Mass produced food dominates the marketplace. The arguments against it are, by now, familiar. High volume industrial farms are more likely to control, by artificial means, the health and productivity of animals and the resilience of fruits and vegetables. “Factory farms” often make use of antibiotics, growth hormones, genetic alteration, pesticides, and nitrogen-rich fertilizers. Food products are heavily packaged for long journeys from farm or factory to grocery store. Their carbon footprint is sizable. Meanwhile, our connection to the origins of our food are diminishing.

The Northeast Organic Farm Association of Connecticut is among those organizations advocating that far more attention ought to be paid to the conditions under which our food is created. Bill Duesing, of CT NOFA, argues “We need to move food to the center of our thinking and planning.” CT NOFA believes we should be supporting small, diversified, organic or minimally treated farming. Whenever possible, the organization believes, we should be bolstering the development of local, sustainable agriculture which, in turn, increases access to safe and healthy food for our communities.

While still a small part of the grocery sector, producing, buying and eating locally sourced food is increasingly found in a variety of settings: farmers’ markets, schools, neighborhood gardens.  A good gauge for the trend of buying local is the presence of farmers’ markets, which have been on the rise nationwide as well as in the New Haven area.  The number of farmers’ markets in New Haven has grown more than tenfold – from two to twenty-three – in the last 10 years.

Local and regional food is also being stocked at some supermarkets and smaller stores.  The newly opened Elm City Market is a shining example of the effort to integrate local food into an urban market.  It carries a wide selection of both organic and conventional fresh fruits and vegetables.  Produce is sourced from local and regional, independent farmers.  Because it is a cooperative and isn’t profit-driven, it is able to keep prices down and often competitive with other markets’ groceries.  By offering an outreach and education component; both regional fare and more mainstream groceries; and low prices on many local products, Elm City Market strives to bring in customers who might otherwise shop at bodegas or supermarkets in the city.  It also seeks to promote New Haven area non-profits by providing opportunities for customers to get to know the organizations and their staff members.  A recent example was a soup contest held in the store in which three organizations faced off with their home-made soups and customers voted for their favorite!

The local food market has also grown – and has the potential to grow further – as larger institutions have begun to include local or regional food in their systems.  In our area, examples include Yale Sustainable Dining and the Farm-to-School program in New Haven Public Schools.  According to the Connecticut Department of Agriculture, statewide over 40 local producers supply more than 80 schools with fresh produceⁱ.  In the 2009-10 school year New Haven Public Schools purchased its local produce through a federal Farm-to-School Program, allocating $95,000 in USDA funding for fresh fruits and vegetables from Connecticut farms.  This bought the public schools 36,000 apples, 75 cases of peaches, 100 cases of potatoes, and more than 6,500 lbs of butternut squash!ⁱⁱ

While support of local food grows in some sectors, accessible, affordable, healthful food – locally sourced or not – is out of the grasp of many Americans. The Census captures this problem as one of food insecurity.³

Food insecurity can produce a cascade of household compromises.

As resources become more constrained, adults in typical households first worry about having enough food, then they stretch household resources and juggle other necessities, then decrease the quality and variety of household members’ diets, then decrease the frequency and quantity of adults’ food intake, and finally decrease the frequency and quantity of children’s food intake.⁴

In 2008, nearly 15%, or 17 million American households experienced low food security.⁵ Closer to home, the 2010 Gallup Well-Being Survey found that 14% of the greater New Haven population had experienced times over the year when they did not have enough money to buy the food they needed. Mark Abraham, of DataHaven, says this number is especially disconcerting when you recognize that these needs are highly concentrated among certain families and neighborhoods, while for most families it is not an issue at all. A 2005 report by the Connecticut Food Policy Council, University of Connecticut, and Hartford Food System placed New Haven in the bottom 10 of all Connecticut towns in an assessment of food security.⁶

One proxy for food insecurity is qualification for food stamps; in Connecticut this program is called SNAP. Both the city of New Haven and the county as a whole have seen increases in the percentage of households on SNAP benefits. From 2009 to 2010 the proportion of New Haven households on food stamps increased from 19% to 24% and during the 2009-10 school year, 80% of New Haven public school students were eligible for free or reduced school meals.⁷

Mark Abraham points out that these numbers can be misleading. Just because an individual or family uses food stamps does not mean that they have achieved food security. The average SNAP benefit is only about $1 per meal so hardly addresses all the food needs in a family, especially as prices rise.

