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FOOD & HEALING JOURNEY, The ALISON D. GILBERT Blog, THE ECONOMY & ENVIRONMENT

THE POOR MIDDLE CLASS NUTRITION CRISIS

January 31, 2017 No Comments

Why This Post Is Called A Nutrition Crisis Rather Than A Food Crisis

The Poor Middle Class Nutrition crisis is due to the lack of healthy, nutritious, especially locally grown food. It is not as much about the availability of food itself. There are plenty of sources for cheap, empty calorie items. But access to affordable, healthy, local food is a the root of the Poor Middle Class Nutrition Crisis. The major food challenges for the Poor Middle Class are:
• having access to healthy food
• affording to eat healthy food
• eating enough nutritionally rich food
• staying healthy by being able to eat healthfully

Challenges & Solutions to the Poor Middle Class Nutrition Crisis

The following tools for accessing food have both pros and cons. The one thing they have in common is the added expense of time. Some involve monetary cost. Others are financially free. There is always a trade-off. This can also require a significant adjustment in lifestyle if one is used to supermarket shopping for quick and easy access. Here are some suggested alternatives that are mainstream or government sponsored:

• Buy In Bulk

• Use Store & Brand Coupons

• Barter & Exchange Products

• Get WIC & Farmers Market Coupons

• Go To Food Pantries

• Collect Food Stamps

Here are Alternative Lifestyle Means of Obtaining Food

• Grow Your Own from seeds and food scraps-Here is a post about starting a community garden.

• Go Dumpster Diving-This food was retrieved from dumpster diving

• Foraging for Food is making use of nature’s bounty, free for the taking, with gratitude. Be sure you are a pro or are foraging with a pro. You want to pick healthy not deadly items.

• Farm your own chickens for eggs, cows for milk and goats for milk

• Make Your Own Essentials and Seasonal Treats with fermentation, canning and other wholesome preserving techniques.Here is a great alternative. It is the Afro Jam story. I just love their graphics.

• Kill Your Own Food-This is a controversial but reasonable alternative. It is probably the cleanest source of animal protein, fish and fowl. It certainly is much harder to obtain than at the supermarket. But you know exactly where it comes from. It also brings us much closer to nature in relationship with the animal that has died for us to survive.

The Issue of Hunger

In addition to the existence of a nutrition crisis, there are people who go hungry in this country. Each of these crises is unique. Here is a short list about hunger and health:
• hunger is the result of a lack of food
• health is the result of a lack of healthy food
• accessibility and availability are issues
• poverty and homelessness can be a contributing factor
• food waste is a very serious contributor to food insecurity

nutritional crisis — Food Insecurity and Food Waste Are Opposite Sides of the Same Coin from The John Oliver Show

Sources & Resources

10 Steps to Starting A Community Garden UPDATE: Man Who Broke Into Restaurant, Ate Food, Urinated in Garbage Can Won’t Face Charges

Trump: 43 million Americans on food stamps By Nadia Pflaum from www.politifact.com

Why we should all be ethical carnivours now

The Slow Food Movement

Slow Food Manifesto

Joy Bilee Farmg

The Homestead Hippie

Homesteading on Facebook

Cambridge Sustainable Food

Grow Your Own Food from Food Scraps

A Detroit Urban Farm Preserves Black History In Jam

Food Waste In America According to the John Oliver Show

Millenials Fuel UK Food Waste Mountain

FOOD & HEALING JOURNEY, RAISING SOCIAL AWARENESS, The ALISON D. GILBERT Blog

Developing Food Growing and Selling Trends

June 25, 2013 No Comments

Present day food growing and retailing trends are resulting in some fascinating, untraditional farming and distribution systems

Developing food growing and selling trends are resulting in some fascinating, untraditional farming and distribution activities. These movements are making food more available and more affordable.

GROWING
Eat the City: The Art of Urban Farming reintroduces farming into the city is a truly unique way. The ‘truck farm bed’ feature photo is a creative example of this idea. Urban farming, other types of local farming and local farmers markets have created a new class of eaters, locavores.

Food Farming and Selling Trends — Deciding between organic or locally grown food. Photo Credit: Flickr Corey Templeton

They believe that eating locally grown food is the best way to go for several reasons. This food tastes the bests. Food can be freshest when eaten. There is a huge savings in transportion and distribution costs. It has even been said that locally grown food can be just as beneficial as organic food. In a variety of situations, each has advantages.

SELLING
A novel idea in a weekend only, makeshift outlet supermarket in the Netherlands has caught on like wild fire. Nearly ‘expired’ packaged foods are sold at a huge discount. One often sees this on certain perishable items in US supermarkets. But in the case of this ‘past its prime’ concept, the entire store is filled with these items.

Food Growing and Selling — Willem Jan Stamm, the owner of Outlet Stam in Schagen,The Netherlands. Photo credit: Christopher F. Schuetze

A recently discovered facebook page shines a light on a new way of selling and distributing food. It is reminiscent of the food co-op. It is called WholeShare. According to their facebook page, “Wholeshare is a website that helps you get access to good quality, affordable local food by organizing group purchases. www.wholeshare.com”.

Another fascinating concept is something called, Pay It Forward. It is practiced by a restaurant called Karma Kitchen. The staff are volunteers. The customers pay whatever they want. In other words, they pay the bill for the next group of people who come to eat. They ‘Pay It Forward’.

food growing and distribution — Karma Kitchen practices, ‘Pay It Forward’. Photo credit: www.goprojectfilms.com

CONCLUSION
Due to personal choice, as a political statement about food waste, or out of necessity, some people have taken to off the beaten path to obtain food. These include food foraging, dumpster diving, food banks, food kitchens and food stamps and bread lines. However one acquires one’s food, it is important to be conscious of the the choices we can make. Some people in this country do go hungry. The options discussed here are intended to help everyone find resources to have enough to eat.

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