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Hunger Coalition Fends off Grasshoppers, Stigma as it Reimagines the Hunger Fix
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Thursday, October 4, 2018
 

STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

They battled a plague of grasshoppers who hopped away with a major case of garlic breath. But The Hunger Coalition still managed to wrest enough food away from the herbivorous insects to provide veggies for volunteers and others.

The Hunger Coalition celebrated its harvest, a new website, a new logo, a new tagline and a new way of talking about hunger with a party at Hope Garden last week.

Those in attendance enjoyed some of the fruits of the season from both Bloom Farm and Hope Garden even as they learned of The Hunger Coalition’s new attempts to achieve food justice, an effort enabled by a $50,000 matching grant given last summer.

It’s a never-ending battle in a county that has the eighth highest food costs in the nation and in a town that has the ninth greatest wealth inequality in the country.

The Hunger Coalition feeds 19 percent of the community, said Kristin McMahon, the organization’s communications and development supervisor.  It served 3,914 local people last year and has seen record numbers at its food pantry six of the last seven months. A record 175 people accessed the food bank during one week alone.

Of course, the grasshoppers didn’t help.

Grasshoppers swarmed the three-year-old Bloom Farm out Quigley Canyon in record numbers, nibbling garlic leaves down to the stem—something longtime Wood River gardener John Caccia said he had never witnessed before.

Garden manager Lynea Petty and the Bloom Farm interns fought back by harvesting some of the garlic and other crops earlier than they might have. They sprayed natural sprays made of things like hot chili oils. They stomped on hoppers and they tried vacuuming them.

And they even drowned them in buckets of soapy water—something 3-year-old Jayden Orihuela likened to giving them a bubble bath.

The only thing they didn’t do was roast the grasshoppers and serve them for dinner, as those in many other countries do.

But, when the grasshoppers left the veggies looking less than pretty, the Bloom Farm interns learned how not to let them go to waste, turning tomatoes, for instance, into salsa.

“We’re in prime grasshopper habitat, and it was hot and dry,” said Petty, acknowledging the grass fields the garden sits near. “And they weren’t irrigating the alfalfa field as they had in the past. But we were never short at the farmer’s market. We always had enough for the food bank and for the volunteers who came out to help.”

“We hope to get chickens next year in case they come back,” added one of the interns.

The grasshopper war was part of the Hunger Coalition’s never ending attempts to ensure everyone in the community has access to healthy food, whether through volunteering for veggies at the Bloom Farm, helping themselves to groceries at the mobile food banks or bellying up to some after school snacks at local libraries.

To that end, the coalition has rewritten its mission statement, employing a new way of talking. Instead of using demoralizing language like “people in need,” they’re talking about food as if it’s a God-given right.

The coalition even changed its tagline from ‘Fighting Hunger, Feeding Hope’ to ‘Building Community Through Food.’ 

“Instead of fighting against something, it’s nice to be fighting for something,” said McMahon. “The people in the community who have faced hardships, adversity--they’re heroes. And, instead of telling stories on behalf of our participants, we’re giving them a chance to tell their stories.”

The new website designed by Bree Vanden Heuvel tells how, rather than simply addressing the problem of hunger with a box of macaroni, The Hunger Coalition is employing a host of solutions, including The Bloom Food Truck which offers lunch, library books and activities to kids during summer and cooking classes for youth and adults.

Todd Stewart, who serves on the board of The Hunger Coalition, said he has been amazed to see the how the organization has expanded its sphere of influence.

“It used to be just a food distribution center, but now it’s about more than getting food. With the Bloom Farm truck going around and other programs, we’ve even got bike groups partnering with us to help kids repair their bikes,” he said.

“I think it’s a wonderful organization,” said Todd’s wife Georgia Stewart. “They’re so sensitive to the community. They’re consistently trying to take the temperature of the community and be there when  they see a need.”

Jennifer Orihuela, a sophomore at Wood River High School, is among 10 interns who worked this summer at the Bloom Farm in Quigley Canyon, planting and raising crops, learning to cook them and then selling the discounted harvest to low-income seniors in Hailey and Carey.

“I wanted to do something outdoors and this is a way of helping people, a way of giving back,” she said. “We learned many things, from how to plant different plants to how to work in groups.”

Orihuela’s schoolmate Flor Vasquez said it was fun being part of “one big happy trusting family learning to grow things.”

“I learned not to worry about what people think about me by being part of this group,” she said.

Isai Mendoza said his academic work has benefitted from his experience working with Bloom Farm.

“I didn’t know anything about working. We even learned how to cook, although it might not be a five-star meal,” he added.

Jeanne Liston, the director of The Hunger Coalition, praised the efforts of the organization’s 140 volunteers, some of whom have been with The Hunger Coalition for most of its 15 years.

“What can you say about people who have given that much time to the community!?” she said.

Liston said the new emphasis is on building community through food. And that includes strengthening connections between people in the community and providing opportunities for the valley’s residents to feel empowered to speak up and be heard.

“We refreshed our brand in part to eliminate the shame from food support so everyone feels welcome and proud to be a part of our organization, whether by accessing food, volunteering or donating money to support these efforts,” she added.

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