Hungry, Man?

Unlike many inner city communities where the lack of grocery stores is often abysmal, I have ready access to multiple full service stores (2, lol.) and a weekly farmers market, largely because I am gentrification’s next door neighbor. It is a veritable food oasis (rather than a desert like many other neighborhoods in beloved B’more, I suppose.). Albeit, a fabulous convenience which when lacking is often cited for the food access troubles of the inner-city, it had not stop me from regular take out.

Consequently, ever since I started, what I like to affectionately call “AA for Fat Folk” (working on changing a ‘smedium big girl’ to a smaller girl, lol), take out has gone by the way side and my new found mild obsession with food and fitness has made the trip to the grocery a frequent occurrence and has caused me to think way too deeply about both access to food and what we do with it. And it came upon me in a dream (or while I was reading this) that while both financial and physical access is crucial it is not the only issue related to bringing affordable healthy food to the inner city, the carryouts and chicken shacks will continue to thrive if how people view food is not also addressed.

For instance, two weeks ago while standing in line at the grocer, I noticed very few carts had anything fresh. As it was the 1st of the month in the urban core (WIC, TANF, Food Stamps all arrive then), many carts were full of a months worth of groceries. Several of the carts near me belonged to mothers with children. With the exception of one person other than me, not one cart had an identifiable fresh vegetable in it. Hungry man dinners, Chicken nuggets, high fructose corn syrupy juice like drink things? Yes. But vegetables, frozen or fresh? Few and far between.  Hence the “pressure”, “sugar”, and “little bit of weight” problems pressing down floating about the core in alarming numbers.

Could age have something to do with it? Probably. Many heads of households inner-city are young and many of their parents were young when they had them. But more so its changing the cultural paradigm around what food means Eating habits are passed on. My neighbors seem to constantly be bringing home “Chicken Boxes”, “Mickie Dees”, and the “Carry Out”. Since my weight loss seems to have become a “concern” for some of my neighbors, these discussions have also identified the thought that food that’s good for you does not taste good—ever and that buying healthy is breaking the bank.  And I have even had several say that giving up Soul Food , which is often full of cholesterol, and high in fat, is the “mans” way of trying to control folks of color—many times.” (Now, before some you Soul Food loving folk chop off my head, I am not saying, folks should give it up all together. It is an important part of African-american culture. I am saying that it cannot be the largest part. )

Since, as I have already demonstrated, I am nosey, I have been talking up eating healthy every time someone tells me not to get “too skinny”. Lately, I have been giving away lots of samples. Two of my neighbors often tell me that they did not know that fresh vegetables could taste so good without lots of fatty additions. Or that baked meats do not have to be bland or seasoned with salt. And this leads me to the question I have been toying with for weeks, how do we change cultural paradigms to get folks to adopt healthy eating habits. How do we demonstrate that buying healthy food–while a bit more costly–can still be done and last.  If we really want to impact the health of inner city residents,  seems it’s a matter of showing and proving.

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