Framing Food Access: Do Community Gardens Inadvertently Reproduce Inequality?

2020 ◽  
pp. 109019812095061
Author(s):  
Katie L. Butterfield ◽  
A. Susana Ramírez
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Food Access ◽  
Community Gardens ◽  
Alternative Food ◽  
Farmers Markets ◽  
Community Garden ◽  
Community Orientation ◽  
Food Programs ◽  
Greater Good ◽  
Upper Middle Class

Background Alternative food programs have been proposed as solutions to food insecurity and diet-related health issues. However, some of the most popular programs—farmers markets and community-supported agriculture—overwhelmingly serve White and upper-middle-class individuals, exacerbating food security and health disparities. One explanation for the mismatch is the way in which alternative food programs are framed: Language used to encourage participation may reflect priorities of upper-middle-class and White populations who create and run these programs while lacking resonance with food-insecure populations. This literature, however, lacks consideration of how lower-cost, more participatory programs—community gardens—are framed. We therefore explore the framing of community gardens through a quantitative content analysis of the descriptions, missions, and goals provided by community garden managers across Minnesota ( N = 411). Results Six frames were consistently present in the community garden statements: greater good, community orientation, healthy food access, food donation, self-empowerment, and symbolic food labels. Greater good and community orientation were significantly more likely to be used than any other frames. Conclusions Taken together, our findings suggest that community gardens may be welcoming toward a diversity of participants but still have room to improve the inclusivity of their frames. The common use of a community orientation suggests the unique ability of community gardens among alternative food programs to benefit Black, Latino, and working-class populations. However, the most common frame observed was “greater good,” suggesting one mechanism through which community gardens, like other types of alternative food programs, may be reproducing inequality through alienation of food-insecure populations.

Indigenous Food Systems: Battling Whiteness through Decolonization

1969 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katie King
Keyword(s):  
Food Systems ◽  
Community Gardens ◽  
The United States ◽  
Alternative Food ◽  
Farmers Markets ◽  
Alternative Food Networks ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Alternative Food Systems ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The North

Shaw (2006) argues that “the rubrics of difference against which Whiteness is commonly juxtaposed rarely includes Indigeneity, or the experiences of Indigenous peoples regardless of the North American domination of the field, and its settler context” (853). Viewing Canada and the United States as post-colonial nations, this paper seeks to broaden understandings of Indigenous food production, distribution, and consumption practices and/or projects and how they work to resist colonial histories of oppression. hooks (1992) defines decolonization as “a process of cultural and historical liberation; an act of confrontation with a dominant system of thought” (1). Using the concept of “Whiteness”, this research attempts to prove how small-scale Indigenous food systems located in North America decolonize dominant ways of seeing alternative food systems as white food spaces. To present this research to an interdisciplinary audience I will first attend to defining key concepts informing this research including: post-colonial nation, decolonization, Whiteness, and Indigeneity. I will then spend some time exploring what Sarah Whatmore describes as “Alternative Food Networks” (AFNs) and claims as “white food spaces”. Finally, in an attempt to decolonize alternative food systems as white spaces, I will share various forms of present-day, small-scale Indigenous food systems such as Wild Rice production by The White Earth Anishinaabe, the ‘Food from the Land’ program in the O-pipon-Na-Piwin Cree Nation, and various Indigenous farmers markets and community gardens.  

scholarly journals Reflections on the North Central Community Gardens Branch Out Project

2021 ◽  
pp. 51-54
Author(s):  
Maegan Krajewski
Keyword(s):  
Community Engagement ◽  
Urban Agriculture ◽  
Food Access ◽  
Food Sovereignty ◽  
Community Gardens ◽  
Knowledge Development ◽  
Community Garden ◽  
North Central ◽  
The North ◽  
Insight Into

The North Central Community Gardens, an urban agriculture initiative of the North Central Community Association in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, introduced the Branch Out Project in the summer of 2020. The project’s purpose was to expand the North Central Community Gardens, which already consisted of three locations, onto additional schoolyard and backyard land. Despite—or perhaps because of—the COVID-19 pandemic, the first season of the project resulted in the construction of eight new gardens and has positively impacted food access, community engagement, and knowledge development and exchange. The goals of this commentary are two-fold: (1) to provide insight into the process of community garden expansion, with the hopes of benefiting other practitioners; and (2) to contribute to an understanding of the possibilities, challenges, and impacts of community gardens in general, and community garden expansion in particular, as a counter-neoliberal food sovereignty practice.

Privilege Accumulation Among Upper Middle-Class Youth in Mexico

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minor Mora-Salas ◽  
Orlandina de Oliveira
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Economic Resources ◽  
Upper Class ◽  
Mexican Families ◽  
Life Trajectories ◽  
Class Background ◽  
Upper Middle Class ◽  
Class Youth

This chapter demonstrates how upper middle-class Mexican families mobilize a vast array of social, cultural, and economic resources to expand their children’s opportunities in life and ensure the intergenerational transmission of their social position. The authors analyze salient characteristics of families’ socioeconomic and demographics in the life histories of a group of young Mexicans from an upper middle-class background. Many believe that micro-social processes, especially surrounding education, are key to understanding how upper-class families mobilize their various resources to shape their children’s life trajectories. These families accumulate social advantages over time that accrue to their progeny and benefit them upon their entrance to the labor market.

scholarly journals Associations between Food Policy Councils and Policies That Support Healthy Food Access: A National Survey of Community Policy Supports

Nutrients ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 683
Author(s):  
Samantha J. Lange ◽  
Larissa Calancie ◽  
Stephen J. Onufrak ◽  
Katherine T. Reddy ◽  
Anne Palmer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
National Survey ◽  
Food Access ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food Policy ◽  
Healthy Food ◽  
Farmers Markets ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Food Policy Councils ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Healthy Food Access

Food policy councils (FPCs) are one form of community coalition that aims to address challenges to local food systems and enhance availability, accessibility, and affordability of healthy foods for local residents. We used data from the 2014 National Survey of Community-Based Policy and Environmental Supports for Healthy Eating and Active Living, a nationally representative survey of US municipalities (n = 2029), to examine the prevalence of FPCs and cross-sectional associations between FPCs and four types of supports for healthy food access (approaches to help food stores, practices to support farmers markets, transportation-related supports, and community planning documents). Overall, 7.7% of municipalities reported having a local or regional FPC. FPCs were more commonly reported among larger municipalities with ≥50,000 people (29.2%, 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 21.6, 36.8) and western region municipalities (13.2%, 95% CI: 9.6, 16.8). After multivariable adjustment, municipalities with FPCs had significantly higher odds of having all four types of supports, compared to those without FPCs (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) range: 2.4–3.4). Among municipalities with FPCs (n = 156), 41% reported having a local government employee or elected official as a member, and 46% had a designated health or public health representative. Although FPCs were uncommon, municipalities that reported having a local or regional FPC were more likely to report having supports for healthy food access for their residents.

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