MY STORY BEHIND THE STORY
Food Justice! No Peas?
LaDonna Redmond’s on a quest to put fresh, healthy foods in Chicago’s South Side

The Root: September 14, 2009

By Phoebe Connelly,
Web Editor, The American Prospect
 IJJ Environmental Justice Fellow, 2009

My project--a profile of food justice activist LaDonna Redmond--came out of an interest in exploring how environmental justice does not always mean addressing ways in which communities are overtly harmed by problems like pollution, but also the how neglect and lack of services contribute to injustice.

My previous reporting focused on food access within communities. While an editor at In These Times, I co-authored a piece on the rise of urban agriculture. My co-author, Chelsea Ross, and I investigated efforts to locate farms in inner-city neighborhoods, and their effect on community health and food security. We looked at projects in Chicago, Oakland, and Boston. Chicago was a natural community to focus on for further food justice issues. Mari Gallagher's groundbreaking research on assessing food desserts started with her 2006 study, Examining the Impact of Food Deserts on Public Health in Chicago. She released an updated report this summer.

While my project didn’t change, my understanding of food justice issues deepened over the course of the fellowship. Field reporting in both LA and Chicago allowed me to consider how communities reacted to environmental justice challenges over time. Food justice is an issue that Redmond has been working on for over 10 years--the opening of a grocery store on Chicago's South Side is only her most recent project.

The biggest advantage I was able to bring to my reporting as an IJJ Fellow was an understanding of the myriad environmental justice struggles faced by these communities. Instead of having to educate me on the issues, my sources and I were immediately able to begin discussing the particulars of Chicago's food access challenges. I was given face time with some of the best researchers in the field during our Chicago sessions.

The story was presented online. While it originally included a 10-photo slideshow, that was cut due to editing constraints. This story also opened the door to other writing for The Root--I have subsequently published a piece on farmers markets in the D.C. area.

The article received many positive comments:

"I don't know about Chicago, but I do identify with the article when it comes to my hometown."

"The reality here is that many communities do depend on convenience stores and fast food restaurants as their main food sources. I congratulate Ms Redmond on starting up a fresh food store, and many other communities should also look at innovative ways make health foods an option, like making more farmers' markets available in these communities and opportunities for community gardens."

It also prompted conversation about the larger issues around food access and affordability:
"[K]udos, this lady is doing wonderful work. However, we need to stop with this myth that fast food is cheaper. It may be more convenience, but by no means cheaper than cooking. Therefore alone with teaching people about healthy eating choices, money management skills must also be factored. Since buying fast food is often spontaneous, people often fail to realize just how much they are spending over the course of a month, but if someone was to keep all of those receipts and add it up they would see that it's just has much if not more than if they had bought a buggy full of groceries."

I would not have been able to do this story without the Justice and Journalism Fellowship. I had the good fortune to be able to attend all of the conference sessions, as well as go out in the field. Taking full advantage of all of the opportunities afforded by the fellowship is the best advice I can offer to future fellows--that access, untethered to a deadline, or a particular story, can lead to exciting new reporting.