Dickinson College students in Dr. Heather Bedi’s Spring 2018 Food, Poverty, and Place class recently published a Cumberland County Food Assessment. They conducted the research, focus groups, and interviews incorporated into the report “in response to discussions with food advocates regarding the need for an assessment of the current status of food insecurity and poverty in the county” (p. 40).
The report identifies Carlisle as one of three towns/cities in the country which are food deserts (p. 11), and discusses The report considers demographics of the county, food insecurity and food deserts, supermarkets, grocery stores, and alternatives, farming, food benefits and charitable food assistance programs, and creating more opportunities for people to rise out of food insecurity.
As a conclusory note on the future of food insecurity in Cumberland County, the report finds that “the root of food insecurity in Cumberland County and in the nation, lays within the prevalence of systematically reinforced poverty” (p. 39).
The report acknowledges the importance of food assistance programs like Project SHARE, considering the ultimate goal of there being no hungry individuals left to feed. Their research argues that “the county needs more efforts which invest in moving people out of poverty rather than feeding the hungry” such as enacting living wages and offering more mentoring and training programs to the public (p. 38).
We highly encourage all to read and react to the report attached to this page!