Public Fruit

If you're a regular reader of Growing Tables, you already know about Gasquet's community orchard, but you might not know that the new orchard at Mountain School is part of a growing trend. Public fruit -- for lack of a better term -- brings community and healthy foods together in a similar way that community gardens do, but they are long-lasting, perennial community builders. Fruit takes time and making a commitment to fruit is a years-long project.

One of my favorite public fruit projects is Fallen Fruit. Fallen Fruit literally puts public fruit on the map. Did you know that in most states, there is legal access to certain fruit grown on private land? If I have a beautiful apple tree on my property, but a large branch leans out over the sidewalk and/or street, the fruit overhanging the sidewalk is fair game for anyone walking past it. This may be more rebellious than some folks are comfortable with, but Fallen Fruit volunteers map out overhanging fruit trees, trees in public parks, and other publicly-accessible fruit trees and create maps like this one: 

This might not seem like a community-building exercise, but Fallen Fruit goes so much further. The map would simply let individuals pick fruit on their own; Fallen Fruit brings them together with events like their Public Fruit Jams. A Fruit Jam invites people to gather with fruit they've picked from public sources or their own backyards and make jam together. I try (and sometimes fail) to host a strawberry shortcake party every year. I've gone through as many as 18 pounds of strawberries at past parties and I can tell you that sitting around hulling strawberries (or cutting peaches or apples) is a great bonding experience. I love the idea of community jam and jelly making sessions and we have at least one person agitating to start them in Crescent City this summer.

Fast forward now to the last 10 days. In that time, I have seen multiple links to an exciting new public fruit project and I've had two people send me links as well. Given our forty days of blogging, I can read the writing on the wall -- this needed to make the blog!

In Seattle, a resident taking a permaculture class decided that a public forest in his working-class neighborhood would be a great community project. After three years of community outreach, grant-writing, and working with the city, this dream is about to become a reality. This summer, almost two acres of land owned by a public utility will be turned into the Beacon Food Forest, a publicly accessible orchard of fruit and berries. If it goes well, an additional five acres will be added over time to create what will be the largest public orchard in the country. You can read about it via NPR's The Salt column or the Good Environment's blog. It will be exciting to watch this project grow -- no pun intended -- and see this idea spread.

If you come across any interesting projects or articles, and you'd like to see them featured on the blog, let us know. As this post proves, we want readers' input!

Distant Markets: Shopping Perspectives

When I first moved to Crescent City, people asked me how I liked it with great hesitation, as if they were assuming that my first impressions would be terrible. But for the four years leading up to moving here, we had lived in King Salmon, AK, (population: 400) and Cima, CA, (population: 3) in the middle of the Mojave National Preserve. To me, the prospect of being able to buy a gallon of milk without a) spending eight dollars (King Salmon) or b) driving 75 miles to Las Vegas (Cima) was a joyous prospect. Four grocery stores! In town!

It was practically a miracle.

King Salmon, where we lived, is on the Alaska Peninsula, leading out to the Aleutian Island chain. It's about 16 miles inland from Bristol Bay along the Naknek River. The only place you can drive from King Salmon is Naknek, sixteen miles away; otherwise, it's a fly-in, fly-out community. Students in South Naknek fly across the mouth of the Naknek River for school every day. They do isolated and rural to the extreme there.

This is the airport we fly in and out of. You can, in fact, see almost the entire business district of King Salmon in this photo. Our summer restaurant is next door to the airport, our bank, National Park Service offices, and a social services office are in the long building across the street. The building in the upper right, cut off at the edge of the picture, is our supermarket (left hand side of the building) and liquor store (right hand side, separate entrance).

This is downtown Cima. The left hand side of the building is the post office (closed permanently by USPS a few months before we moved), the right side is a small store with beer, soft drinks, candy, and chips, open on demand while the post office still functioned. We lived about a mile away. Our nearest neighbors were five miles further north. This is our neighborhood, a collection of abandoned small ranching houses at the junction of several unnamed, sandy dirt roads:

There were many things I loved about living in both King Salmon and Cima. There are things I miss deeply. Grocery shopping is not one of them. There is no real joy in driving an hour and a half to Las Vegas in 105 degree weather, with a toddler, to hit several stores, a library, a park, and every other possible service in one day. Anchorage is also not that enjoyable when a day in Anchorage means going to CostCo, Fred Meyer, and New Sagaya (ethnic and whole foods store), followed by scrounging for cardboard boxes, packing up the food and other purchases, and making a trip to the air freight company.

We had two things going for us: we had reliable transportation and we usually had enough cash available to do two or three months worth of shopping at a time. Without that, I'm not sure how we would have maintained a varied diet in either location. I once paid $14 for four ears of corn shrink-wrapped to a styrofoam tray because it was the only fresh produce in the store -- fruit or veg -- that looked edible and I was low on frozen stuff at home.

