Hunger hits Detroit

[Enishi]

http://money.cnn.com...sion=2009080712

Hunger hits Detroit's middle class

Food has long been an issue in this city without a major supermarket. Now demand for assistance is rising, affecting a whole new set of people.

DETROIT (CNNMoney.com) -- On a side street in an old industrial neighborhood, a delivery man stacks a dolly of goods outside a store. Ten feet away stands another man clad in military fatigues, combat boots and what appears to be a flak jacket. He looks straight out of Baghdad. But this isn't Iraq. It's southeast Detroit, and he's there to guard the groceries.

"No pictures, put the camera down," he yells. My companion and I, on a tour of how people in this city are using urban farms to grow their own food, speed off.

In this recession-racked town, the lack of food is a serious problem. It's a theme that comes up again and again in conversations in Detroit. There isn't a single major chain supermarket in the city, forcing residents to buy food from corner stores. Often less healthy and more expensive food.

As the area's economy worsens --unemployment was over 16% in July -- food stamp applications and pantry visits have surged.

Detroiters have responded to this crisis. Huge amounts of vacant land has led to a resurgence in urban farming. Volunteers at local food pantries have also increased.

But the food crunch is intensifying, and spreading to people not used to dealing with hunger. As middle class workers lose their jobs, the same folks that used to donate to soup kitchens and pantries have become their fastest growing set of recipients.

"We've seen about a third more people than before," said Jean Hagopian, a volunteer at the New Life food pantry, part of the New Life Assembly of God church in Roseville, a suburb some 20 miles northeast of Detroit. Hagopian said many of the new people seeking assistance are men, former breadwinners now in desperate need of a food basket.

Hagopian is an 83-year old retired school teacher. She works at the pantry four days a week, spending two of those days driving her own minivan around town collecting food from local distributors.

The pantry, housed in the church basement, gives away boxes of food that might feed a family of four for a week. It includes dry and packaged goods like cereals and pasta, peanut butter, canned fruits and vegetables, 7 or 8 pounds of frozen meat (usually chicken or hot dogs), and eight pan pizzas donated from a local Pizza Hut. Most of the other food is purchased from a distributor or donated by the county food program. Last month they gave out 519 boxes.

Hagopian hopes the demand for food doesn't get much worse.

"I hope we're at the top of it because we'll run out of food, and then we'll have to go out and find some more," she said.

She should brace for the worst. Across metro Detroit, social service agencies are reporting a huge spike in demand for food assistance.

Gleaners, an agency that distributes excess food donated from food processors, says their distribution is up 18% from last year. Michigan Department of Human Services, which handles federal food assistance like food stamps, WIC checks and such, has seen a 14% spike in applications since October. Calls to the United Way's help line have tripled in the last year.

"Given the resources, we could double our numbers," said Frank Kubik, food program manager for Focus:Hope, a Detroit aid organization that fed 41,000 mostly elderly people last year. Kubik said his program is restricted by charter and budget from serving more than its current number of clients. But if that were changed, he could certainly serve up more meals.

"There's no doubt about it, there's just so many out there that are really struggling right now," he said.

The changing face of hunger

There have been plenty of people struggling in Detroit for a long time. What makes this recession different is the type of people coming in. It's no longer just the homeless, or the really poor.

Now it's middle class folks who lost their $60,000-a-year auto job, or home owners who got caught on the wrong side of the real estate bubble.

Many of these people have never navigated the public assistance bureaucracy before, and that makes getting aid to them a challenge.

"They have no idea where the DHS office is," said DeWayne Wells, president of Gleaners, the food distributor.

To assist these newly hungry, Wells pointed to the United Way's 211 program, where people can call the hotline and speak to an operator that guides them through a wide range of available social services.

The Michigan Department of Human Services is going digital, rolling out a program where people can apply for food stamps via the Web.

That may help ease another challenge in getting aid to the middle class: pride. Many people feel so bad about having to ask for help that they just don't, or they have issues with it once they do.

"They'll say things like 'I've never had to do this before' and they feel a little uncomfortable," said Hagopian, the retired school teacher. But she says times have changed, the good union jobs are disappearing and it's harder and harder to find work.

"I just tell them society is not what it used to be," she said.

Detroit responds

Actually running out of food doesn't seem to be a problem, so far. In fact, because more people are being affected the response seems to be greater.

"A few years ago it was someone you saw a profile of on TV," said Wells. "Now it's your brother in-law, or the people your kid plays soccer with."

Wells said volunteers are up at Gleaners, as is general community awareness.

The Feds have helped too. Food stamp allowances were increased 14% nationwide under the stimulus plan.

Detroiters are also helping themselves in smaller ways. Thanks to the dearth of big supermarkets in Detroit proper - a phenomenon largely attributed to lack of people - and plenty of vacant land, community gardening has caught on big.

0:00 /2:22Can farming save Detroit?

It's not so much that these gardens are going to feed the city, although they certainly help. It's more that they can be used to teach people, especially children, the value of eating right.

"I use vegetables every day," said one child at an after school gardening program run by Earthworks Urban Farm, near the heart of the city. "Last night, an onion I picked from here, I had in my potatoes."

Hearing that is good news to people like Dan Carmody, president of Eastern Market Corp., a century-old public market selling fresh produce and other foodstuffs near downtown Detroit.

