FOOD SECURITY IS FOR EVERYBODY

The problem: We live in a food insecure community.

“Approximately one in four adults (24.9 percent) in New York State experience food insecurity”

Reference: NY State Department of Health, January 2023

  • Food insecurity is characterized by limited or uncertain access to adequate food due to limited economic resources.

    —Reference: NY State Department of Health, January 2023

  • Access to food alone is not the solution. That food must be safe, nutritious, and life-giving. Too often, “accessible” food lacks essential vitamins and minerals. Nutritious food is increasingly priced as a luxury rather than treated as a basic human need. As a result of long-entrenched structural racism, food insecurity in our community is disproportionately experienced by Black and Latinx folks.

    —Reference: Hunter College Food Policy Center

  • In the Hudson Valley, access to sustainable, healthy organic produce, especially pre-prepared meals, is limited and expensive. Many people are not homeless, yet still do not have enough money to cover basic needs like food. Food insecurity is associated with higher levels of diet-related chronic disease due to the lack of nutritional options available to individuals and families.

    —Resource: Wageningen University & Research: global projects to strengthen food security

  • Natural, nutritious food is the solution:

    Evidence shows that sugar, oils, saturated fats, synthetic pesticides, and artificial ingredients found in processed foods pose a wide variety of health risks and diseases.

    As ultra processed foods increase in the diet, so too does the rate of diet-related disease. - Reference: Hunter College Food Policy Center

  • UPLIFTING PURCHASING AGENCY

  • “The question should be about agency — do people have the ability to go out and buy for themselves the food they want and need?”

  • Food security must include choice. Food relief and access programs are often missing this dignity.

  • Reference: Hunter College Food Policy Center

The Hidden Problem: Waste

We grow enough natural food in the Hudson Valley. The issue is not supply, it is distribution.

High-quality produce is often wasted, never leaving farms or distributors. This waste contributes to climate change and greenhouse gas emissions.

Redirecting this food into mutual aid networks could both reduce emissions and strengthen local food security.

LUNCHBAR IS RESPONDING ON A VILLAGE LEVEL

Lunchbar cooks and distributes natural, locally farmed ingredients into nutritious, pre-prepared meals for the Hudson Valley community.

We move food through existing relationships, partnering with local retail spaces and using commercial kitchens during off-hours. By working within what already exists, we reduce waste and strengthen the ecosystem around us.

Our model is simple and fractal. As adrienne maree brown writes, “what we practice at the small scale sets the patterns for the whole system.” What happens on the small scale happens on the large scale.

Food grown with care, cooked with care, shared with care. Small daily actions that ripple outward into larger structures of access and belonging.

We aim to offer one freshly prepared meal service each day, made from clean ingredients and accessible to all.

Food is not charity. It is care. It is dignity. It is a right.

Meet the folks behind this work