Atlanta's Historic Westside Garden - Combatting the Issue of Food Deserts

One my most favorite organizations that I'm involved in at school is Goizueta Impact Investors. We have a small fund that we use to invest in organizations that are working to make a difference in the Atlanta area. One of the organizations that we had the opportunity to meet with this year was The Historic Westside Gardens. It's a super interesting organization that seems like a unique way to address some of the issues that are faced in food deserts.

The mission of the organization is to organize food production by the community, for the community to remove barriers to access fresh, healthy food and promote self-determination, individually and collectively.

The organization was founded in 2010 and began with one garden on Elm Street and put 10 residents of Vine City through a 60 day training in urban agriculture, self-help, and entrepreneurship. In 2013 another garden was added at Delbridge St. and Vine St. and in 2014 a third garden was launched at Odyssey Villas apartments which spurred the development of GLEN - Garden Links Empower Neighborhoods.

GLEN consists of multiple levels - home gardens, clusters of home gardens, neighborhoods, and the entire west side. Each level involves different resources and programming to address the community needs.

The saddest thing to me about last week's class discussion was how the lines between classes and race are so clear when looking at the locations of food deserts in Atlanta. A 2015 article in VICE interviews Ron Finley, who convinced LA City Council to allow fruit and vegetable plots on public parkways. He views urban gardening as a model for local business. "You're showing someone life skills, you're showing them how to take care of themselves, and you're showing them how you can grow resources. We've been taught all our lives that money doesn't go on trees—but it does. Billions and billions of dollars grow on trees every day. We need to have people realize that this apple you just grew is currency. It's not about being frivolous and getting your hands dirty—it's about changing people's lives and employing people. This is a way you can be self-sustaining. "

I think that's what's so amazing at HWG. They go beyond just teaching residents to grow food and help show them how it can be turned into money as well through farmers markets. It seems like a small act but this can actually create real results. An 8-year old girl in LA transformed her garden from a way to help her family eat better to actually paying bills. Learning business skills along with improving access to food is a valuable lesson that can influence generations to come.

What It's Like to Take an Interdisciplinary Class at Emory

When I first entered business school I remember reading an article about a class that would be offered that fall called "The Ferguson Movement - Power, Politics, and Protest." I remember being surprised that the university offered a course that could easily become controversial but was impressed that such a space to learn about issues not typically discussed in the classroom existed. I assumed that this was something in the law school or the political science department and was even more surprised to find that it was an interdisciplinary seminar. I hadn't heard anyone mention such offerings when I was recruiting at Emory and I had definitely not seen anything like that at my undergraduate institution. Though I was disappointed to see that the Ferguson class wasn't on the course slate every semester or year, I had already decided I needed to keep an eye out for another course that brought together students from multiple backgrounds.

This spring, the opportunity presented itself with Eating Ethics. Having grown up helping out my father's restaurant business and planning to go into the food industry upon graduation, this class definitely was in my wheelhouse as far as interests go. I was excited to come class and see students from Oxford campus, the nursing school, the law school, and what we at the bschool call "big Emory."

The first few classes, students primarily clung to their classmates from their programs. As we continued through the course and people began to get to know their teammates (and through some prompting from the professor), people began to branch out and get to know those around them.

I really felt as though the multiple perspectives in the room created such deeper thinking. As we discussed innovation within the industry, I would be amazed at something while others offered their criticisms. For example, as we discussed Amazon Go, I was thinking, "Wow, they are really transforming an existing market, that is so cool!" While one of the law students responded, "This is a slippery slope, if consumers get comfortable with facial recognition at grocery stores, who knows where facial recognition could be deemed acceptable."

The opportunity to leave the business school bubble and meet people from all different background was also amazing. Everyone at Emory is so impressive and has such different aspirations in life. In the bschool it is pretty predictable - people want to be consultants, i-bankers, or brand managers. In this class I had the opportunity to meet aspiring chefs, food entrepreneurs, real-estate lawyers, and OB-GYN nurses.

This semester has been a truly unique experience in my time here at Emory and one that I'm not likely to forget. Though I have a love for food and am biased towards this class, I would definitely recommend that everyone try to take at least one interdisciplinary seminar.

Christian Pulgisi, Relae, and Sustainability

I recently bought a cookbook called Relae that is based on a restaurant in Copenhagen that recently won both the 2015 and 2016 sustainable restaurant award presented by World's 50 Best Restaurants. I thought the book was inspiring and wanted to share some of the thoughts and works expressed by the executive chef and owner Christian Pulgisi.

