local food concerns

increasingly, as missionaries in a particular neighborhood (the east end of downtown lexington), we are concerned with issues of food availability, food quality and central questions of justice for the poor. part of our groundbreaking into this has involved community gardens and sharing the stuff from our own patch (although the tiniest drop in the bucket, it has truly helped us to build relationships). but there are much deeper issues at work that must be addressed - transportation, wages, food costs, the wider u.s. food system, access to fresh and local produce, etc.

slowly we are building relationships with city officials, activists, and researchers at the university of kentucky who care about this stuff. with that comes hope, dreams, and the potential for some exciting projects based on a future with a local economy in our neighborhood - green jobs and food growing around us. it is our prayer that innovation could come to this place first instead of last. see this article in lexington's local business paper about this local food issue

http://www.bizlex.com/Articles-c-2008-11-25-82995.113117_Local_Food_Study_Highlights_Universal_Concerns.html#mail - here's just a bit of what the u.k. folks are finding and we think it is the very thing christians should concern themselves with -

"...Over the course of the research, Mooney discovered that there is a dearth of food stores in the poorest areas of Lexington. This can be especially crippling in areas where many residents don't own cars. Stores in those areas, though classified as groceries by the health department, often are merely corner stores that carry bread, milk and occasionally eggs. Of the 18 stores surveyed by Tanaka's 2006 class, 16 had no apples or other fresh produce."