So after these experiences, the grocery shopping in Crescent City was enough to make a very good first impression.

All this leads up to my first visit to Pearson's Grocery in Weitchpec. I had driven through Weitchpec maybe a year earlier, on my husband's whim during my first trip to the Bald Hills. This time, I was going to Weitchpec, not through it. When I walked through the store, I was reminded very much of our store in King Salmon. There was maybe a little less produce at Pearson's, but prices were lower than they were in King Salmon. Both are typical stores for rural, isolated places: not much selection, limited fresh foods, high prices, a strong emphasis on prepared, shelf-stable foods.

A larger problem in both communities is that many families are not as lucky as mine. They don't have reliable transportation. They don't have a job that occasionally takes them to places with better stores. They don't have cash reserves that let them stock up when they do get to bigger, cheaper, better-stocked stores.

So how do we make health happen in communities like King Salmon, Cima, and Weitchpec? What changes can be made to bring healthy, affordable food options to places that are way off the beaten path? How do we guarantee that a child growing up sixty, seventy, three hundred miles away from the nearest full-service grocery store grows up with the same nutritional opportunities as someone who can walk to a Safeway or a Whole Foods or a Northcoast Co-op?

EBT? CalFresh? SNAP? What Does It All Mean?

I'd like to interupt our series about CalFresh for a minute to back up and explain all the different names and acronyms. Even people who work on issues surrounding the federal nutrition program sometimes get confused, so here's how it works:

A couple of years ago, the USDA renamed what used to be the food stamp program. They felt that "food stamps" had gained a very negative perception and because the program is about providing adequate nutrition to people who need it, they wanted to rebrand the program to try to end the stigma. At the federal level, the program is now called SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). As the name suggests, it is designed to supplement other funds to purchase healthy food.

When USDA changed the name at the federal level, they also gave the states the ability to create a name for the program at the state level. Each state administers its own program, so this made sense. California took a long time to decide on a name, create a logo, and release it publicly, so for about a year, the program was called SNAP in California before changing to CalFresh, it's current name.

To summarize: What used to be called food stamps is now called SNAP at the federal level and CalFresh benefits in California.

So where does EBT fit in?

CalFresh benefits are delivered onto what is essentially a debit card. In California, it's called the Golden State Advantage card. On a specific day each month, a new month's worth of benefits are deposited onto the card by the state and the CalFresh recipient can spend down those funds over the course of the month. So CalFresh (and other) benefits are delivered electronically.

When someone uses their card, they are making an Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT), so many people call those cards "EBT cards". When you see a sign in a store saying, "We accept EBT", it means that the store has been authorized to accept government benefits electronically and has the correct hardware and software to process an Electronic Benefits Transfer.

If you sometimes pay for groceries with a bank-issued debit or credit card, you may have seen the EBT option when choosing which method you will use to pay. It's important to know that someone using an EBT card is not necessarily using CalFresh. Other benefits, such as TANF (Temporary Aid to Needy Families) and some forms of disability benefits, are also delivered on the same Golden State Advantage card and are unrestricted funds in terms of what they can purchase. CalFresh benefits cannot be used to purchase non-food items and in supermarkets where they scan each item's bar code, the computer automatically categorizes each items as CalFresh eligible or ineligible and the grocery totals are separated as CalFresh vs. other payment.

Food Deserts and the Farm Bill

Did you know that despite our months of solid rain, Del Norte County is considered a desert by the USDA? We are! According to USDA definitions, almost all of Del Norte County qualifies as a food desert. The USDA working group defines food deserts as "low-income census tracts where a substantial number or share of residents has low access to a supermarket or large grocery store."

Food deserts often have lots of food -- just not the healthy kind!

Food deserts are a hot topic in the food world, with First Lady Michele Obama taking them on as part of her focus on healthy foods and obesity. USA Today recently featured an article about some projects trying to bring water to some of the deserts around the country. At this year's Food Justice conference in Oakland, CA, there are many sessions dealing with both rural and urban food deserts in California and around the nation.

A small provision in the 2008 Farm Bill directed the USDA to study the "food desert" phenomenon. The Food Desert Locator pictured above is one of the outcomes of the research. To view Del Norte's food deserts or to check out food deserts across the country, check out the Locator. You can zoom in on northern California to see our region up close.

So what's next? Will the 2012 Farm Bill follow up on the research mandated in 2008? Will it include funding and policy priorities that will help alleviate food deserts? Some programs with the potential to mediate local droughts -- such as the Farmers Market Promotion Program grants, the Community Food Project grants, and the Financing for Local Food Enterprises program -- will end without specific reauthorization in the 2012 Farm Bill.

Safeway Summer Food Drive

A lot of people think of food drives as something that happens around Thanksgiving and Christmas. But did you know that summer is one of the hardest times of the year for many families? Children who receive free breakfast and lunch at school don't have that option in the summer. Families that are already stretching a tight food budget have to find food for those ten extra meals per child every week. In the 2009-2010 school year, more than half of Del Norte students received free school meals.

