Re/Storing Nashville has begun compiling stories from Nashville residents that go the extra mile for healthy food
How we shop, prepare and share food is central to how all cultures express themselves. Re/Storing Nashville, a project of MANNA - Food Security Partners, has launched Grocery Stories, an innovative approach to educating our region on the successes and inequities of our shared food system. Grocery Stories will be exploring aspects of our food system this spring, summer and fall, that will visually and narratively tell the stories of how we grow, eat and celebrate food in Middle Tennessee.
Grocery Stories began in early 2010 as a project of Re/Storing Nashville, a program that aims to bring awareness to food inequities in Nashville’s three designated food deserts - North Nashville, Edgehill and Cayce Place in East Nashville. Re/Storing Nashville has begun compiling stories from Nashville residents that go the extra mile for healthy food, whether low income residents riding public transportation or young urban families dedicated to their local farmers market or Community Supported Agriculture program. The project is also calling for visual artist to help document the compelling stories that we are collecting from our diverse food system - from farm to fork.
Grocery Stories visual presentations and written narrative will capture the local growing season, how our food is brought to market, purchased, prepared and celebrated through photography and video and culminate in a gallery showing, complimented with web and print presentations. We hope local visual artists will consider becoming a part of this important project by donating their talent to capture an aspect of our culture.
About Re/Storing Nashville and Grocery Stories:
Buying groceries ― sounds simple, right? Not necessarily. A report from June, 2009 found that 22% of households in the United States are located in low income urban areas at a distance of 1/2 to 1 mile from a supermarket ― with no access to a vehicle. How we access fresh foods has a marked impact on our health, and a lack of access to a grocery store, coupled with increased access to convenience food and fast food, has been shown to be a major contributor to high urban obesity rates, especially in children.
Grocery Stories is an interactive story-telling project that collects personal accounts of how people in Nashville shop for, prepare and share healthy, fresh foods through an online portal and personal interviews. The project asks participants to recount a recent or memorable trip to buy fresh foods, what did they buy, did they find what they were looking for, were they happy with the quality and how these foods play a part in their life with family, friends and their community.
Next, participants are asked to give a narrative of how they accessed fresh foods and whether they had any problems finding fresh foods. The program aims to help participants evaluate their ability to access fresh foods for themselves and their family.
Re/Storing Nashville is a faith-based program that brings awareness, and encourages action, for an equitable food system that provides healthy food access for all Nashvillians. MANNA/Food Security Partners brings people together to create and sustain a secure and healthy food system for their region, from production to consumption.
By collecting these personal stories we will bring a clearer picture of how Nashville shops for fresh foods, the disparities within our food system and how good food bonds our families and communities. To become involved in the Grocery Stories project, either as an artist or to share your story, contact Marne Duke at:
marnekay@me.com
For more information on Re/Storing Nashville, contact program director Miriam Leibowitz at:
miriam@communityfoodadvocates.org