Pulgisi started cooking at a young age and worked around Europe traveling and staging with some of the best chefs and restaurants in the world. He worked at Le Taillevent in Paris, El Bulli in Girona, and finally ended up at Noma, Copenhagen, where he worked as the sous chef to Renè Redzepi, thought to be one of the greatest chefs in the world/of all time.

Pulgisi doesn't believe that the current or popular idea of sustainability within restaurants is what it should be. He states that the goal of a restaurant should not be total or complete sustainability, but rather how to fit the ecology of the surrounding environment best to the practices of the individual restaurant. Moreover, Pulgisi is reworking the idea of fine dining and haute cuisine and how a creative and high end kitchen doesn't necessarily have to be expensive: "The weakness of Italian quality and fine dining restaurants, is the fine dining concept. Why should progressive, modern and creative kitchen remain closed in the fine dining experience kind of restaurant, or the super expensive restaurant? You talk a lot about crisis in Italy… but where is the problem to open a restaurant that is not that expensive?! Does this mean that you cannot make a high quality and interesting kitchen?! No!"

I think this outlook on the restaurant industry is unique and will be something that expands in popularity in the coming years. However, the movement for this must be lead by chefs and celebrity chefs around the world. Using molecular gastronomy, fine dining, and other forms of high end cuisine will form the next generation of gastronomic advancement that helps to benefit more issues than just taste and the performance of the dining experience.

Wendy's and the Fight for the CIW Fair Food Program

http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/corporate/about-200-march-on-south-tampa-publix-wendys-to-protest-farm-worker/2318497

Wendy's tomato sourcing has been a topic of hot debate the past several years. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) began food worker reforms in the Florida tomato industry after harsh working conditions for Immokalee, FL laborers were challenged. The development of a Fair Food Program in 2011 brought promising reforms to the treatment of food workers in terms of wages, working conditions, and sexual harassment. Although publicity pressured most major food corporations and distributors to join the program, including Walmart, Trader Joe's, and McDonald's, Wendy's refused to join, purporting that it was not its job to pay a higher wage (the program includes an increased $0.01 per pound of tomatoes purchased), but rather the responsibility of those who hire the laborers. On top of that, that specific Wendy's franchise in Tampa changed where they bought their tomatoes (Mexico) to claim that they follow the Fair Food Program, as CIW is specific to Florida
This brings up a topic that we haven't talked about in class. Although we have discussed briefly the sort of economic enslavement that corporations can force food growers and farmers, workers' rights is an issue we did not bring up. I'm wondering what you all think of this - is it the responsibility of Wendy's? Is the CIW targeting the wrong group? Also, is there a better method of going about these types of changes, as our "Eating Animals" lecturer from Compassion in World Farming discussed?

Rip Esselstyn on the Forward Podcast

As I mentioned in my last post, I have a dog.  She’s a three-year-old lab mix with a lot of energy.  I also don’t have a fenced in yard.  This means I spend a reasonable amount of time walking my dog around Midtown.  To help pass this time, I often listen to podcasts including the Forward Podcast hosted by Lance Armstrong.  While Lance’s interviews can be a bit clunky at times, he normally attracts pretty impressive guests* that make for an interesting listen.  This week’s guest was Rip Esselstyn who is a well-known health and food activist.  Lance and Rip have known each other for years, as Rip was a veteran on the triathlon circuit when Armstrong made his pro debut as a teen.  They also still train together as part of a masters swimming program in Austin, Texas.

Rip’s appearance was part of a tour to promote his new book, the Seven-Day Rescue Diet (this tour also included a stop on Emory’s campus earlier this year).  Their whole conversation is worth a listen (http://theforwardpodcast.libsyn.com/rip-esselstyn) but I’ve highlighted a few of the parts I found most interesting below.

·      Rip mentioned several flaws in the typical American diet including the fact that 94% of our nation’s calories come from refined process foods, meat or dairy.  These are all items with limited or no fiber and he believes this is a root cause of a lot of our nation’s health problems. 

·      He also suggests that many people’s efforts to eat healthier are misguided.  For instance some people focus on eating chicken or fish which they believe are healthy protein sources but these items have a similar amount of cholesterol as red meat and contain high levels of saturated fats.  He also points out that eating vegan doesn’t necessarily mean healthy (French fries, jelly beans, etc. are all vegan).

