We Haven't Gone Far Enough

With an upcoming cafeteria tasting at a Northeast Philadelphia school, I was and still am excited to challenge young people to step up and continue the effort of fighting for their health. This fight doesn't end at the end of the school year, nor does it end with a graduation from any 4 year college to head start program. No, this fight is an everyday struggle to do the hard work of preparing healthy food because it's not just right but an opportunity to be creative and have fun. And before anyone tells me young people (or anyone for that matter) don't like to do hard work, if I've learned anything during this time of cooking clubs and attempted youth leadership development, it's that their is a real hunger amongst youth for opportunities to come together and feed not just their bodies but their minds and creative facilities. These young people need the opportunity to lead their communities to a place of stability and health. The question of: how ought we lead our communities? must be posed to these young leaders. Then, when they know their decisions will make a difference, the leadership development will launch.

From this kind of work in youth organizing around food and nutrition, that gritty question of "how" translates to real tactics they feel comfortable using. And never lost in the evolving movement toward action (because even doing nothing is an action of sorts, especially when you know the facts of the circumstance) the theme of entitlement comes in: what kinds of foods are these young people entitled to have.

One way or the other young people and their communities will have to take a stand on what children deserve.

Invite the "Other"
There are many sides to this food system that serve our children everyday. Other players with time and energy invested are the kitchen managers and staff working the assembly line end day in and day out. And what I would like to see are many more bridges being built to establish connections between young people and the staff tasked with serving them. Therefore, those of us in the 'alternative food system' need to invite the kitchen managers to the table to talk with the students. Perhaps after those traditional food system attendants introduce themselves and talk about why they work to feed growing children everyday we will see common ground and new and powerful alliances. Maybe then we, in the alternative, will be invited to look behind the scenes of the established kitchen.

The basic truth is that young people need more information about the system guiding their lives without they're knowing as we speak. The best way to do that is to work our way up the established food system chain and introduce young people to the adults responsible for making the decisions that affect their lives everyday.