A Community That Eats Together Stays Together
Food Access Priorities Highlighted at May Forum
By Janis Carrasquel Hernández
GPHN Intern
Food is a powerful thing. The taste of homemade food brings families together around the dinner table. Snack exchanges during school lunch break build long-lasting friendships.
Food was also the main reason why about 60 Greater Park Hill Community leaders and neighbors gathered to celebrate the second Food Forum Dinner & Dialogue. The meeting was held at the Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church on May 20.
On the menu that night: chicken with mushroom sauce, veggies and salads. The main course, however, was to brainstorm ideas to make sure Park Hill residents continually have access to healthy food.
“I am ecstatic. We’ve been working on this for so long. So to see it come together with such a turnout is exciting,” said John Brett, a CU Denver professor and one of the event organizers.
The dinner and event was coordinated by Greater Park Hill Community, Inc. and the University of Colorado at Denver. Sponsors included Natural Grocers, Denver Environmental Health and Anschutz Medical Campus.
Denver City Councilman Christopher Herndon briefly took the microphone to express satisfaction for seeing the community participating to generate change.
Nita Mosby-Henry, an executive at Children’s Hospital Colorado, facilitated the conversation. She began with a review of problems related to access to food in Park Hill and objectives that were identified during the first such forum held March 20. Then, participants highlighted several specific obstacles to food access in the neighborhood, including a lack of public transportation to grocery stores, poor sidewalks and the inability to safely walk to stores, and some being worried about an increase in crime in the neighborhood.
At the May dinner and forum, participants teamed up to strategize long-term solutions. By popular vote, they identified their top priorities, along with ideas for implementation. Among them:
• Everyone should be able to eat well regardless of income – including cooking classes using affordable and healthy ingredients, subsidizing neighbors who are willing to maintain a collective garden, and rescuing unused food from restaurants
• Having food delivered to people with limited mobility – including affordable delivery options from grocery stores and designating one person who is willing to make grocery runs for their neighbors
• People should know their neighbors, and eat together – including having more block parties, taking sack lunches to neighbors and having community barbecues
“I am so glad that we can get a lot of people in the room to talk about what we want to see in the future,” said participant Meg Caley. Another, Henry Fonda McClain, noted, “they got a lot of good ideas here and now we need to get to the execution.”
Said GPHC, Inc. Executive Director Rebecca Born: “I’m feeling very good about this. People sometimes get disillusioned because it’s a complicated process and there aren’t always clear distinct answers, but going through the process of community-based research helps us understand what’s really going on in the neighborhood.
“Without that understanding it wouldn’t be prudent to begin to develop action steps.”