This summer, Safeway is recognizing this need and holding a food drive in July to help Community Assistance Network meet the need. Starting tomorrow -- July 6th -- and running through July 24th, all Safeway stores will have a display of prepackaged bags at the front of the store. The bags contain pasta, canned vegetables, canned tuna, mac and cheese, peanut butter, and more. All you have to do to help CAN feed your neighbors is pick up a bag as you begin your shopping. At the checkout, you'll be charged the $10 donation (which will appear on your receipt for tax purposes), and the checker will mark the bag as paid. Drop it off in the collection barrels on your way out of the store. It's that easy!

CAN will pick up the donated bags as frequently as the barrels are filled. (Can you help make it every day for the whole drive?) The non-perishable goods in the bags will help provide basics for families and children served by the food bank -- our neighbors!

Hunger is a serious issue at any age, but children are especially vulnerable. Research shows that children who experience hunger:

• Are more likely to go to the hospital
• Are more likely to be overweight than children who eat three balanced meals a day
• Have trouble concentrating in school and therefore have less success academically

You can help change this in our community. Help make sure every child is ready to start school well-fed and eager to learn. Pick up one of Safeway's prepackaged bags and donate it to our community's children.

Thank you, Safeway! And thank YOU for helping make this food drive a success!

What Can YOU Do?

Hunger is a persistent problem across the United States and especially here in Del Norte County. Hunger is not always visible and you may never know that a person you encounter during the day has trouble getting sufficient calories for their health and well-being.

If you have never thought about hunger in our county, consider this: the California Center for Rural Policy (CCRP) conducted a health survey for the North Coast in 2006. One question asked was, "In the past twelve months were you or people living in your household ever hungry because you couldn't afford enough food?" One in ten respondents answered, "Yes." This was before the current economic downturn.

So what can we do as a community to help alleviate hunger? What can we do as individuals? There are many things. One is to acknowledge that hunger exists in our community, but there are many others.

Tomorrow, May 14th, for instance, you could put a bag of non-perishable foods near your mail box. It's the 19th Annual Help Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive, put on by the National Association of Letter Carriers. Your carrier will pick up food left at your mailbox and take it back to the post office. The food collected locally stays right here in our community -- CAN and Rural Human Services both receive the donations for their food banks. This is late notice, I know, but every little bit helps!

If you've ever wondered what food banks need most, think about non-perishables that are very nutrient-dense. Peanut butter, canned or dried beans, vegetable-rich soups, canned tuna or salmon, canned fruit (in its own juice), 100% juice, and shelf-stable milk are always welcome in a food box.

If you're a gardener, you can help, too! Plant a Row for the Hungry is a project of the Garden Writers Association. When you plan your garden, plant one extra row of veggies to give to your local food bank. CAN distributes food boxes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and we always need more fresh produce! If you would like to give back to the community by growing food for your neighbors who need a little extra help, please call Angela or Connor at 464-9190.

Many of our neighbors worry about where their next meal will come from. If we work together, we can help erase those worries.

Where Do You Buy Lettuce?

Shortly after I moved to Crescent City, I was at BC's Lake Earl Market waiting for sandwiches when a young boy came into the store. He was probably 9 or 10 years old and lived close enough that he had walked. When the young woman behind the counter noticed him, he put three quarters on the counter and asked if he could buy 75 cents worth of lettuce. The young woman looked puzzled, but the man making my sandwiches nodded and told her to put some washed lettuce leaves from the sandwich prep area in a ziplock.

This was clearly not the first time a transaction like this had happened. Other than the young employee (and me), nobody seemed surprised by it. The store was fairly generous in the definition of "75 cents worth" and both sides seemed satisfied.

Now maybe this boy's parents were making a dinner full of fresh veggies and realized that they had forgotten lettuce when they were at the grocery store. Maybe the lettuce was just a small part of a healthy meal fulfilling the USDA suggestion to fill half your dinner plate with vegetables.

Or maybe the transaction I witnessed is symptomatic of our community, where many people lack adequate transportation to stores that offer a full range of fresh produce. In urban areas, neighborhoods lacking in full-service grocery stores are often described as food deserts. We have them, too. Residents of Gasquet, Hiouchi, Klamath, Weitchpec, parts of Smith River, Fort Dick, and other small outlying communities have to travel considerable distance to buy fresh fruit and vegetables. For low-income residents, that can be a significant financial burden.

The good news is that there are a lot of resources for making our "corner stores" healthier. Nationwide, communities are focusing on having produce replace chips, sodas, and especially alcohol in the often small stores in underserved neighborhoods. You can learn much more at the website for the Healthy Corner Stores Network.

So where do you buy your lettuce? At a corner store? A supermarket? The farmers' market? Your kitchen garden?