ST. JOHNS — Doug Killian, director of the Arizona Department of Agriculture, kicked-off a food access workshop at the Apache County Annex earlier this month to help the counties in northeast Arizona address the troubling and and persistent problems of hunger and food access.
The workshop was intended to draw together people trying to solve food access problems in local communities with representatives from state and federal agencies, and statewide and local nonprofits who can help.
The workshop was well-attended, drawing non-profit staffers, market gardeners and food activists from Apache, Navajo and Coconino counties, and the Navajo Nation.
Killian said that Apache County is third in the nation for food insecurity — and that shouldn’t happen in a state where a bountiful agricultural industry is an important part of the economy. Killian said that the state produced $23.3 billion in ag sales in 2014, and that 90 percent of the winter vegetable produced in the U.S. comes from Yuma.
“There is no reason any child or family should go hungry in this state,” he said. “Our job is to figure out how we can connect producers and the food to the people who need it,” he said.
Statewide issue
The need in Apache County coincided with an plan on the part of the Department of Agriculture to create more outreach, so the Apache County workshop was developed as a model to test out ways to bring people together to solve problems. Four similar workshops are planned across the state this year. The next one will be held in Mohave County.
Earlier this year, Killian named a 10-member Food and Agriculture Advisory Council made up of representatives from the food industry, growers, food banks and others to help address the food insecurity problem in Arizona. The state Department of Agriculture also hosted a Food Summit conference last April in Phoenix.
David Martinez, advocacy and outreach specialist for St. Mary’s Food Bank, sits on the advisory council.
“This effort is so crucial to begin putting into action some solutions,” he said.
The council will advise the Department of Agriculture with the goal of eliminating food deserts across the state.
Apache County District 3 supervisor Doyel Shamley was enthusiastic about bringing the food access workshop to Apache County, and he says he has seen the problem first-hand among the people of his district.
He said he spoke to Killian requesting help for issues of food security and other problems.
“I said to him, ‘We really need your help out here in rural Arizona,’” Shamley explained.
Local flavor
Local presenters included Chris Brown, of Concho Kitchens United, Barbara and Clark Hockabout, of Lodestar Gardens, and Peggy Miner, a master gardener with Cooperative Extension. They discussed the problems with developing more market gardeners and also encouraging home gardening to help solve hunger problems.
They all emphasized that successful home gardens are possible with access to help, know-how and money for things like greenhouses, cold frames and high-tunnel structures. Miner reminded everyone of the potential impact of home gardeners.
“In 1944, Americans grew 9 million tons of food in backyard gardens, 40 percent of all of the food grown the U.S.” she said.
Workshop participants seemed to agree that home gardens could be part of a solution to food access and hunger, but not a whole solution.
One attendee from Window Rock said that not many people in her community know much about gardening anymore.
“We no longer have the traditional knowledge to plant,” she said.
Access to water for gardens is another issue, especially when many rural residents haul water to their homes. Uranium-contaminated water is another problem in some areas.
“Food security is more than being able to produce locally. We need infrastructure for transportation and storage,” Shamley told workshop participants.
Shamley said he learned about the need for cold storage when he received an emergency call from the director of the Round Valley Senior Center last summer (the senior center is also a food distribution site for the community).
A truckload of food was headed up from Phoenix, and they needed help to unload it. Shamley found local high school football players to help unload the truck, but he also saw the problem with keeping the food fresh. It had to be distributed the same day or it would spoil. There wasn’t room for it at the senior center’s kitchen.
Public-private partnerships helps provide answers
Conversations between people and agencies at the workshop seemed to lead to at least one tangible solution that can help local food pantries bring more fresh food to area families in need.
United Food Bank and St. Mary’s Food Bank will be able to partner with Apache County, the State Department of Agriculture and Cooperative Extension to help hungry people by getting refrigerated storage to areas where food needs to be distributed.
“By the end of the day ... we realized there’s a way to have a network of these (refrigerated storage units),” Shamley said.
Apache County District 3 personnel will help to write grants to U.S. Department of Agriculture for for financial assistance to purchase refrigerated units with the help of food banks. The county can also use some of their locations to place the refrigerated units if needed.
Local agencies — churches, senior centers, food shelves — can provide the staff to unload deliveries and distribute the food in places across the county, including Round Valley, Concho, St. Johns, Sanders, McNary and Alpine.
While the solution will not happen overnight, the outline of a plan has been put in place.
“I’m pretty excited about that … alliances were made that I hadn’t expected,” Shamley said.
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