This past week, I
was incredibly lucky to get to travel to Detroit to attend FoodCorps’ mid-year
gathering. Although it seems like a strange place for one-hundred foodies from
around the country to flock, I was surprised to find that we could not have
picked a more appropriate location.
Detroit immediately reminded me of Gotham City. Steam gushed from manholes, and gorgeous Gothic buildings towered over our hotel in downtown. At the same time, Detroit’s wide streets were largely empty of cars and pedestrians, and in residential areas it was clear that more houses than not were empty and abandoned. Because of the power of the auto-industry, Detroit’s public transportation system is virtually useless, and as many as four out of five families do not have a car. There are no large-chain grocery stores in the entire city, essentially making it a food desert. Instead there is an ample supply of fast food and convenience stores. Detroit is simply a large-scale example of the problems that most FoodCorps members face every day- how do we make fresh food accessible to a population that lacks access, transportation and resources?
Various field
trips showed us that despite the depressing first-impression, there are many
organizations already doing phenomenal things to bring food to Detroit. I went
on the trip to Earthworks Urban Farm and Capuchin Soup Kitchen in West Detroit.
This is an ever-evolving organization which serves breakfast and lunch at the soup
kitchen, grows multiple gardens which provide food for the kitchen and to sell
at farmers’ markets, and offers various volunteer and job training opportunities.
We had an incredibly enlightening discussion about race and privilege, and the
relationship those often have with non-profits, and had the chance to get our
hands dirty planting in one of their gardens. Because of poor soil, we also got
to see their fantastic and enormous composting operation that keeps their
gardens healthy.
Discussions about
race and privilege continued throughout the gathering as we explored the
challenges of a non-profit organization with a majority of service members
being young, white, college-educated women in their mid-twenties. Our keynote
speaker was Malik Yakini, and here is a link to his latest article: http://foodandcommunityfellows.org/blog/2013/building-a-racially-just-food-movement
The most powerful
part of this gathering for me was simply getting to sit down and get to know
better the FoodCorps service members from across the country. It’s reassuring
to hear that volunteers are having the same challenges at their sites in New
Mexico or Connecticut as I am in North Powder, and to be reminded that despite
my geographic isolation I do have an enormous crew of like-minded people
supporting me. Although I still don’t know what I’m going to be doing in August,
I came away from our trip to Detroit feeling rejuvenated and better able to
take on the last three months of my term and beyond.
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| Oregon and New Mexico service members, at Eastern Market |
