Background
Source: https://tapf.org.uk/our-work-in-uk
Feeding America defines food insecurity as "a household’s inability to provide enough food for every person to live an active, healthy life" and "one way we can measure and assess the risk of hunger." Oxford Dictionary defines it as "the state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food". Essentially, those who can't maintain consistent access to healthy food experience food insecurity. Within certain populations, this is more common – but often an issue that people are left with to suffer silently. There is a stigma surrounding experiencing food insecurity as if it's something rare and controllable. One in nine individuals are currently experiencing hunger and that percentage continues to rise, especially in light of the pandemic. At the University of Michigan, more than 30% of students struggle with food insecurity in some way – whether it be lacking transportation to an affordable grocery store, not having enough money to purchase said groceries, or not having enough time after work to get to a store. The barriers between people and food are found all too often. There are many organizations and people working to connect those searching for healthy, affordable food to the resources they need. We hope to highlight the ones available to you, or people you know, in our community.
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The Project
We chose to address the issue of food access and insecurity for our action project. Having a stable source of nutritious and affordable food is something that many people take for granted, and it’s important to recognize this is not the reality for everyone. According to Feeding America, one in nine individuals struggles with hunger. They predict that number has or will increase to one in six due to the Covid-19 situation. Food is essential to survival. Thus, it is essential that we, as a society, strive for equitable access to food. Through a social justice lens, the inequities are even more evident in the face of something like Covid-19. Lockdown orders, skyrocketing rates of unemployment, and other effects of the coronavirus pandemic are creating even further barriers to those who struggled with food security before. Through our project, we hope to learn more about food access in general, how it’s being addressed in light of covid, and connect community members to the resources that exist.
Our Approach
Through creating an infographic that can be widely shared and a website with a plethora of links, our group attempts to connect those looking for resources to those providing resources. There is too often an insurmountable gap between the two groups-- whether it be from misinformation, inaccessible information, or too much information at once. This website serves as a jumping off point with many basic resources compiled in one simple location. We hope that it serves this purpose and decreases unnecessary stress associated with food insecurity.