plain to say. And when the effort to stock up on healthy food requires time and transportation that people simply don't have, that garbage remains the only option. It's the individuals who suffer, but it's more the children who suffer because they eat whatever is available to them. Laniece Rouse volunteers at the garden regularly.
She says it's important to her that her children eat good, healthy food and that they understand where it comes from. comes from. Dig a hole right there so we can plant some seeds, all right?
You can use your hand. Well I bring my children here and we come and to see something grow from a seed into a vegetable then we can take that vegetable home have it for dinner. I got those burnt leaves on the bottom, take those off for me.
Most people that are involved with community gardens are really glad that people get a chance to taste a fresh vegetable because it changes them right overnight. We're going to pick the rest of the peppers over here. Lewis says it's hard to make people understand the problem or care about solving it when they're not exposed to the obvious signs of it every day. This is not only a local problem.
This is a global problem. This is an epidemic. And everyone needs to recognize that it is a threat to human health and development.
The frustrating irony is that so much of the solution is in getting back to what once came so naturally to us all. We When we get more steaks in a few minutes, we're going to do like a row over there. We're getting away from the agrarian society, we're getting away from farming and even knowing where our food comes from.
So food in itself, growing food is a revolutionary idea, but it's not a new one. Operating on a much larger scale is Feed More, which operates in a massive facility in Richmond to collect, prepare, and distribute fresh food through a variety of programs. But CEO Douglas Pick points out that the program is not just about feeding the poor. out that they don't do it alone.
We're through some good work. We have some great partnerships with a number of agencies who are in those food deserts. So we partner with them and they find the citizens and the clients.
Many of those are churches. 80 to 90% of those are churches, so they have food pantries, which many people are familiar with. And they are able to come here and get food, obviously, free or next to nothing, which allows them to serve a lot of people and makes their contributions from their own parishioners go a lot further.
But Feedmore is more than just a clearinghouse for produce and other kitchen staples. They also work to prepare healthy meals for a variety of clients. Feed More is a very unique organization.
We're the only program in the country that has a Meals on Wheels, a food bank, and a community kitchen all in one. Feed More has a number of programs that concentrate on bringing food directly to people and places where it's most sorely needed. We have our kids cafe and summer feeding programs that goes into underserved areas and serves over 2,000 meals a day to these children. We have a mobile pantry program which is designed to serve children and children of all ages.
designed to go into food desert areas and serve anywhere from 100 to 275 families with healthy nutritious products including fresh fruits and vegetables. So we got small bags going on. We got small bags being assembled over here in this area.
We need a bag. Amory James is the food production manager for Feedmore. I used to just do a perimeter walk. He says that regardless of their consumer's ability to pay, quality is a high priority in Feedmore's work. We treat this establishment just like a restaurant.
We got our own. pineapple, macaroni crisp that we're working on there. If there is anything questionable that we wouldn't serve to our families, we don't serve it to our clients.
Father, where you at? We try to serve what we feel we would pay for ourselves. Because it serves such a large number of people throughout the Commonwealth, it has received quite a bit of attention from leaders who want to tackle the problem of hunger and food insecurity. in Virginia.
Mrs. McAuliffe has been a tremendous supporter, an advocate for healthy eating, for produce, for equitable access to the right foods. She has a very big spot in her heart for children and making sure those kids get a fighting chance to be productive citizens. On a recent tour of Feedmore's facilities, Mrs. McAuliffe saw firsthand the shift in sheer volume of food it takes to feed Virginians in need.
The governor and I are very concerned about the fact that in Virginia there are over 300,000 food insecure Virginia children. It's just not a place that we want to be as a commonwealth. She notes the irony of having so much hunger and poor nutrition in a place like Virginia, which is known for an abundance of wealth and healthy crops.
It's an enigma in many ways because agriculture is our number one economic industry here, and food grows all around us, and yet our rural communities and so many of our urban communities, many of them suffer from food deserts. Across the state, these efforts to alleviate the problem have had some success. Community gardens, food banks, corner store initiatives, church and school outreach have all had a part in increasing access to healthy food. But with so many people and organizations working on the problem, why does it persist? And there's no one solution to it.