·      Finally, he also mentioned a movie project called The Game Changers.  It is a documentary that hopes to dismantle the notion that real men eat meat by showing high performing individuals that follow a plant strong diet.  As part of that effort, Rip will attempt to break the American record for the 200 meter backstroke for his age group later this year. 

*Guest on the Forward Podcast have included Jimmie Johnson, Bo Jackson, Seal, Ben Harper, Rahm Emanuel, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Malcolm Gladwell, Bill Burr, founders and partners in Zico Coconut Water/Patron Spirts/GoDaddy.Marquis Jet, among others

Shopping for twenty-two people, on a SNAP budget, in an Atlanta food desert

Shopping for twenty-two people, on a SNAP budget, in an Atlanta food desert

This was the theme for our final eating ethics class. Surprisingly, we didn’t have to travel very far out of the Emory area to find a food desert. Our starting point is 300 Northern Ave., Avondale Estates, Ga. As you can see by the map below this location is part of a grouping of census districts that are all considered low income and low access which are the components that creates a food desert.

Our challenge was to shop within walking distance of this location because not all constituents have transportation at their disposal and this can greatly affect access. We found that a Dollar General and Texaco were about a 9-minute walk from our location (0.5 mile). But before shopping we did what is called a windshield survey to assess the initial resources a community has or lacks. Below is a picture to show what the walk to the Dollar General would be.

What you can see is that there is long stretches of road without much, and very little commercial businesses. Occasionally there is sidewalk, but it is inconsistent and there are no bike lanes. As far as public transportation goes, there are close Marta bus stops and the closest Marta train station is the Kensington Station (26-minute walk). At the Dollar General, we found that they do accept SNAP and that they have an expanded food section. Below you can see what the food section looked like.

  

As you can see, most of the food is processed however, there are some available frozen vegetables, eggs, and milk as staple items available. We decided to cook mostly from the refrigerated section to keep sodium to a minimum. However, to stick to our $2 per person budget we needed to incorporate nutrient dense yet inexpensive foods such as dry beans and egg noodles. We ended up staying 60 cents under budget and made from scratch mac&cheese with broccoli and bean tacos for a vegetable protein dish. We were all very thirsty from this meal because it did have quite a bit of salt added to increase flavor. I asked a resident of this neighborhood where she does her grocery shopping and she cited the Dekalb Farmer’s Market as her grocery store. This is a great option for someone with access to easy transportation, but would be an almost two-mile walk each way for someone living at our original destination without a car. This may not be an accessible option in that case. 

This is an important experience for me to have as a future primary care provider to have because when I am treating patients with chronic diseases that relate to malnutrition. It will be important for me to evaluate their food access and incorporate this into their care plan. 

Shopping in a Food Desert (& Mac n Cheese Recipe)

I had a really eye-opening experience this week when Professor Girard gave our team some ideas to prepare for the lecture and discussion about food deserts. Colette and I found a food desert in Avondale Estates close to the east side of the perimeter. Looking around, we noticed that area mainly consisted of apartment complexes and some houses, mostly run down. The only places we could get food were a Texaco gas station and a Dollar General. The Dollar General accepted SNAP so we decided to check it out first. We were pleasantly surprised to find a small refrigerated and frozen section which I haven't seen at other Dollar Generals. On a tight budget though, we noticed how the food in these sections was more expensive. The most expensive item we purchased was butter. There were also numerous sections for chips and candy.

One of the most interesting pieces of information I learned from this experience was how often times, the food at places like Dollar General can be priced higher than at a grocery store in a different neighborhood. This really opened my eyes to some of the additional difficulties people face when they have poor access to healthy food.

I included our mac n cheese recipe (which makes a ton). What I love about homemade mac n cheese is that you can swap out different types of cheeses depending on your taste. A little added nutmeg really heightens the flavor of the dish, but it is not a cheap spice so we did not include it. Enjoy!

Mac n Cheese recipe
8 oz sharp cheddar
4 oz mild cheddar
4 oz gruyere (we used mozzarella to keep it in budget)
1 stick butter
1/4 cup flour
5 cups milk
2 packages egg noodles
1/2 bag Cheddar and Sour Cream chips

Makes 12-15 servings

Boil water and add noodles. Cook for about 5 minutes or until al dente.
In a large saucepan, melt butter and add flour. Stir for a minute or two, then add milk. Stir until thickened, about 5 minutes. Add in cheese and stir until melted.
Mix half of cheese mixture into noodles and pour into a casserole dish. Add remainder cheese mixture on top, followed by crushed chips. Bake in oven for a couple minutes until chips start to turn brown.