Carmody is part of a group of people trying to bring healthy food to town. The efforts include setting up mobile produce stands around the city, working with convenience store owns to stock better produce, and trying to set up a program that allows food stamp recipients to spend twice as much money if they buy from a local farmer.

He says the food situation in Detroit is particularly depressing because the surrounding areas are chock full with some of the best eats around: Michigan grows some of the most varied crops in the nation, everything from apples and cantaloupes to peaches and watermelon. Windsor, just across the bridge, is the hydroponics capital of Canada. Artisan Amish farms are also close by in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Getting this food to Detroit, and getting Detroiters to buy it is the challenge. That's where the urban farms come in.

"Once kids start seeing where their food comes from," he said, "it changes the whole approach to how they eat."

[Fidget(+)]

Hunger is a horrible thing.

:(

[TitsMcGee]

http://www.angelfoodministries.com/

For $30 bucks you get a weeks worth of food...and they take food stamps.

Edited August 10, 2009 by TitsMcGee

[Fidget(+)]

thats good to know.

[Enishi]

I like the urban farming idea. I have a feeling we'll be seeing much more of it over the coming decade....

[Rev.Reverence]

Yeah, funny thing about food, it grows in dirt...the ground is LITERALLY covered in...why are peoples so hungry? Ah, many are spoiled or lazy...many more have just had their job given away to overseas...OR plain phased out...

...I agree, the home garden can seriously alleviate the family food budget...& will certainly be springing up all over...

[Enishi]

Yep.

Unfortunately, corporate farming has destroyed the soil quality in many areas as well. It's one reason much of our food doesn't have as much nutrients as it used too...

[Rev.Reverence]

Yep.

Unfortunately, corporate farming has destroyed the soil quality in many areas as well. It's one reason much of our food doesn't have as much nutrients as it used too...

..compost..compost...compost.....everyone with a really good garden makes their own dirt

...yes, I'm gonna' have a pimp garden when we finally get our own house...I can even put you intouch with a couple of peoples that have large gardens/small farms...

[jynxxxedangel]

Yep.

Unfortunately, corporate farming has destroyed the soil quality in many areas as well. It's one reason much of our food doesn't have as much nutrients as it used too...

That's what compost bins are for. Every family should own one. Easy enough to make, with a few found items-- and easy to keep going, with materials that most folks would toss in the rubbish.

[TitsMcGee]

Also check out farmers markets...although I'm not sure if ya'll have them down there. Prices are generally reasonable.

[jynxxxedangel]

Another good self-sufficiency link:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/

[AstralCrux]

Also check out farmers markets...although I'm not sure if ya'll have them down there. Prices are generally reasonable.

We have several, Eastern Market being the largest in Downtown Detroit on Saturday mornings. And an assortment of smaller ones in the suburbs.

[jynxxxedangel]

http://www.localharvest.org/store/local.jsp

Check this out-- just type your zip code, and this search engine will find local meat and produce farmers.

[Head Wreck]

community farming.

seriously

i produce more bell peppers than i need, more runner beans than my entire family can stand

and before i had enough tomatoes cucumbers courgettes and obergenes i needed.

i have lettuce in flower coxes

and a few basic herbs.

i also have a bay tree in the back and my conference pears should start producing.

now if if a few people start producing their own and trade/barter with others for bits of produce that they don't grow.

all food waste composted (tip, night crawler worms are voracious, and the urine is a great fertiliser when watered down for preparation of a new plant bed.

and people over there have much bigger gardens than over here i notice.

i actually have a 6 acre field that's designated agricultural land i am so tempted to break up and rent out allotments for gardeners for quite cheap, as the land doesn't encour any charges as it is and is just sitting there after my grandfather retired from beekeeping

[AstralCrux]

I have a new chainsaw... Those bushes in the yard are going down... By next year I should have the garden plots ready... Oh, homeownership, it's a long and interesting process.

[LadyKay]

I grew a garden this year. This morning I picked green beans and got them ready for the freezer. In a few weeks I hope the corn and the tomato's are ready. I like the ideal of being self reliant.

[TitsMcGee]

I grew a garden this year. This morning I picked green beans and got them ready for the freezer. In a few weeks I hope the corn and the tomato's are ready. I like the ideal of being self reliant.

Canning them would be better, because they will stay longer that if you freeze them.

[Tacohitts]

I like the urban farming idea. I have a feeling we'll be seeing much more of it over the coming decade....

When every product in this country is treated like "gold" everyone will have a tough time affording it.

[jynxxxedangel]

Canning them would be better, because they will stay longer that if you freeze them.

Actually, the best way I know of to preserve pole or string beans is to make "leather breeches," like the old folks used to do. Once dried, and kept in a cool, dark place, these beans will keep indefinitely. Sometimes, people even lightly smoked them with hickory, to further discourage insects and spoilage.

Instructions for making "leather breeches"

Of course, there was no such thing as dehydrators back in the olden days, so people used the second method.

[AstralCrux]

If you are interested in learing canning I hate to say it but "Canning for Dummies" is awesome.

[Onyx]

Bringing this thread back up again to add --

http://www.grownindetroit.tv/

http://grownindetroit.blogspot.com/2009/09/reactions.html#comments

such a great idea. I hope it catches on everywhere.