Food Insecurity

While keeping the social determinants of health in mind, this project specializes in examining barriers in the area of Bailey’s Crossroad. When diving deeper, the focus is on food insecurity in that area as well as ways to connect the locals so that they can receive an easier access to free food. In this project there is an emphasis on prioritizing community individuals and what they would like to eat and what they use in their culture, instead of just providing pre-made food for anyone. Community organizations play a huge role in holding events that provide free food and refer individuals to healthy alternatives in nearby community gardens that are tended by schools and faith-based organizations. Food is an important part of a human’s life and to be restricted or cut off from that privilege is disheartening. Solutions to having individuals in the community feel comfortable with receiving free foods from organizations include reaching out to others that have connections in the neighborhood to spread the word of the types of resources there are in the community.

ashanti martin 0:03 Hello everyone, my name is Ashanti. Unknown Speaker 0:06 Hi, my name is Selassie. And this summer we were able to research the area of Bailey’s crossroads in Falls Church, Virginia, where we analyze social determinants of health in the community. Our project specifically highlights food insecurity and how Baliey’s crossroad community members can get connected with healthy foods as well as foods they will prefer to eat. Before we begin, we will give a brief introduction of ourselves and talk about the first aspect of our presentation. Selassie Fugar 0:32 Hello my name is Selassie Fugar, and I’m a sophomore at George Mason University. My major is business analytics. ashanti martin 0:40 My name is Ashanti Martin, and I’m also a rising sophomore here at Mason majoring in Business with a concentration in marketing. The first aspect of our presentation, we’re going to describe what food insecurity is. The US Department of Agriculture, also known as the USDA defines food insecurity as a lack of consistent access to enough food for an active healthy life. Food insecurity can been seen as food deserts and/or food swamps. Food deserts are areas where people have limited access to a variety of healthy and affordable food, Food swamps are environments saturated with unhealthy foods because of large number of corner stores and fast food outlets. Now that we were able to give a foundation of what food insecurity is, we can provide some statistics to show the effects of food insecurity Selassie Fugar 1:29 According to the Fairfax County Community Health Improvement Plan 2019 to 2023 Fairfax County despite its high per capita income has the highest number of individuals who are food insecure compared to any jurisdiction in Virginia. In the county nearly 1/3 of elementary school students received free or reduced price lunch, and in some areas of Fairfax County they experienced higher rates of insecurity. ashanti martin 1:54 Now we can take a deeper dive into Bailey’s Crossroad. 71% of community members reported they did not earn enough to cover basic needs. 46% skipped a meal or had reduced food portions. 88% of respondents do not have a valid driver’s license. 49% reported chronic health issues. And over the past 18 months, community based organizations have seen massive increases of food insecure community members. Now that we’ve been able to talk about the statistical portion, we can go into the organizations providing assistance for Bailey’s crossroads. Selassie Fugar 2:31 During our research, we discovered and interviewed a number of community based organizations and resources providing assistance for the community members in the area. Today we’ll be highlighting the organization into four topics and the first organizations of FFO or food for others. Food for others was established since 1995, and it constructs of these three distribution programs. It also provides recipe cards that are sourced from the capital area Food Bank. ashanti martin 3:01 The next organization is Grow a Row. Grow a Row is a community based organization dedicated to grow fresh produce. The organization supply seeds and a soil test kit to community members in the partnership is divided into different sections listed below. Selassie Fugar 3:24 The next portion will go into the school systems. Bailey’s elementary has created and raised garden beds that students and staff members manage. In addition, Bailey’s is a food for others care mobile site location. Justice High school has an ecology club that has donated excess food from their gardens to Grow a Row, and the food from the gardens are also shared with custodial staff members as well as the members of ecology club. ashanti martin 3:58 Finally, we’ll be talking about the faith groups in the area. The first faith group is Columbia Baptists, Columbia Baptists first pantry existed, has existed for 40 years. Their pantry serves over 200 families every Saturday and for donation efforts. The pantry has created Amazon and Target list as well as established partnerships with grocery stores and restaurants. The second is First Christian. First Christian has allowed food uniting neighbors also known as funds to establish gardens on the church campus. In addition, they also partner with Fall Church community center also known as FCS. Lastly, their program Safe Haven has provided grow, grabbed and grow lunches every Thursday. And lastly, we have the Islamic Center Dar al Hijrah. The Islamic Center has facilitated crowdfunding campaigns for food banks in eviction Prevention’s. In addition, they the USDA agricultural programs have donated free food to their center and they are also partnered with the Capital Area Food Bank Selassie Fugar 5:07 Conclusion food insecurity is a complex issue. And with the right steps, it can be prevented. Connections with different organizations do matter and the problem is how to connect people who are food insecure to these organizations conversations with the community members. And this analysis suggests us sharing data and the information. This analysis suggests sharing data and information to an easy accessible process to receiving free food that individuals want and need. These might be some ideas to consider in the future. ashanti martin 5:37 Thank you and that concludes our presentation.