On September 2, the Women’s Fund nearly filled the elegant New Vic Theatre with members and guests eager to attend an expert roundtable discussion on food insecurity in Santa Barbara County.
It seems like a paradox. How can people living in this major food-producing region be food insecure? At the same time, Santa Barbara County has the highest poverty rate in the state: 21.4% of its residents and 36% of households are unable to meet their basic needs.
The four-person roundtable, moderated by Susan Liles, Director of Nutrition Services/WIC for the Santa Barbara Health Department, included leaders working to both assess and respond to this ever-growing crisis:
- Lacey Johnston, PhD - President of the Foodbank of SB County
- Van Do-Reynoso, MPH, PhD – Chief Health Equity Experience Officer at CenCal Health
- Eryn Shugart, PhD – Executive Director of Veggie Rescue
- Angela Miller-Bevan – Executive Director and CEO of Unity Shoppe
Liles explained the difference between the physical sensation of hunger versus food insecurity, which is a social and economic condition caused by persistent poverty, rising costs of food and gas, low wages, unemployment, and systemic discrimination. These conditions not only affect households, but also whole communities.
Populations at higher risk include: working families that don’t qualify for rent, utilities, or food supplement benefits; immigrants; seniors, who often must choose between paying for life-saving medications and eating; and the 78% of single mother households, who can’t afford enough to get by.
All panelists agreed that the fear and confusion around immigration laws have caused families to stay at home, and to even terminate their participation in assistance programs to avoid being identified. Van Do-Reynoso noted that only “30% of qualified people are benefiting from the CalFresh program” while food insecurity is increasing.
According to Do-Reynoso, the short-term physical effects of food insecurity are “fatigue, headaches, dizziness and inability to concentrate due to fewer meals that include cheaper, less nutritional, high-caloric food.”
Over the long term, chronic health and mental health conditions set in, such as diabetes, obesity, depression, anxiety, and failure to thrive, due to the constant worry about and inability to get enough food.
Food insecurity threatens more than individuals and families. It threatens entire communities with its chronic, long-term physical and mental health effects. If families aren’t thriving, communities weaken.
Everyone concurred with Shugart’s emphasis on the importance of having reliable, up-to-date data to better understand the scope of the problem and respond to the changing needs. She looks forward to the much-anticipated Santa Barbara Foundation’s “Food Landscape Study” which will also be looking at LA solutions that have been effective.
Do-Reynoso urged more communication and caring to help reduce the stigma of hunger and food insecurity. “All nonprofit organizations, school counselors, MDs, and employers should ask the people they serve and with whom they work: ‘Are you getting enough to eat? Do you have enough food?’”
In closing, the panelists called on the audience to host food drives, to harvest and bring in their private orchard fruit and avocados, and to increase their support of all of the local organizations providing fresh, packaged and prepared meals to those who are food insecure – Veggie Rescue, Foodbank, Unity Shoppe, Meals-on-Wheels, church pantries, and soup kitchens.
We can all be part of the solution!