Social Justice

Jacob Hammitt, Jenna Pancratz, Rebecca Nyangufi

Food Justice.

Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Social Justice: the fair and proper administration of laws conforming to the natural law that all persons, irrespective of ethnic origin, gender, possessions, race, religion, etc., are to be treated equally and without prejudice.

Food injustice in terms of social justice: Food injustice is the lack of food availability, food access, and food use. It also includes how the food is distributed and the poverty some communities face.

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A History of Racial Injustice

Tulsa, Oklahoma is a major food desert, especially in places where the residents are typically low-income and have little means of transportation. Many people contribute this to the 1921 Tulsa Race Riots. After a black man was accused of raping a young white woman, African Americans were convinced he was going to be lynched. They stormed into the police station to prevent anything from happening, which made the white population very angry. That night, thousands of white people marched through black neighborhoods, killing men and women and burning homes to the ground. Afterwards, 35 city blocks lay wasted, hundreds were injured, and as many as 300 people were killed. When the National Guard arrived, they proceeded to arrest all black citizens not already detained.

The unfair treatment of African Americans in Tulsa caused many of them to leave the city. The grocery stores that weren’t destroyed in the riots were deserted because the owners had fled. Today, there are still very few affordable grocery stores for miles in Tulsa.

Access to Food (Nolen 2017)

226,390 children in Oklahoma don't get food that they need.
Hunger costs Oklahoma over $1.4 billion each year through increased illness and decreased academic achievement alone.
15.5% Oklahoma households are food insecure.

Iron Gate

Iron Gate is a soup kitchen/food pantry located in downtown Tulsa. Our group was able to serve a meal to members of the Tulsa community. Considering how much of an issue hunger is in Tulsa, it was to no surprise when we ended up serving roughly 300 people. The meals had a variety of of choices full of nutrients as well as appetizing options. Community members were allowed to go through the line as much as they needed. Our group was also able to go behind the scenes of the process and prepare more than just meals for those in need. We went through boxes of donated plastic bags and made sure they were able to hold food in them, bagged breads and pastries, and created feminine hygiene product bags as well as other packages that would be given out to the community members in need. It was meaningful for everyone to be able to directly see who it is they are helping, and it was important to learn that even though food is a priority, humans have so many more needs that need to be addressed as well.

Kids Against Hunger

Kids Against Hunger is a non-profit organization that aims to end hunger not only with their community members, but for people all over the world. The directors Marshall and Sherry Horn were able to teach us about the history, purpose and procedures of the organization. They informed us on the importance of making nutritious, tasty, and culturally appropriate meals that will be able to feed the most amount of people, as well as food that can be prepared using minimal appliances. Marshall and Sherry also sell art and other products in which they give 100% of profits to Kids Against Hunger. While we were serving here we were able to create packages of rice that contained many vitamins and minerals, as well as savory seasonings. The way the assembly lines are designed are to make it possible for all ages to be able to serve, so that children can learn at a young age why they should volunteer, and also show them how easy it can be. Marshall explained to our class how much of an impact that organization has on just their society, and on both ends of the operation; Students and other volunteers would come to Kids Against Hunger for many different reasons, possibly for disciplinary reasons, and would find a completely new purpose to continue to serve there. This organization is not only helping those that are hungry near and far, but also teaching and motivating others on the importance of food justice.

Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma

Each day we did service work we were able to serve with the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma. We did a variety of service throughout the week, and each service was still tied to our class focus group of Food Justice. We put together bags of fruits and vegetables, non-perishable item packages for children who relied on school food for most meals, sorted through donated food to separate the food that would appeal to children, sorted through bread and other pastries, labeled cans, and worked in the gardens to bag vegetables for the Farmers Market. While sorting foods we were constantly reminded of who that food would be going to, possible common food allergies, and considered whether or not it would go to waste. We learned that even though the food will be donated to hungry people, they still deserve delicious as well as healthy food options. This was important to learn at the beginning of our service because we knew to take into consideration the variety of needs each person has.

Homelessness

Homelessness is one of the biggest contributors of social and food injustice.
Exploring downtown- noticed a significantly high number in homelessness in comparison to Iowa City.
There are 19 homeless individuals for every 10,000 people. (State of Homelessness 2014)
Working at Iron Gate, we saw how the city is working to reduce hunger in their community.
Most of the people that were taking advantage of Iron Gate were homeless. This showed community empowerment. Iron Gate was the biggest soup kitchen but was not the only organization that works to serve the impoverished community.

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Schools and Children (Nolen 2017)

80% of Tulsa students participate in Free and Reduced Price Meal Program.
1 in 4 OK children don't get the food they need.
In Oklahoma, nearly 24% of children live in food-insecure households.
653,090 people are food insecure in Oklahoma-- 220,000 of them are children.
Working at the food bank, we had the firsthand experience of packing food for children since being away from school meant that they were also losing their access to food.
The operation was efficient in ensuring that the children are not starving, but most of the foods that we would pack were not nutritional.
When the schools are out for the summer, children are left with no source of food.
Not having enough food with nutritional value affects the growth of children. They are brought up this way which puts them at risk for chronic illnesses, behavioral problems and malnutrition which affects the everyone and not just in the Micro level, but also Mezzo (the small local community), and Macro level (the whole population-- policy work).
We acknowledged the work being done to reduce food insecurity for children, but we believe more could be done nutritional-wise.

Our Experiences

Food insecurity is a very serious issue in Oklahoma, and our goal was to assist in combating that. Often times, food insecurity and social injustice are interconnected.

In 2016, Iron Gate provided 233,793 meals to citizens in need (Faces of Iron Gate, 2018). We learned there that many of these people were stuck in a system that didn't allow them to get out.

At the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma, one employee told us that there was a reason the homeless population was so large in Tulsa. She said that there was a big initiative in Oklahoma City to reduce the amount of homeless, so they gave many people $20 and sent them by bus to be dropped off in Tulsa. This is a huge issue because it's not fixing the problem at all. These people in need aren't getting help, they're being shipped off to be someone else's problem.

At Kids Against Hunger, the Tulsa manager discussed why these meals made so much of a difference. In India, the HIV and AIDS epidemic is still a huge problem, but one way to combat the number of people dying from the disease is by giving them consistent, nutritious meals.

References

1921 Tulsa Race Riot. (n.d.). Retrieved March 26, 2018, from https://tulsahistory.org/learn/online-exhibits/the-tulsa-race-riot/

Faces of Iron Gate. (2018). Retrieved March 27, 2018, from http://www.irongatetulsa.org/our-guests/

Nolen, E. (2017). Ending Hunger in Oklahoma. Hunger Free Oklahoma,1-92. Retrieved March 22, 2018, from

http://hungerfreeok.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/OklahomaAssessment_4.4.17.pdf

State of Homelessness. (2014). Retrieved March 22, 2018, from https://www.tulsadaycenter.org/about-us/state-of-homelessness/

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