Unemployment and underemployment are responsible for much of the food insecurity problem, but other factors play a role as well. One of the most significant is simply the lack of adequate and well-located grocery stores in city centers. Lacking conveniently located supermarkets, low-income urban residents typically pay more for groceries in nearby convenience stores, spend more time traveling to distant supermarkets, and possibly lower the quality of their food intake as a result of their limited options.⁸

Some cities are considered ‘food deserts’ which the 2008 Farm Bill defines as areas “with limited access to affordable and nutritious food, particularly such an area composed of predominantly lower income neighborhoods and communities.”⁹ New Haven, it should be noted, is not entirely without grocery stores, but there are pockets of the city that could be considered “food deserts.” Two studies compared food availability and prices in large and small stores across New Haven neighborhoods of varying income levels. The findings suggest that, despite some spotty progress, stores in lower-income New Haven neighborhoods stock fewer healthy varieties of foods and have lower quality fresh produce. One study showed that average prices were not significantly different across neighborhoods. The greater difference seen was between small neighborhood stores and larger markets – with prices at small neighborhood stores as much as 50% higher than large grocery stores. Following this line of thought, if an individual only had access to a corner store for groceries that person would, in fact, have to spend more on food than someone with access to a supermarket.¹⁰

The largest scale intervention to address grocery needs in New Haven was achieved by the Greater Dwight Development Corporation (GDDC) and its partners which secured a supermarket – actually two successively – on Whalley Avenue. The GDDC partnered with Yale University Properties, independent real estate developers, the Community and Economic Development Clinic of the Yale Law School, the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, and others to establish the Dwight Place Shopping Center which was home initially to a Shaw’s Supermarket then to a Stop & Shop. The GDDC, led by Linda Townsend-Maier, understood the importance of a full service supermarket in their community and worked creatively and assiduously to make it happen.

As seen across efforts in the New Haven area, answering food needs is not an isolated effort with a circumscribed outcome. Bringing food closer to people who need it always occurs in a larger context of a community’s resources, needs, and preferences and, in the end, it ideally strengthens more than just immediate food access.

In the case of the Dwight neighborhood Stop & Shop, answering a grocery problem offered more than just an outlet for buying a wider array of food for lower prices, although that was certainly a significant achievement. In addition to the store itself, the GDDC initiated a Store Community Council whose purpose is to ensure that store leadership and stakeholders in the Dwight neighborhood and larger New Haven community can pursue mutual goals and address issues or concerns on a regular basis. The Council also provides an opportunity for continued dialogue about how the store can enhance the quality of life and possibilities for neighborhood residents, who are the store’s customers and associates. The store has also had a small impact on the unemployment situation in the neighborhood and larger city. By November 2011, 104 of the 120 part-time workers were New Haven residents, although only seven of the 21 full-time employees were local.¹¹

As a neighborhood anchor, the supermarket has a friendly environment where staff and customers often know one another and where staff members generally shop themselves. Anne Demchak, the store manager when the Stop & Shop opened, has said that the employees, many of whom walk to work, have a sense of ownership of the store. She also points out the store’s friendly atmosphere where customers and staff often know each other because they are neighbors.¹²

But what about strategies for getting nutritious food to neighborhoods that do not have a supermarket? CARE – The Community Alliance for Research and Engagement, a program of the Yale School of Public Health – took on that challenge following a food needs assessment in some of these neighborhoods. CARE members, wanting to bridge the gap between academic research and health needs of New Haven residents, first conducted a health survey in six lower-income New Haven neighborhoods. They found levels of stress, heart disease, lung disease, and asthma higher in the surveyed neighborhoods than national averages. They also found that about 20% of the families surveyed said they went hungry every month. Looking at the content of residents’ meals, CARE found that 38% percent reported eating fruit everyday and 48% report eating vegetables every day. Looking around the neighborhoods covered by the survey though, CARE saw few affordable options for purchasing these fruits and vegetables. Of the stores surveyed, almost two-thirds sold mostly junk food, while just over a third sold fresh vegetables and just under a third sold fresh fruit.¹³

