We on the Arkansas No Kid Hungry Cooking Matters team do a lot of reading on various topics related to food and food policy. From time to time we will be sharing some of our favorites so they can become your favorites, too.

Enjoy a little light and tasty reading!

“Green for Greens: Finding Public Funding for Healthy Food.” ChangeLab Solutions (http://changelabsolutions.org/sites/changelabsolutions.org/files/Green_for_Greens_FINAL_(CLS_20120530)_20120119.pdf)

“New food retail facilities will bring jobs to the community. A full-scale grocery store, for example, can generally create between 100 and 200 permanent jobs and many temporary jobs, such as construction work.”

This report shows various methods that can be used by advocates to bring in healthier and fresh produce and foods into underserved areas. It’s a pretty detailed guide, giving examples of economic development and arguments that can be used in the push to acquire healthier sustenance in food deserts, while also providing information on resources that can be turned to for the purposes of securing funding to implement better access to healthier foods.

 “7 Lessons for Leaders” by Michael K. Stone and Zenobia Barlow (http://www.dailygood.org/story/608/7-lessons-for-leaders-michael-k-stone-zenobia-barlow/)

“Lasting change frequently requires a critical mass or density of interrelationships within a community. For instance, we’ve seen from research and our experience that curricular innovation at a school usually becomes sustainable only when at least a third of the faculty are engaged and committed.”

This article explores the realities of change and what it takes to affect it. This list faces head-on the reality that, in most cases, there is no quick fix, and that an outsider can’t come in and expect to create change when the community is resistant to the proposed ideas. This list covers many important points that are crucial in the non-profit world, but that are also so easy to forget or attempt to ignore in the idealism that drives many of us into the non-profit field of work.

PEACHSF: Parents Teachers and Advocation Connect for Healthy School Food (http://peachsf.org/)

“We believe that schools should not have to choose between meeting students’ academic needs and meeting their nutritional needs.”

PEACHSF is a good resource for people wanting to work to reform the foods available in school lunches. The website provides “How To” Guides and various helpful resources to help advocates for school lunch change.

“Food and Hunger” by the Rural Assistance Center,  (http://www.raconline.org/topics/food-and-hunger)

“According to the United States Department of Agriculture publication, Household Food Security in the United States, 85.5% of U.S. households had adequate food throughout the entire year in 2012, meaning they had access, at all times, to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members. The rest of the households, 14.5%, were food insecure at least some time during the year.” 

RAC is a source of resources for the people of rural America, both pertaining to food and other issues. The Food and Hunger segment of the website provides access to a good set of answers on the FAQs page, as well as links to resources for rural families, non-profits, and volunteers, from agencies that could be of help to funding opportunities, to research publications.

 “Beyond Bread: Healthy Food Sourcing in Emergency Food Programs,” WhyHunger, written by Jessica Powers and Theresa Snow, with Suzanne Babb (http://www.whyhunger.org/uploads/beyondbread/0596-WH%20Book_BEYOND%20BREAD_SingleHR.pdf)

“In one of the most affluent countries in the world, some parents skip meals so their kids can eat and some seniors don’t know where their next meal is coming from…What we see today is not a true emergency. Hunger and food insecurity in the United States is a chronic, systemic problem. We have a broken system that can do little more than attempt to plug the holes in our frayed social safety net. Chronic hunger and food insecurity cannot be solved solely by meal distribution or by admonishments to “pull yourself up by the bootstraps.” “

“Beyond Bread” is an interesting report showing the current state of emergency food programs in the USA, programs such as soup kitchens and food banks and pantries. It shows the challenges faced by emergency food programs in acquiring and providing fresh and healthier options to their clientele. The report provides examples of models used successfully by emergency food programs, with the knowledge that no program is one-size-fits-all.

“17 Foods You Didn’t Even Know You Could Freeze” by Sara Boboltz (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/16/foods-you-can-freeze_n_5578644.html?cps=gravity)

“While thawed avocados aren’t so great for eating plain on, say, a salad, because the freezing process changes their consistency, they’ll still make for a good dip! Wash and halve the fruits before peeling, then either freeze as halves or puree with an acid, like lime or lemon, and store in resealable bags for up to eight months.”

Tons of food are thrown away every year due to going bad before they get eaten, whether they’re forgotten in the back of the fridge or your preschooler hid a nearly full bag of chips under her bed. Many foods that would otherwise go bad quickly can be thrown in the freezer to prolong their shelf life, such as buttermilk and flour, along with avocados and fresh corn, which are generally cheaper in season than in the cold depths of winter. So freeze that fresh produce and pull it out when you want a little taste of summer during those dark winter nights.