NCJW Dallas Raises Awareness on Our City’s “Food Deserts”

March 13, 2019

Our love for fresh food and serving the community radiated during the NCJW Dallas’ Winter Meeting. Over a delicious lunch hosted by Café Momentum, the speakers expressed their concern for the lack of access to fresh food plaguing South Dallas.The discussion revolved around the meaning of “food deserts.” Coined by Daron Babcock, the CEO and founder of Bonton Farms, the term describes areas where access to fresh foods is very scarce or non-existent.

In South Dallas, where Mr. Babcock started his farming experiment to fuel the community with fresh food, employment opportunities and meaningful social interaction, diabetes, heart disease, and obesity rates are skyrocketing. Unemployment follows similar trends, along with criminal activity. Everything is interconnected, because, Mr. Babcock explained, “food is just a piece of the [poverty] puzzle.”

In tandem, Anga Sanders, the CEO and founder of Feed Oak Cliff, pressed on the same concerns. She painted a complex and alarming reality, particularly how food insecurity corrodes many aspects of life. Very emotionally, she dispelled that lack of motivation argument by noting that “even poor mothers want fresh food for their babies,” complementing Mr. Babcock’s take. “Fighting poverty is like climbing Mount Everest in flip-flops,” Mrs. Sanders concluded, and we – the community – need to do much better.

Chad Houser, the founder of Café Momentum, that trains troubled youth in the art of fine cuisine and life, presented more data. Especially linking “food deserts” to health issues and unemployment, Mr. Houser urged for more public awareness on poverty. “People are a product of their circumstances,” he noted, and without looking at poverty through lenses fitted to reality, most efforts – both public and private, won’t have the desired impact.  

Filled with valuable lessons and heroic examples of community service, the NCJW Dallas Winter Meeting was food for the soul, a call for action, and a Valentine’s Day well-spent.