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I had the itch to post a healthy affordable recipe, talk about strategies to stretch food dollars, and to spotlight spring as the time to bring the spice cabinet outdoors and into herb containers.
But having worked 10 years in the hunger and food security arena as a community dietitian and cooking teacher, thoughts turned into reflection. I recall listening to Leah Chase, owner of the legendary Dookey Chase restaurant in New Orleans, at a Share Our Strength conference about seven years ago. One year post hurricane Katrina, she talked about hunger and offered wise words, “When legislators, service providers, and communities all sit down together and eat around one table, we will find the solutions we need.”
During this brief but powerful visit to New Orleans, when streets were boarded up and the farmer’s market was just reopening for the first time, there was a unity and a pulse around food that was palpable in the streets. I began to understand the vision of Leah Chase during that visit.
Today, I reflect on how hunger in the United States is a quiet catastrophe that requires collective solutions. From Congress to corporations to one’s own kitchen cabinet, there are support networks to weave and strengthen so hunger doesn’t continue to happen in our own backyard.
So this is my sketch on hunger “zoomed in.” Just a snapshot of food, connectivity, the kitchen cabinet and the table – where everyone sits together, eats together and finds solutions together.
This post was first published on the red lentil.