Thank you all for being a part of today’s lively conversation.
I work with Extension, CCE in Orange County. My major program is a gleaning program where we (Felicia and Carolyn) move hundreds of thousands of pounds of fresh food from local farms. Extension’s Mission is one of strengthening through education and opportunity. With programs like the Glean Mobile, Snap Ed, Relatives as Parents, Rescued EATS, Master Gardeners, 4-H, Community Resilience, our approach can feel multifaceted. Our food security work involves multiple audiences from all sections of our diverse community, aiming to increase the impact and nudge the entire food system.
Which we’ve spent much of today talking about, nudging our food system. I’d like to take a moment to expand our definition of a charitable food system to include the entire food system. Food enters the charitable system at a very late stage, if at all. By the time it reaches food pantries, at the end of the for profit system, It has a short shelf life or requires more work to make it usable.
We have a culture that values abundance and a financial structure that encourages hoarding. Abundance and hoarding, when applied to food, leads to a lot of waste. Which is very much unnecessary. Instead of the charitable food system existing at a singular point at the end of the for profit food system. Let’s picture the two systems running parallel to each other, with lots of pathways and links, bridges between. Now, with that image of the two running next to each other- let’s take those pathways and twist them… twist them right up! Almost like a dna helix. Meld them in ways that are sensible, efficient, effective and grounded in community. Blur the lines between for profit and charitable, where feeding neighbors is the best business model.
There was a question, a prompt from the organizers of today’s event: If everyone in this room took one action in the next month to support food security, what should it be?
I’d like to posit that we Ask a restaurant, cafe, grocer, farmer, consumer, anyone who participates in the food system- ‘do you work with a local pantry to make better use of our food?’ That’s the action: Let’s all talk about it more, less like it’s about an unfortunate few and more like it’s a regular part of day. Make moving food with neighbors a regular part of your day.
Thank you again. I’m so glad I was invited back as a speaker to this event and I look forward to seeing you in a field.