Every... Every county, every city, every area has something that they can do that's going to bring better access to them, but it's not going to be a one-stop solution for the entire state of Virginia. So you really want to look at the assets that are in every community. In a community like Virginia State University, Already known for its innovation in cultivating and marketing healthy foods, that has meant exploring a completely different kind of solution.
Dr. Marcus Comer was able to get a grant from USDA to do research to determine how we can grow foods in an urban environment, and in this case, grow food inside of a building. So to be able to research how you could grow that food in a building, imagine what that can do in terms of food access in a city like Petersburg, Virginia. Dr. Comer says the concept of growing food indoors is not new, but the power required to run grow lights has made it a costly endeavor in the past.
Now, with lower energy prices and the improvement of solar energy technology, it's becoming much more cost effective. So by doing that, we will be able to grow a whole room full of food year-round and provide fresh vegetables. So with that, what we grow...
We're going to take it and cart it up on mobile units, kind of like the old ice cream man. And take the food to the neighborhood. Deron Chavis is the Indoor Urban Farms Director. He's excited about the project because with the addition of an aquaculture component, it's completely self-contained and self-sustaining. The space generates its own power.
Through solar energy. The fertilizers for the fruits and vegetables come from the waste from the fish. And not only will folks be able to eat the greens and the vegetables, they'll also be able to eat the fish. Chavis says the ability to educate citizens about the food they're eating and how they can grow it themselves is essential to the indoor farm. It's important for any solution around food deserts to not be paternalistic.
In the sense of you just come in and you drop food off and then you're gone. Because that's not sustainable. Empowering people is the farm's ultimate goal.
Not only to grow food for themselves, but also to market that healthy produce to others in the community. That addresses the issue, that cuts to the core of it, because one, you have a community that has high unemployment, high rates of poverty, and what you've created is a social enterprise, a business that addresses both. the social problem while making money simultaneously. Throughout the Commonwealth, we see citizens and organizations working to solve the problem, educating families so their demand for fresh, healthy food is greater.
The most popular crops are tomatoes, sweet potatoes, collards, cabbage. Improving access so that fresh produce is at least as easy to bring home as chips or cigarettes. 50 cents change.
And finding creative ways to connect people to the healthy food they need. But then we also know it is about advocacy, it is about public policy, it's about building political systems, social structures that build equity, that create unique communities and systems where people have the access to reach. resources.
I mean, Food Access and Hunger is as much about urban planning and public policy as it is about sustainable agriculture, at least in my opinion. As a pastor and as a person, it's disturbing. The thought that not only in the city of Richmond, but in this country that we have children and families in 2014 going to bed hungry is my... Blowing thought and make an indictment against us as a society.
It's poverty issues and it's grocery stores seeing that they're not getting the return and being in low-income communities. and so they've moved out. I really believe that big businesses don't care anymore about these smaller neighborhoods. The need is far beyond what most people see. It can't be seen as a small project.
It needs to be seen as an everyone problem. You know, you might go to a more affluent neighborhood, and you might have four or five grocery stores within, you know, half a mile of each other. But you can go into a poor neighborhood, and there's no grocery stores for over a mile.
Politicians don't do shit for us. They think about it for themselves. They don't worry about people like us.
And they don't. I don't think they ever have. We have the capacity in the state of Virginia to do something about this particular issue. To make sure that, you know, the right stores are there, that the quality and the quantity is made available in communities.
Again, it is a matter of just collaborating. It's a matter of bringing people to the table and then making them aware there's a problem here, this is the solution. I don't like it.
They should at least have one grocery store in this area that is a grocery store, not a junk food store, where guys can go down and buy beer and cigarettes, candy. We need a grocery store, not a damn junk store. I really believe that big businesses don't care anymore about these smaller neighborhoods.
Well, Lynchburg has a 24.5% poverty rate. So... We have a significant number of people who are underserved when it comes to food. It's certainly a problem here in Virginia and even more so here in Richmond and in the Richmond region. Our city has been rated as the worst food desert in the country.
city our size. And I mean it's disgraceful that we can't have what other people have. If a business is going to come in they're all about making money.
They are not going to set up a high-end grocery store in an area where people can't afford the food that they want to sell.