Women Warriors in the Fight Against Food Insecurity
Lindsey Williamson
“If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.”
-Shirley Chisholm
It’s no secret that history has not been kind to women. But to this day, women are still fighting for their agency and their station in society. While earning 82 cents to a man’s dollar, women are faced with extra expenses, such as the tampon tax and the pink tax. Women are constantly faced with unrealistic beauty standards in the media. They are judged for their career choices and their families, and they have to fight against gender stereotypes to get adequate medical treatment. And perhaps most devastating, according to the World Food Project USA, “of the 690 million people who are food insecure in the world right now, 60 percent are women and girls.”
Despite having to fight these personal battles, many women also shoulder the responsibility of fighting for those who are struggling with food insecurity.
One of the earliest American women to take on this fight was Shirley Chisholm. She was the first African American woman in Congress and was instrumental in the creation of The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). A true trailblazer, Chisholm paved the way for modern women of color to battle food insecurity.
Health-minded restaurateur Alice Waters is known for creating the farm-to-table movement within the restaurant industry, but she also took her passion to local schools. Waters established the Edible Schoolyard Project in 1996, a project that creates school gardens cared for by the students, who in turn learn to harvest and cook the food. This program has led to increased food availability for students and fosters a healthy relationship with food and nutrition.
Olympia Auset, a resident and native of Los Angeles, California, saw a desperate need for healthy food options in her neighborhood and created SÜPRMARKT, an organic produce market offering much-needed, affordable organic produce. Auset opened SÜPRMARKT in 2016, filling a void in her neighborhood where previously, the only options were to eat unhealthy food or travel for hours to access healthy food. According to their website, “since its inception in July 2016, SÜPRMARKT has provided more than 70,000 pounds of organic fruit, veggies, and staples affordably in South LA, a community which has 1.3 million residents but only 60 grocery stores.”
On the other side of the country, in Petersburg, New York, Leah Penniman is working to ensure BIPOC can be a part of their own empowerment through Soul Fire Farm. After discovering what she calls “food apartide,” a racially motivated inaccessibility to food, Penniman turned her farm into a place of learning, cultural preservation, and food distribution. According to their website, Soul Fire Farm’s “food sovereignty programs reach over 160,000 people each year, including farmer training for Black and Brown growers,” as well as planting at-home gardens for those struggling with food insecurity in urban areas and the delivery of harvested food to homes.
These remarkable people represent just a handful of the women who have taken on the fight against food insecurity, and we need more Women Warriors!
Help fight hunger in your community today by signing up to volunteer or by making a contribution to Mott Haven Fridge Network! The future is female. Let’s make sure it’s hunger-free, too!
Follow these links to learn more about these women and their organizations: The Shirley Chisholm Project, SÜPRMARKT, Soul Fire Farm, Edible Schoolyard Project.
