Last night, Civic House Associates Coalition brought together four panelists — from Penn and from local nonprofits — in Huntsman Hall for the coalition’s second “Think About It” event, “Food in Philly: Justice and Access.”
The discussion, held as part of the Penn Political Coalition’s Political Action Week 2013, focused on food access and availability not only in Philadelphia but also in urban areas around the country.
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The panelists began the conversation by reaching a useful definition of a “food desert.”
Candace Young, a senior associate at The Food Trust, defined food deserts as those “areas that have low sales from supermarkets, lower-than-median income in the community and high diet-related death rates.”
As to how food deserts are created, the panelists agreed that population shifts between cities and their outlying suburbs play a considerable role.
According to School of Design Ph.D. candidate Benjamin Chrisinger, who sat on last night’s panel, because supermarkets are “a volume business” that must sell many items for a small margin, “as people left the suburb, so did retail.”
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The panelists also pointed out the disappearance of home economics, both as a subject taught in schools and as a general practice at home as a contributing factor to food deserts.
University Engagement Coordinator at the Netter Center’s Urban Nutrition Initiative Jarrett Stein particularly stressed the importance of keeping healthy foods in school meals.
“I was in a school yesterday, and every single thing on the tray came from some sort of plastic package,” he said. “Nothing is fresh anymore.”
In response, Jill Bazelon, president and founder of Investing in Ourselves — an organization that offers classes in positive lifestyle development — suggested small but effective ways that parents can improve the eating habits of their children, such as substituting potato chips with apples. “I think it’s powerful,” she said.
However, Stein cautioned against banning unhealthy food outright — referring in particular to Prohibition in the 1920s, “which was not so successful,” he said.
Rather, proper education on nutrition seemed to be a more useful suggestion for Young.
“Just the concept of what I put in my body is affecting my health,” she said, requires more education than people would think.
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And while the four panelists blamed the marketing strategies of major food corporations for encouraging consumption of sugar-loaded food and beverages, they did not ascribe the entire fault to these companies.
“Everybody has a role to play — it’s like a village,” Stein said.
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