CARE launched a Healthy Corner Store Initiative (whose model was developed and disseminated by the Food Trust) in which its staff worked with New Haven’s Health Department and four corner store owners to find ways to make available – and make attractive and appealing – fresh produce and other healthy foods in these corner stores. With assistance, the four bodegas in four New Haven neighborhoods agreed to stock more healthful food. They agreed to stock more fresh fruits and vegetables, baked snacks, no-sugar-added canned fruit, low-salt canned vegetables and soups, low-sugar cereals, and low-fat or skim milk. They also agreed to display the more healthful food prominently in the store in the hopes that it will catch the eye of more customers. In return CARE provides displays for the produce; a $500 “take-back” if the owner buys something and it doesn’t sell; and up to a $1,000 in redeemable coupons that neighborhood patrons can use. Currently, participating stores are Adam’s Deli in the Dwight neighborhood; Fair Haven’s Clinton Food Center; the Hill’s Congress Market; and most recently the George St. Deli in the West River neighborhood.¹⁴ It’s a challenge though. Stacy Spell, of the West River Neighborhood Services Corporation, lays out a central question, “When you can walk in with a dollar and buy a drink, a bag of chips and a piece of candy, what kid is going to spend more on healthier foods?”¹⁵ Clearly there is work to do.

It’s a complicated task, trying to address (though certainly not solve) the food and nutrition problems of city residents by connecting them with locally-sourced food; but there are very interesting and innovative programs aimed at doing just that.  In fact, there is a real synergy to be found in New Haven among groups interested in urban agriculture, gardening, local food, open space, neighborhood development, and food and nutrition.  Organizations with different primary missions share the desire to bring fresh local fruit and vegetables to people who might not ordinarily get it.  They show, through their initiatives, that food access can be integrated  with a host of other skills and benefits: learning to care for a garden and cook; building community through the establishment and management of a vegetable garden; gaining work experience.

Efforts have come from partnerships in the public and private sectors.  There is no better example than New Haven Public Schools’ participation in the Farm to School program discussed earlier.  Governmental programs and policies directed toward local foods also include the Farmers’ Market Nutrition Programs (FMNP), specifically the WIC Farmer’s Market Nutrition Program and the Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program.   The WIC program normally provides benefits in the form of food and nutritional support to at-risk pregnant women, infants and children.  In conjunction with FMNP it also provides checks that can be used to buy fresh produce at authorized farmers’ markets.  Similarly, the Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program is a supplemental food program for low income senior citizens, affording them the opportunity to buy from local farmers.  Lastly, the Connecticut Department of Social Services has updated its SNAP (food stamp) program, now making it possible for its recipients to purchase from farmers’ markets.

The New Haven Food Policy Council (part of the City of New Haven) works to strengthen the local food system and promote food security.  Its long-term goals include: educating the public about the New Haven food system and issues that affect New Haven’s food security, safety, nutrition and health, and economy; strengthening links between different sectors of the food system; providing policy makers with guidance as to how policy affects the food system; and seeking funding for projects and possible collaborators that address resource and program gaps.

More concretely, Tagan Engle, the Council’s Administrator, sees a need for outreach and community involvement.  Neighborhoods’ needs and preferences have to be accounted for in any initiatives: what types of foods people like, what types of markets, where would markets best be located. At the same time she sees areas where community education would be beneficial, such as helping to broaden people’s minds about food choices and teaching people how to cook from scratch (a skill, she says, that seems to have been lost in many households). Engle recognizes the many groups in the area who have their sights set on these kinds of issues and sees opportunities for successful partnerships.

CitySeed  takes the problem of urban access to fresh produce head-on as a champion of farmers’ markets in New Haven.  To better understand food needs in city, CitySeed conducted a survey of food stores in the Fair Haven neighborhood, focusing on the availability of fruits, vegetables and other groceries.  Only about half of the stores surveyed sold fresh produce.  And of those that sold produce, the quality was variable and in many instances poor.  The two larger New Haven grocery stores surveyed sold better quality produce.  Overall, however, the survey found that Fair Haven residents do not pay higher prices for produce than residents of other New Haven neighborhoods.¹⁶

CitySeed is now five farmers’ markets strong with a presence in five New Haven neighborhoods. Located for maximum accessibility by neighborhood residents, the markets enable them to purchase fresh, locally grown food without many of the usual urban barriers.  The markets are all certified to accept the Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program and in 2010, CitySeed farmers' markets redeemed $85,000 in WIC and Senior Farmers' Market Nutrition Coupon.  That same year, they redeemed over $7,000 in SNAP allocations. 

