Natalie Alia

Rachel Axelrad
Amanda Duarte
Marian Fregeolle
Hanah Kim
Jason Kawana

Community Inquiry Project
Food Justice

When our group first formed, we all shared with one another why we wanted to be a
part of the food justice group. Most of us wanted to be a part of the food justice group
because we recognized the inequality evident in the correlation between healthy food access
and socioeconomic status. We discussed how we have noticed that a large epidemic that East
Los Angeles, as well as the nation, struggles with is obesity. Though there are many factors
as to why obesity has become a major issue, one factor that we want to focus on is how
obesity can be caused by the lack of access to healthy foods. There are many health risks that
are associated with obesity such as diabetes and brain function in children. These health risks
could also lead to serious repercussions in regards to their academic performance.
We have come to understand that there are many complexities involved when
participating in this community inquiry project. We acknowledge that food in particular can
be a very personal topic because food represents many different facets of a person or
community. Food can represent peoples health, culture, traditions, and socioeconomic
status. We realize that there are layers upon layers when trying to analyze factors such as
these in relationship to food. When we talk about food justice, we understand the importance
of being sensitive and recognizing the complexity in what we are trying to accomplish. We
recognize that food has the power to stratify. For example, one type of food may be
considered of higher class than other types of food. Food can be used as a way to create
hierarchy between different cultures. Often times a certain group of people are blamed for
making poor eating choices without considering all the different issues and factors that
play a significant role in what people are eating. Furthermore, we need to be more cautious
and aware of the fact that we are outsiders who are unfamiliar with the community and
therefore cannot make any assumptions based off the limited knowledge that we have of the
community.
We acknowledge that we are outsiders, but we are committed to become a part of the
community we will serve. We will do this through interacting with the community members
as much as possible in order to find out what they feel are their assets or potential assets in
terms of health and nutrition. We want to do our best to avoid creating or suggesting simple
solutions without taking the time to see what the community already has. We also do not
want to jump into conclusions and dictate what the community does and does not struggle
with. By interviewing a wide variety of community members and listening to multiple
perspectives we hope to gain a more complete understanding of the community. For instance,
one of the things that our group decided to do was to participate in an exploration of the
community. While going out into the East Los Angeles neighborhood, we noticed that there
were not as many options for fresh food in the area as in the communities that we live in. As
a result, we spoke with a community member and he had expressed his concern that there is a
lack of options for healthy foods in the community he was serving.
All in all, our group has come to an understanding that as much as we want to be
helpful and serve in the best way we can, we do recognize that the issue of food justice is
very complex and may be difficult to understand coming from an outsiders perspective.
This makes it all the more important for us to assume as little as possible and always listen to
what people within the community are saying and advocating for.