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Fostering a strong sense of community is essential for tackling the problem of food insecurity. A study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that “individuals who share their goals with others are more likely to achieve them” and that “by being part of a community, individuals have a support system that motivates and encourages progress towards personal development goals” (2023).

Nourishing this environment is essential when discussing solutions to eliminating food insecurities in communities because a robust community provides a supportive framework for implementing sustainable measures.

Community Is The Foundation To Success

Although food pantries have already been implemented in many communities, they often aren't able to provide people with food they can and will eat. For example, Diana Castellanos (2022) mentions foods like acorn squash being donated. It is a healthier option, however many people lack the ability to prepare it or they would prefer to have more boxes of mac and cheese, which is easier to prepare than a hard-to-slice winter vegetable. Additionally, many of the foods donated are boxed and require other ingredients such as milk, butter and meats that most food pantries don't carry or get donated to them. Acccording to Karen Bohnert (2021), "milk is one of the most requested yet least donated items at food banks." Much of this is because they don't have the proper refrigeration or capacity to store items like these. In order to fix the refrigeration issue, the community should work at applying for grants for refrigerators in their food pantries and food banks. By doing so, these places would then be able to supply and distribute fresh foods and liquids such as meat and dairy.

My Pantry Express explains that non-perishable items are the most popular forms of food bank and pantry donations. They often come from schools, churches and small communities who start the donation process. In terms of produce, those items typically comes from the farmers themselves. Grocery stores and restaurants are responsible for many of the food items donated like meats, baked goods and dairy.

So What Can We Do?

Traditionally, the government has invested its money into food banks, food vouchers, and different programs through schools. Although they have served some communities well, more innovative and effective approaches have been made such as community gardening. Angrish notes in his article that “community gardens provide individuals and families with separate, communal, or mixed gardening areas to grow fresh food, herbs, and plants of their choosing.” In this sense, gardening acts as a promising strategy in decreasing food insecurity because of its ability to provide lower-income households with access to nutritious foods. Additionally, gardening can improve the quality of one’s physical and mental health. Angrish mentions that “gardening can burn between 250-500 calories per hour” and that evidence suggests “those with small gardens experience 86 stress occasions a year, compared to the 65 stress occasions experienced by individuals with larger green gardens.” An example of this proving to be successful is in New York City. Established in 1987, Grow NYC runs “numerous programs including Youthmarket, youth educations markets, farmer’s markets, and kitchens” (Angrish). Over 1,000 families are able to pick up fresh fruits and vegetables every week and even more is distributed to underserved communities.