Common Ground High School  plays many roles in the connection between local food and local food needs and partners with an array of area programs with compatible interests and goals.  Executive Director Melissa Spear notes that there is a broad coalition of food producers, advocates, and non-profits interested in addressing the food problem.  She outlines three efforts Common Ground contributes:  1) producing food for the community on its 20 acre urban farm; 2) producing food that is both more nutritious and has a much smaller environmental impact than the food you would typically buy in a supermarket; and 3) providing educational opportunities for the community to learn how to produce, process, preserve, and prepare their own food. 

Spear explains, “By putting its production close to those who most need it we are able to more easily get food to neighborhoods with limited access.  We can also reduce some of the costs associated with transportation and storage.  Nevertheless producing food in an urban center can be relatively expensive and does not receive the same types of government subsidies that food produced on large industrial farms does so we still have to deal with issues of affordability.”

One of the ways Common Ground hopes to bring fresh produce to New Haven residents is by literally bring the produce to residents … via a mobile market.  Common Ground has worked with the community and has consulted with the New Haven Housing Authority to understand the scope of the demand.  They have determined that although CSAs have been offered in the past, they find that people prefer to choose their own food. Common Ground’s answer is a mobile market which can be driven to the areas that most need it.  This project will begin in spring-summer 2012.

There are efforts across the city to get kids involved in growing and eating fresh produce.  In addition to Common Ground and the Farm to School program, school gardens directly affect children and their connection to local food.  According to Grow New Haven, “New Haven is home to some of the nation’s leading efforts to connect children and young people with the sources of their food.  Three of the city’s public schools – the Sound School, Barnard Environmental Magnet, and Common Ground High School – put gardens and food at the center of their educational work.  At least a half dozen other schools have launched school gardens and other growing efforts.”  And these school gardens are supported by a number of local organizations who are invested in connecting the City’s children with the sources of their food. 

School gardens provide layers of value.  For instance, the Barnard Environmental Studies Magnet School has a large school garden and is developing after school enrichment programs with area chefs to teach both students and parents what to do with the vegetables they grow. Again, Grow New Haven explains, “School gardens can function as an outdoor classroom, creating opportunities for hands on learning and student engagement across all subject areas and grades. Studies have shown that school gardening programs boost students’ scores on science achievement tests.”

At the extreme, local food is food grown in your own backyard…or at least your neighbor’s!  The New Haven Land Trust and the Urban Foodshed Collaborative are two groups that have focused some of their energies on small collective gardens within neighborhoods.  The organizations have different primary missions but both see the importance of neighborhood gardens.

The New Haven Land Trust manages almost 50 gardens in the city, including some school gardens and community gardens in neighborhoods with limited resources.  The Land Trust seeks to address the proximity and cost barriers people often face with regard to fresh produce by helping to grow that produce right in their neighborhood.  By its design, however, it also reinforces neighborhood and individual initiative.  Community members themselves identify the property they’d like to see turned into a vegetable garden and the Land Trust provides technical assistance and supplies.  Members of the neighborhood take responsibility for (and get the satisfaction of) organizing, recruiting, and working to maintain the garden and reaping the crops that they’ve chosen to sow.

The Urban Foodshed Collaborative’s goals overlap with other groups (and Urban Foodshed works with other groups) on urban gardening and food production, though it has its own unique twist. The Urban Foodshed Collaborative has provided (it is now on a break while it’s founder, Justin Freiberg, decides how best to proceed) entrepreneurial urban farm opportunities, particularly for teens in New Haven.  It took “sliver lots” in the city and constructed raised bed gardens on them.  It then trained and paid local teens to farm them.  The Urban Foodshed combined two valuable goals: fresh produce accessibility and providing teens with work experience and an opportunity to acquire a skills that can be translated into further employment.  Just Freiberg noted that the garden work was easy.  What truly required talent and skill was engaging and working with teens.

The underlying architecture of New Haven’s food supply system is in need of improvement – from food producing and processing, to aggregating, to retail.  Meanwhile there are underused facilities in the area that could be put to good use and there are local farmers with food they’d like to sell within the city.  More efficient and creative approaches to local food needs and the systems in place to meet them could go a long way in broadening food options and reducing or stabilizing prices. 

On the demand side, several organizations emphasize the role of outreach and education in expanding the reach of local food into underserved areas.  More people need to understand, according to Tagan Engel, that eating locally sourced food is not necessarily more expensive than food distributed from farther afield.  Engel also believes that, in working with communities, local groups can help to expand people’s sense of food choices – exposing them to foods they might otherwise dismiss.  Perhaps most importantly, she suggests, public and private food-related agencies should engage with neighborhoods and learn what residents truly want from increased food access.  Different neighborhoods are likely to have different needs and preferences and local organizations and businesses, if given the information and resources, can begin to meet these needs and improve the health of communities.  They may find there are even economic benefits to this. 

