Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty

From the War on Poverty to new farmers' markets, a food expert tackles America's dangerous dietary split

Limp lettuce. Rotting apples. Dusty cans of spinach, corn, and peas under glaring fluorescent lights. Such a setting does not appeal to the modern shopper, who much prefers softly lit stores stocked with fresh produce and healthy prepared meals, or even open-air markets. But for many impoverished Americans, as Mark Winne explains, such pleasant shopping experiences are simply not an option.

Closing the Food Gap tells the story of how we get our food: from poor people at food pantries or bodegas and convenience stores to the more comfortable classes, who increasingly seek out organic and local products. Winne's exploration starts in the 1960s, when domestic poverty was rediscovered, and shows how communities since that time have responded to malnutrition with a slew of strategies and methods. But the story is also about doing that work against a backdrop of ever-growing American food affluence and gastronomical expectations.

Calling largely on his own experience in this field, mixing in surprisingly witty observations on our evolving relationships with food, Winne ultimately envisions realistic partnerships in which family farms and impoverished communities come together to address their continuing struggles.

An engaging, candid, and sometimes funny look at how ordinary people--and extraordinary ones like the author--have struggled over three plus decades to create a fair food system, in the absence of public sector compassion. Winne has done it all--food coops, emergency feeding, farmers' markets, community gardening, Community Supported Agriculture, public policy.He tells us why and how, weaving into his own experiences stories from other cities across the country to create an essential picture of how people like him are struggling to reset the country's table for everyone.

--Joan Dye Gussow, author of This Organic Life: Confessions of a Suburban Homesteader

Closing the Food Gap is a deeply moving account of Mark Winne's long career as an advocate for policies that will ensure adequate nutrition for the poor. Reading this book should make everyone want to advocate for food systems that will feed the hungry, support local farmers, and promote community democracy--all at the same time. I want all my students to read this beautifully written and important book.

--Marion Nestle, Paulette Goddard professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University, and author of Food Politics and What to Eat

Mark Winne tackles the world of food deserts, hunger relief and the disparities of the 'haves' and 'have-nots' from both a personal and professional viewpoint that at once educates on and illuminates these very complicated issues. Winne makes these issues and their interrelationships not only understandable but also compelling for all those who care about social justice in our country.

--Chef Ann Cooper, author of Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children

"Having been a part of the movement since the 1970s, serving as (among other positions) the executive director of the Hartford Food System, Winne has an insider's view on what it's like to feed our country's hungry citizens. Through the lens of Hartford, Conn. — a quintessential 'inner city' bereft of decent food options apart from bodegas and fast food chains — he explains the successes he witnessed and helped to create: community gardens, inner city farmers' markets and youth-run urban farms. Winne concludes his tale in our present food-crazed era, giving voice to low-income shoppers and exploring where they fit in with such foodie discussions as local vs. organic. In this articulate and comprehensive book, Winne points out that the greatest successes have been 'an informal alliance between sustainable agriculture and food security advocates... that shows promise for helping both the poor and small and medium-size farmers.' For the most part it is a calm, well-reasoned and soft-spoken call to arms to fight for policy reform, rather than fill in, with community-based projects and privately funded programs, the gaps left by our city and state legislators." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Common wisdom finds no mystery here: people too dumb to get rich are also too dumb to eat right, so they get fat and sick. Actually, points out Winne, the problem is that all the supermarkets abandoned poor neighborhoods during the final decades of the past century. After showing why poor Americans have lost access to good food and the consequences of that, he profiles approaches and specific programs that he and others have pursued to solve the problem. They include cajoling supermarket chains to return, starting community and cooperative stories, urban gardening, food banks, farmers' markets, and community-supported agriculture. Whatever efforts individual and communities make, he finds, a change in public policy is needed makes supporting poor people as important as subsidizing farmers. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

In Closing the Food Gap, food activist and journalist Mark Winne poses questions too often overlooked in our current conversations around food: What about those people who are not financially able to make conscientious choices about where and how to get food? And in a time of rising rates of both diabetes and obesity, what can we do to make healthier foods available for everyone?

To address these questions, Winne tells the story of how America's food gap has widened since the 1960s, when domestic poverty was "rediscovered," and how communities have responded with a slew of strategies and methods to narrow the gap, including community gardens, food banks, and farmers' markets. The story, however, is not only about hunger in the land of plenty and the organized efforts to reduce it; it is also about doing that work against a backdrop of ever-growing American food affluence and gastronomical expectations. With the popularity of Whole Foods and increasingly common community-supported agriculture (CSA), wherein subscribers pay a farm so they can have fresh produce regularly, the demand for fresh food is rising in one population as fast as rates of obesity and diabetes are rising in another.

Over the last three decades, Winne has found a way to connect impoverished communities experiencing these health problems with the benefits of CSAs and farmers' markets; in Closing the Food Gap, he explains how he came to his conclusions. With tragically comic stories from his many years running a model food organization, the Hartford Food System in Connecticut, alongside fascinating profiles of activists and organizations in communities across the country, Winne addresses head-on the struggles to improve food access for all of us, regardless of income level.

Using anecdotal evidence and a smart look at both local and national policies, Winne offers a realistic vision for getting locally produced, healthy food onto everyone's table.

From the War on Poverty to new farmers' markets, a food expert tackles America's dangerous dietary split

Limp lettuce. Rotting apples. Dusty cans of spinach, corn, and peas under glaring and#64258;uorescent lights. Such a setting does not appeal to the modern shopper, who much prefers softly lit stores stocked with fresh produce and healthy prepared meals, or even open-air markets. But for many impoverished Americans, as Mark Winne explains, such pleasant shopping experiences are simply not an option.

Closing the Food Gap tells the story of how we get our food: from poor people at food pantries or bodegas and convenience stores to the more comfortable classes, who increasingly seek out organic and local products. Winne's exploration starts in the 1960s, when domestic poverty was "rediscovered," and shows how communities since that time have responded to malnutrition with a slew of strategies and methods. But the story is also about doing that work against a backdrop of ever-growing American food afand#64258;uence and gastronomical expectations.

Calling largely on his own experience in this and#64257;eld, mixing in surprisingly witty observations on our evolving relationships with food, Winne ultimately envisions realistic partnerships in which family farms and impoverished communities come together to address their continuing struggles.