When the current pandemic started, it immediately exposed the fragility of the global food system, causing devastation among food businesses and increased hunger, in addition to broader economic and health impacts. In response, Congress passed the federal American Rescue Plan Act in 2021. ARPA provided cities and states with a historic influx of funds.
Many of these local governments now recognize how integral food production and distribution are to an area’s health and well-being. Some cities, such as Phoenix and San Diego, have allocated ARPA funds to investments in their local food systems.
We are calling on the City of Pittsburgh to do the same by creating a Food Justice Fund. The Fund should invest a total of $10 million dollars over multiple years. This would amount to only around 3% of the city’s $355 million ARPA funds.
The Problem in Pittsburgh
In 2020, Pittsburgh’s Department of City Planning released the Feed PGH report, which documented food access disparities in the city. The city designated 23 Healthy Food Priority Areas—areas with high rates of hunger and lack of access to healthy food:
- Greater Hill District, especially Bedford Dwellings, Middle Hill, Crawford Roberts, and Terrace Village
- Lincoln-Lemington-Belmar, Larimer, East Hills, and Greater Homewood
- Perry South and California-Kirkbride
- Hazelwood and Glen Hazel
- St. Clair
- Garfield
While about 1 in 7 of Pittsburgh residents reside in HFPAs, more than 1 in 3 of the City’s black residents reside in HFPAs.
Pittsburgh should allocate the majority of Food Justice Fund Fund dollars to addressing this food apartheid. These HFPAs are neighborhoods that have suffered systemic disinvestment, resulting in high rates of hunger and low healthy food access.
How would a Food Justice Fund work?
- The Fund would be a targeted investment pool that small organizations, individuals, churches, or businesses that have a project that increases healthy food access in designated Healthy Food Priority Areas can apply to. The fund would prioritize minority-owned or run projects.
- It would be a dedicated source to support building a robust and resilient food economy, providing much-needed investments in community gardens, corner stores, and new capital projects.
- It would be community-led, having oversight from an advisory board comprising members of the community rather than public officials.
Why does Just Harvest support a Food Justice Fund?
There are so many reasons to invest in community projects that address food apartheid, not least of which is the return on such an investment.
Economic Costs of Low Healthy Food Access
Ample research has documented how food insecurity and low healthy food access greatly harm children. Their suffering and malnutrition lead to:
- lower academic performance, including increased school absenteeism;
- impaired social and emotional development, including increased anxiety and aggression; and
- higher rates of depressive disorders and suicide among teens.
All this costs schools more to educate our kids, who need more interventions, repeat grades, and are more likely to drop out. This limits their future careers and wages.
Similarly, food insecurity hurts workers. It results in chronic diseases such as diabetes and other health conditions, as well as depression, anxiety, and sleep problems. Employees in poor health are more likely to miss and be distracted at work. All in all? Lost wages and lost productivity for the folks who are the engine of our economy.
All of this amounts to a huge economic cost. For the City of Pittsburgh, lost wages and lost profit mean lost revenue. It means an extra burden on taxpayers for schools to meet their goals, and additional burdens on our healthcare systems.
Economic Benefits of a Food Justice Fund
Investing in a Food Justice Fund does more than just alleviate the human and economic toll of hunger. It supports the development of a robust food economy that benefits us all — buyers and sellers, neighborhood and taxpayers, producers and eaters. Supporting food entrepreneurs and food businesses – who have been battered by the pandemic – strengthens our economy. Supporting growers and retail outlets means more employment opportunities in our communities.
Two-thirds of job creation comes from small businesses. Targeting small organizations and businesses, as the Food Justice Fund is intended, is the most likely way to spur job creation in the food sector.
The Food Justice Fund would ensure that investments in food infrastructure are prioritized rather than just one of many competing interests in other community development buckets, such as the city’s planned “Avenues of Hope” projects.
Food Justice is Racial Justice
Nearly three years ago, City Council voted to declare racism a public health crisis in Pittsburgh. Food apartheid was created by purposeful divestment from Black communities and is one of the reasons we have such great racial disparities in this city.
Creating a Pittsburgh Food Justice Fund dedicated to ending food apartheid is a key part of dismantling systemic racism in our city.
Everybody who lives in Pittsburgh should have ready access to healthy, affordable food. For our city to thrive and grow, it must become truly livable for all.
What You Can Do
Pittsburghers in under-resourced Black neighborhoods have been struggling for years to get healthy food. They shouldn’t have to wait any longer. As the Mayor’s office and City Council begin their work on the 2023 budget, we must make sure city leaders get the message: We need a Food Justice Fund in the upcoming budget to address rampant food apartheid in Pittsburgh!
Head to our Food Justice Fund Action page on the website of a leading partner in this campaign, the Pittsburgh Food Policy Council. You’ll find contact info there for Mayor Gainey’s office, and your city council member. (Not sure who your council rep is? Look that up here: electedgovernment.org
