Food Insecurity realities

My first work as a community activist started around food sovereignty, environmental sustainability and community access. I was working with NYCHA Garden & Greening program (now know as Garden & Sustainability program) and volunteering with the International Rescue Committe New Roots program. I had never learned about activism around food sovereignty, community gardens or community appropriation of public spaces. 

I familiar with activism around race and the environment. Maybe I would extend it to religion and feminism if I wanted to be inclusive. However, organizing not just around food insecurity but also connecting it with housing, criminal justice reform and the School to prison pipeline has been REVOLUTIONARY to me. Community activism is very powerful, exciting and inspiring. It seemed like a whole new world.

Then I read a poem.



 "...Pay the [highest] rent. Love your Enemy. Sell you rotten food. Love your Enemy. Force to live in the slums. Love your enemy. Dilapidated schools. Love your enemy. Puts you in jail. Love your enemy..."

My sister was reading an Anthology of Poems from black authors. She shared Yusef  Iman's work: Love Your Enemy. This poem was written in the 70s!! I was surprised to consider his themes. Black communities battled with crappy food in the 60s?

I thought food dessert was a new phenomenon resurfacing after its last hey day in slavery. (During slavery, slaves were feed scraps and forced to make do with what they had). Often you see grants or attend workshops from Department of City Planning  "Fresh zones" to Department of Health, different actors ask how they can address food insecurity in the Bronx, Brooklyn, in Bedstudy, on Southern Blvd.? I am speechless. I was "shooked" as I read Yusef Iman's poem.

What has changed? Are we ever going to address injustices -on earth? Or will we just continue to shifting problems and communities?