“If you have not shown young people how to vote by taking them with you to the polls, do not ask them to show you how to do something on your phone.”

Angie Maxwell, “Carry a Big Stick,”

Gravy, No. 90 Winter 2024.

Artwork: "Hunger" by Kateryna Bortsova

Food. It is fundamental to life. And yet, adequate food can still be controversial. Food production and distribution are political on many fronts, but they need not be partisan. 

When my older son and his wife landed in Atlanta, they took an interest in the local food culture and an organization called Southern Foodways Alliance. (SFA) Per its mission statement, the SFA “documents, studies, and explores the diverse food cultures of the changing American South.” In the Winter 2024 SFA magazine, Gravy, Angie Maxwell, Assistant Professor of Southern Studies at the University of Arkansas, encourages the members to also be thoughtful in the use of political, not partisan, power.

SFA members include everyone from foodies like my son, to restaurant owners and workers, farmers, food distributors, chefs, food writers, academics in agriculture and more. Maxwell exhorts them to take up broad civic participation, urging them to think proactively about their industry’s needs and confront the big questions such as “What is your vision for the way food is grown, distributed, used? What value do you put on food, work, and food workers?” They can then set a long-term agenda to meet the goals they identify for the food industry, so that they can “play the long-game…fight for it one pragmatic step at a time at the local, state, and federal levels.”

There is hunger and food insecurity across the country. It affects us now and will impact our future. Food security is an issue of health, of equity, of educational success and more. According to Second Harvest Heartland, 1 in 11 children in MN don’t have regular access to the nutrition they need to thrive, 25% of Black households experienced food insecurity in the past year v. 4% of white households, and seniors are the fastest growing group of food pantry visitors. Many universities have had to create campus food pantries [e.g., Michigan, Minnesota, Cornell] to aid students experiencing food insecurity.

Policies make a difference when you care about feeding people. Maxwell asks, “Why does Mississippi, the state with the highest poverty rate, also have the highest grocery tax in the nation?” Minnesotans will likely be surprised that any state taxes something so fundamental (13 do), while Maxwell fears that Mississippians may not realize that their tax is not widespread; this burden is a choice! Are there food related policies that you might work for? A living wage for food industry workers? Better protection from chemicals for farm workers? Determining where it is equitable to direct federal farm supports?

Protecting free meals for schoolchildren? LWV does not have a specific position about food/hunger in our communities. Should it have one? [See Impact on Issues, Meeting Basic Human Needs (pp.145-151) for tangential mention of food, and Federal Agricultural Policies (pp. 114-117), for history and discussion of some LWVUS positions.]

Then for the long game, the patient, step by step work toward a well-fed future for all.