Food Justice: From Convenience to Fuel
Volume 1, No. 28
I am coming up on completing two weeks of the detox. I'm ready for it to be over mainly due to the volume of detox tea per day. Yet, I see changes so I know it working. In many ways I am enjoying making progress in my health journey. I am inspired to get back into the kitchen when this detox is over. There were limited food choices when caring for my mother because she her taste buds severely limited what my father or I cooked.The detox currently has me eating whole foods, plant based.
I am finding that many of the foods I was eating was due to convenience. I am now focusing on viewing food as fuel for the body.
HEALTH HAVEN - JOURNEY OF FOOD (PART 2 OF 5)
After emancipation, Black women had more freedom in shaping their diets, but poverty, segregation, and limited economic opportunities still restricted their food choices. During this period, Black women became domestic workers, bringing African American cooking into mainstream kitchens. Many freed families continued to eat foods familiar from the era of slavery, which remained inexpensive and accessible. The persistence of soul food continued, with dishes like:
Fried chicken
Biscuits
Cornbread
Black-eyed peas
Because chicken was a more affordable meat compared to beef or pork, it became a central dish for special events. Black women would often fry chicken for large gatherings, creating a community that reinforced bonds within families and communities. Unfortunately, while fried chicken became a beloved and important food in African American culture, it was also weaponized as part of racist stereotypes about Black people, especially Black women.
Black women continued to pass down knowledge of gardening and food preservation, canning fruits and vegetables, pickling, and making preserves to ensure food was available year-round. I know this is one of the skills I regret not learning from my grandmother. She used to make her own preserves, hot sauce, relishes, and other fruits and vegetables. There was nothing like hearing to pop of the top on the mason jar of freshly preserved foods.
HERSTORIES: BEATRICE GRAY
BEATRICE GRAY
In the 1960s, Beatrice Gray, a nutritionist, recognized the growing issue of food insecurity in Southeast Washington, D.C., an area that lacked access to quality grocery stores—what we now refer to as food deserts. Determined to change this, she developed food buyers clubs, which allowed community members to pool their resources and purchase food in bulk at lower prices, creating a stepping stone toward a larger solution.
After 18 months of organizing, Gray led the creation of the Martin Luther King Jr. Co-op, a groundbreaking establishment in the fight for food justice. Opened in 1969 within the Arthur Capper public housing project in Capitol Hill, it became the nation’s first cooperative grocery store. This co-op gave residents control over their food sources, offering quality products that were previously unavailable in their neighborhoods. The cooperative, which operated for over a decade into the 1970s, was a pioneering response to the systemic lack of quality food options in Black and other marginalized communities.
Her legacy is a powerful reminder of how individual action, when rooted in community needs, can spark lasting change. Her pioneering efforts to combat food deserts in Black and marginalized communities remain an enduring example of grassroots activism and resilience.
NUGGET OF THE WEEK
“The sun doesn’t ask permission to shine, and neither do I.”
Until next time.....remember use your voice and document your stories because they matter!
