Carlisle and Food Insecurity

While at a Clarke Forum event a few weeks ago, the college hosted a panel of Dickinson graduates to discuss food insecurity in the United States and how it affects people in the US as well as people in our Carlisle community.  What made the panel really interesting was that an actual Carlisle resident who faces food insecurity was present throughout the discussion and given personal insight which experts sometimes cannot give.  As said by the Carlisle resident, “My life revolves around working for my food and trying to find food or bring food home from morning till night. My life revolves around my food.” She says her commitment to working for food has changed her life in many ways; the opportunities available during the growing seasons have helped her a lot in having proper, healthy food options throughout certain seasons, however there is still work to be done. Having done an entire semesters worth of research on food insecurity and food deserts, having personal interest about the issue of cost of healthy options, and then attending this event reminded me that the issue is much closer to home than we think. Organizations such as Project SHARE help relieve some of the challenges with food insecurity in the Carlisle community, but individuals still face issues regarding affording the cost of fresh fruit and veggies, finding healthy options during the winter season, transporting any food to and from grocery stores, and being able to stay healthy when so much of what is readily available and easy to prepare to eat is not healthy. While thinking about what the resident had to say, I could not help but think of the way many of us take our food for granted.  We constantly complain about the lack of options on campus, but don’t realize the waste we create with leftover caf food.  We have CafsGiving, an extravagant event the week before Thanksgiving while people down the street suffer to find any food at all.  What can our campus do to support these individuals?  No one should be hungry, especially when our college and its occupants have all the resources necessary for fixing this issue locally. This problem cannot be fixed over-night but I must ask what can you and I do, as Dickinson students, to help with food insecurity in Carlisle.