A significant challenge remains.  That is, matching the capacities of local growers to the demands of local businesses or institutions.  These relationships must overcome significant hurdles as businesses are accustomed to buying from large and more consistent suppliers.  Nevertheless, the potential benefits to the farmers, to the communities, to the environment, and to institutions are considerable. 

In addition to challenges, however, there are opportunities for New Haven area residents to volunteer their time, energy, and ideas.  Organizations can often use volunteers to help with their efforts and a phone call may be all it takes to find out what one can do.  Help can be in the form of actual labor at a garden or the donation of supplies.  Organizations often have events where they could use volunteers.  Maybe there will be opportunities for you to teach about cooking, about using fresh herbs, about caring for a compost pile.  Maybe there will be opportunities to mentor teens as they learn about urban agriculture.  Maybe there will be a place you can donate all those extra zucchinis and cukes that you grow in your own backyard garden!  You won’t know until you ask.

i  “Connecticut Grown Program,” Connecticut Department of Agriculture, accessed January 18, 2012, www.ct.gov/doag/cwp/view.asp?a=3243&q=398984.  
ii  “NH School Food’s Commitment to Farm to School,” New Haven Public Schools, accessed January 18, 2012, www.nhps.net/sites/default/files/NH_School_Food-F2SFP_Map.pdf.
3 Food-insecure households [have] limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways. Households with very low food security (a subset of food-insecure households) [are] those in which food intake of one or more household members was reduced and normal eating patterns disrupted due to inadequate resources for food. “Households and Persons Having Problems With Access to Food: 2004 to 2008,” United States Census Bureau, accessed January 18, 2012, www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2011/tables/11s0210.pdf.
4 Ibid.
5 Mark Nord, Margaret Andrews, and Steven Carlson, “Household Food Security in the United States, 2008, ERR-83, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, November 2009.
6 “Community Food Security in Connecticut: An Evaluation and Ranking of 169 Towns,” Hartford Food System, September 2005, accessed January 18, 2012, www.hartfordinfo.org/issues/wsd/familiesandchildren/CommunityFoodSecurity.pdf.
7 End Hunger Connecticut, accessed January 18, 2012, www.endhungerct.org/mc/page.do?sitePageld=98817&orgld=ehct.
8 Kameshwari Pothukuchi, “Attracting Supermarkets to Inner-City Neighborhoods: Economic Development Outside the Box” Economic Development Quarterly, vol. 19, no 3 (August 2005 232-44); Sarah Treuhaft and Allison Karpyn, “The Grocery Gap: Who Has Access to Healthy Food and Why It Matters,” accessed January 18, 2012, www.policylink.org/atf/cf/%7B97C6D565-BB43-406D-A6D5-ECA3BBF35AF0%7D/FINALGroceryGap.pdf.
9 “Access to Affordable and Nutritious Food: Measuring and Understanding Food Deserts and Their Consequences,” U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, accessed January 18, 2012, www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/AP/AP036/AP036a.pdf.
10 Tatiana Andreyeva, Daniel M. Blumenthal, Marlene B. Schwartz, Michael W. Long and Kelly D. Brownell, “Availability And Prices Of Foods Across Stores And Neighborhoods: The Case Of New
Haven,” Connecticut Health Affairs vol. 27, no. 5 (2008): 1381–1388.
11 Allan Appel, “New Stop & Shop Keeps Hiring Local,” New Haven Independent, November 18, 2011.
12 Ibid.
13 “CARE: Community Alliance for Research and Engagement,” Yale School of Public Health, accessed January 18, 2012, publichealth.yale.edu/giving/makingadifference/whitepapers/care.aspx.
14 Paul Bass, “Corner Stores Wade Into Health,” New Haven Independent, May 17, 2011.
15 Jake Conway, “A Trip to the Corner Store,” TheNewJournal, April 18, 2011.
16 Sherill Baldwin, “Fair Haven Farmers’ Market Basket Survey: Increasing Access to Fresh Foods,” Final Report April 2005, accessed January 18, 2012, www.ctdatahaven.org/reports/FHmarketbasketstudy05.pdf
 

Other Resources: Fertile Ground USA