Food Stamps for Fast Food? We Can Do Better

I am reposting this from a newsletter I received from Community Farm Alliance - I think it is that important:
For over a decade, Community Farm Alliance (CFA) members in Louisville have worked hard championing the development of what we call L.I.F.E. - a locally integrated food economy that provides healthy food to consumers and opens new markets to struggling Kentucky family farmers. In 2007, we published our community food assessment, “Bridging the Divide,” which detailed West Louisville’s lack of access to healthy, affordable food and revealed the high concentration of fast food restaurants in the affected neighborhoods. While our assessment focused on Louisville’s West End, access to healthy, affordable food is a problem all across the state, from Lexington to Pike County to Fulton County.

The health risks associated with the most commonly purchased fast foods (which sometimes turn out to be the only available “food” for blocks, if not miles) are well known and well documented as are the costs to society in terms of medical care and absenteeism at school and at the workplace as a result of poor health. Increasing access to healthy, affordable food is therefore necessary to abate our current health crisis. Kentucky farmers can be part of that solution. Kentucky farmers need new markets in order to justify the transition from growing tobacco to raising crops for food. Those markets can be found in our underserved rural and urban communities; however they will not simply materialize. New markets for farmers will need policies and other incentives to make them both attractive and sustainable.

Regrettably, the proposal to allow seniors, the disabled and the homeless to use their food stamps to purchase prepared meals at fast food restaurants falls far short of being the kind of creative solution we need to address our Commonwealth’s food and farm crises. Indeed, for years now policymakers in Louisville and those from across the state have been generating creative policies in collaboration with a wide range of governmental, business, and non-profit stakeholders to support the development of a local food economy.

Just this past month, Mayor Fischer took a big step forward by naming the members of the Food Policy Advisory Council who will begin to examine Louisville’s entire food system and recommend policy changes to improve it. Louisville Metro Government and the YMCA are working hard to provide all of its citizens with healthy food through “Healthy in a Hurry,” a project that puts fresh fruits and vegetables in corner stores. And most recently, Mayor Fischer announced that his office would oversee the development of a LIFE Zone (Local Food Enterprise Zone), an area in which individuals and other entities would be provided with incentives to create new food businesses.

To be sure, local food is not limited to Louisvillians alone. Under the Beshear Administration, we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of Kentuckians shopping at Farmers Markets, many of who seek out the Kentucky Proud label - a marketing program administered by the Kentucky Department of Agriculture (KDA). KDA has also made Farmers Market produce and meat more accessible to all Kentuckians by allowing seniors and women (with infants and children) to use their food stamps and WIC benefits at the markets. In one of its more exciting programs, KDA (along with non-profit and other agency partners) has been working with school districts in dozens of counties across Kentucky to bring local food into school cafeterias. Even Lady Jane Beshear has made local food a priority; she maintains a garden providing the men’s homeless shelter in Frankfort fresh produce during harvest season.

CFA believes that in order to provide new opportunities for our family-scale farmers and access to affordable, healthy food for all Kentuckians, our elected leaders, businesses, and community organizations must continue to work together to develop creative solutions for the seemingly intractable issues we face. For instance, a coalition of groups could work to enhance Louisville’s most neglected neighborhoods by using food as a catalyst for redevelopment. The empty Winn-Dixie that sits on Fourth Street near Oak would be an excellent location for a local food processor or a community kitchen where entrepreneurs could prepare meals with food from local farms and community gardens to feed the thousands of seniors concentrated in Old Louisville. This would support business development, eliminate a blighted property and provide food access all at the same time. Or fast food companies could work to create a “local taco” or “local pizza” by sourcing products from Kentucky farmers.

We have come to expect creative solutions from our leaders that address the intertwining web of challenges we face today: chronic health conditions, poverty, dwindling markets for family farmers, and decaying urban communities just to name a few. CFA members will continue to expect and indeed advocate for such solutions but using food stamps for fast food is not one of them. We urge all Kentuckians to tell Governor Beshear that we need the kind of creative solutions that provide the most vulnerable in our society access to healthy, affordable food and promote the viability of family-scale farming.

Cassia Herron is a resident of Louisville and the Vice-president of Community Farm Alliance.

Beware What You Write or It May Not Be All Right

Imagine my utmost surprise when in my mail yesterday comes a notice saying my farm liability and coverage for home and buildings and equipment insurance is being cancelled for the following reasons: CSA income, coffee roasting and catering without a proper insurance. How did this all come about? Right here on the blog, apparently. Last year on August 9th, I mentioned we were trying to increase our CSA shares, would like to find a commercial kitchen as people wanted to purchase our coffee (which I roast at home for my own enjoyment and sometimes share some with a friend, it is not available commercially) and that we might like to supplement our farm by offering that option. It was a musing of hopes, but apparently was taken as gospel. Instead of calling me and asking me the questions, out of right field I received the upper right cut to the jaw. BAM. Take that.

I can't even fathom where my CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) shares even come into the equation. That is an agreement for purchase of my farms products prior to the season in exchange for payment. It is like a sale at a farm stand, except it is a pre-sale. And the partnership with the other farms (which we called Farm Gal Pals) fell apart, so we are only offering the single farm CSA's, you can get the info on our website. And I pass all the sales through my farm, so it is all reported. So what does my farm sales have to do with this? And if farm sales do have something to do with this - why is it 6 months into the policy before this comes to the table?

And so we are clear here, my value added products are either: made commercially if I cannot make it at: KHI Foods in Burlington, KY; made it our kitchen when permitted by using my state license of Home Processor, or my state license of Micro-Processor. I also sample foods at my booth at my farmers market using my state approved ALL SAMPLES license. A couple weeks ago we did have food at a private event, but it was made in a commercial kitchen by people in that kitchen, with some farm products to represent the farm, but was not made by the farm.

We are looking for a commercial kitchen to rent, and when it is time to consider the insurance I need to cover an operation of that sort, be advised we will make sure to have the proper insurance required by law.

So, insurance agents and insurance company, instead of blindsiding your clients, and taking the words of a blog as gospel truth - try asking a few questions first and making decisions after - instead of the other way around. I guess I will start looking for a new insurer.