The Growing Gap
“To eat well is to eat in a world where everyone is able to eat well.” A line penned by our farming friend, Tony Schultz several years ago in response to “What does it mean to eat well?” Since starting We Grow, we often contemplate how we eat as a society and what influences us to eat this way. We look at other family’s grocery orders and sometimes question what nutrition these people are even surviving on?
The elephant in the room is the amount of sugar the kids are given at everything they do outside our home. They are rewarded with sugar at school for their achievements, fed candy at church for a snack, have it thrown at them in disturbing amounts at every parade, and bring it home from each of their friends for every holiday. Beating sugar feels like a losing battle.
While we tend to focus on the sugar overload, especially compared to just a generation ago, we lose site of what they aren’t eating. The lack of fresh vegetables and fruits in schools and senior sites is discouraging. Especially when specific vegetables are available locally in season! It is not in the budget to eat well, so we all lose two-fold. Our farmers don’t profit from the direct-to-consumer income and people don’t eat as well as they should.
Food inequality goes well beyond institutions. Take a look at the price of real food in the grocery store. Processed, pre-packaged meals loaded with unpronounceable ingredients and preservatives cost far less than the raw products if you were to actually cook the meal. Microwaves dinners were on sale 10 for $10 last month! Take it a step further and consider eating entirely organic. The price of organic groceries is nearly double conventional and financially out-of-reach for many.
Our broken food system is a small part of things going awry on a national level. Supporting local producers is a small step toward changing people’s interpretation of what it means to eat well. Consider the value you place on every person’s right to eat well, not just those who can afford it and how to get people to demand better food, for all.
Feeling contemplative,
