Closing the food gap: resetting the table in the land of plenty

Abstract

How do we explain the shocking existence of hunger in a country of staggering abundance? What is being done to end hunger? What more do we need to do? These are the urgent questions Mark Winne addresses in Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty. A veteran of the long struggle to overcome disparities in the American food system, Winne weaves stories that tug at our hearts with hard-hitting pronouncements about poverty and policy and hopeful examples of people working together against hunger. In a way that is both accessible and compelling, Winne tells the disturbing tale of the gap between the haves and have-nots in America, focusing on that most basic of human needs—food. He is neither naive nor sanguine in this effort, shining the light on hopeful projects and policies where he can but never losing sight of the bigger problem of inequality. He implores us to stop tinkering around the edges and focus directly on the root cause of hunger: poverty. Winne points out that without directly addressing the income gap, the food gap will shrink only intermittently and idiosyncratically; worse, it may grow. The food gap is the inequality in the American food system that has been addressed by anti-hunger advocates for decades. Winne explains that while many public and private efforts to reduce this gap have been altruistic and useful, others have been self-serving or irrelevant. In discussing contemporary trends in the food system, such as the interest in organic and local foods, along with new market mechanisms such as community-supported agriculture, he worries that the food gap might be growing rather than shrinking. He wants to make sure that the efforts we put into changing the food system will take us in the direction of greater rather than less social justice. The book is organized chronologically, beginning with the early days of Winne’s involvement in changing the food system. He lays out the basic problematic of hunger in a land of plenty and describes early anti-hunger efforts. The second section, “The Reactions,” chronicles the evolution of farmers’ markets, community gardens, and food banks. Winne celebrates these kinds of projects for the effects they have had on community engagement and for providing food to hungry people, but he cautions that these types of efforts are insufficient to close the food gap. The final section of the book discusses contemporary issues and projects, such as food deserts, movements for organic and local food, community-supported agriculture, and changes in government food-assistance programs. Unforgettable are the stories of impoverished and beleaguered women making arduous journeys on multiple buses to get to places that offer them so little once they arrive. A major strength of the book is Winne’s street creds. He has been working on nearly every type of effort to create a just food system for thirty years. In that time, he has traveled the halls of government, organized projects in inner-city communities, and dug in the dirt to coax food from abandoned land. His book is much more than a collection of stories, though, as his argument that we need to focus on eliminating poverty never retreats too far into the background. Descriptions of food projects and people’s experiences are vivid, interspersed with enough statistics to keep us focused on the problem at hand. While Winne’s personal experience with food-security policies and programs adds to the credibility of the book, it goes a bit too far in the direction of autobiography. More detail on the life stories of the food-insecure people with whom Winne has worked, and less on his own, would have increased the book’s ability to influence those new to the terrain of food justice. And, while the emphasis on story is a strength of the book, there is so much emphasis on stories and events that it is difficult at times to hold on to the thread of what is being discussed in a given section. It would have been helpful if the book had included an index, so that readers could hone in on specific topics. And, while Closing the Food Gap is not intended as an academic text, it still would have been helpful to provide citations for facts and figures. Closing the Food Gap is an extremely powerful and readable book that will bring people to the table and the food justice movement. Winne never sacrifices argumentation and facts in the interest of readability. He strikes an almost perfect balance in this important book. Winne makes us care, and he gives us hope that we can, indeed, close the food gap.