Detroit's Fair Food Network Promotes Double Up Food Bucks

Low prices for fresh Michigan-grown fruits and vegetables at Detroit-based farmers markets are the starting point for the Fair Food Network to help launch a food revolution.

The network's Double Up Food Bucks outreach project allows shoppers who receive aid through the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, otherwise known as food stamps, to receive tokens for equal value when they purchase Michigan-grown vegetables.

Oran Hesterman, Fair Food Network president and CEO, has a strategy that goes far beyond the buy-one-get-one-free result at the cash register.

In addition to putting healthier foods on the table for families, the goal is to build public awareness.

"We have a food system that is broken, just as much as our health care system, our education system, and our energy system," Hesterman says, explaining the need for a food revolution.

He notes that:

'" Urban area such as Detroit often are described as "food deserts" because they lack supermarkets. Former neighborhood markets have been converted to party stores that lack fresh foods.

'" Unhealthy fat-laden groceries and fast foods lead to people becoming overweight, causing such health problems as diabetes and heart disease. Children in today's generation are highly at risk.

'" As communities lose their "urban-rural" connections with family farms, public policy supports corporate farms that will not be sustainable into the future because soil is distressed and eroded.

'" Corporate farms tend to have unclean conditions. Consider this summer's recall of more than 500 million contaminated eggs that placed the public at risk of serious food poisoning.

'" Farm workers continue to be exploited and treated inhumanely, in spite of the efforts of heroes such as Cesar Chavez.

'" Rain runoffs containing fertilizers are polluting our waterways, for example creating a "dead zone" at the mouth of the Mississippi River in the Gulf of Mexico. This could be a larger long-term disaster than the highly-publicized BP oil spill.

"It's important that through Double Up Food Bucks, we are making healthy food more available and affordable for families, while supporting our local farmer," Hesterman explains, "but it's also important to use these kinds of projects to influence public policy."

For example, he notes that studies indicate that less than 5 percent of the food consumed by Michigan families is grown in Michigan. If this share were simply boosted to the 20 percent range, and estimated 30,000 jobs would be created within the state's hard-pressed economy.

Hesterman, 58, grew up on his family's cattle ranch in northern California. As a student at the University of California at Santa Cruz, he worked on one of the nation's first student-managed organic farms. For several years, he operated his own alfalfa sprout business.

His vocation took him first to Michigan State University's Extension Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, where he focused on sustainable agriculture and food systems. He then invested 17 years at the Battle Creek-based W.K. Kellogg Foundation, where he monitored philanthropic grants for nutrition projects in low-income communities.

In fact, his idea for Double Up Food Bucks came from similar programs in Maryland that received Kellogg funds.

During his years of activism and involvement, Hesterman says he has seen public awareness grow. An example is CNN's recent "eatocracy" feature story about the Fair Food Network.

"This is the issue I've been working on for my whole career," Hesterman says. "I'm just thrilled with the fact that CNN would cover this. There used to be a time when no (news organization) would cover these issues. There certainly are more receptive ears in Washington and Lansing regarding public policy reforms than there ever have been before, on both sides of the political aisle. The need for food sustainability has moved from the margins to the mainstream."

The Fair Food Network is aiming to expand Double Up Food Bucks into the Ann Arbor, Battle Creek and Grand Rapids areas, and possible as far outstate as Flint and Saginaw, all the way up to Traverse City. Hesterman emphasizes that sustainable agriculture is a universal need, but that the crisis is first unveiled in low-income communities.

Detroit locations that accept Double Up Food Bucks are:

'" Eastern Market, 2934 Russell, 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays.

'" East Warren Avenue Farmers Market, corner of Bishop Avenue and Esat Warren Avenue, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays.

'" Peaches and Greens Store and Mobile Food Truck, 8838 Third Avenue, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays.

'" Nowthwest Detroit Farmers Market, Bushnell Congregational Church, 1500 Southfield Service Drive, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursdays.

'" Wayne State Wednesday Farmers Market, 5201 Cass, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays.

'" Wayne State School of Medicine Farmers Market, corner of Canfield Street and St. Antoine Boulevard, in front of Scott Hall.

SOURCES

Personal interview with Oran Hesterman, (734) 213-2999, ohesterman@fairfoodnetwork.org

http://www.fairfoodnetwork.org/leadership.htm

http://doubleupfoodbucks.org/home/index/howitworks

http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2010/10/04/n_detroit_food_desert.cnnmoney/