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There certainly hasn’t been a lack of policy discussion or federal funding to attempt to get kids eating healthy. Countless employees at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, land grant universities, and state and local agencies have been tasked with supporting healthy eating. Yet here in rural black Georgia communities, it isn’t uncommon to find kids with no understanding of proper nutrition. What is going wrong?

The communities I work with are (through the great work of countless organizations) beginning to have increased access to healthy, affordable food which is a crucial first step. However, there is such a pervasive lack of knowledge about health and nutrition that it often stifles the effectiveness of food access efforts. Additionally, nutrition policies can’t overcome the primary issue that limits good nutrition and health in rural black communities: the dearth of good jobs that provide a living wage.

Given this context, how do citizens, organizations, and government work together locally and globally to create a food environment that effectively supports healthy eating in communities like mine? I suggest a larger focus on education, and a specific focus on education that is culturally tailored to rural African American communities.

It’s not particularly surprising...

Detroit is an example of what happens to a city that suffers from disinvestment, unemployment, racial inequities, white flight, middle class Black flight, widespread poverty, drugs, poor schools, and shortsighted, sometimes corrupt political leadership. These factors have not only impacted the infrastructure of the city, they have also had a devastating impact on food access and the health of Detroit’s residents. Governments have to be willing to engage with community-driven efforts in order to solve these problems.

Detroiters’ food options pale when compared to the bounty available in many of the more affluent, mostly white suburbs surrounding the city. In 2007, Farmer Jack, the last national grocery chain left in the city, closed its Detroit stores. Far too many Detroit teenagers eat Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and soda pop for breakfast. The city’s public transportation system is slow and unreliable. Residents without cars often buy “food” from convenience stores and gas stations.

In spite of, or perhaps because of, these and the multiple other challenges facing Detroiters, many of us are reimagining what Detroit can become, and to think and act creatively and collectively to address problems we are faced with.

One such effort is the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN), formed in 2006 to mobilize Detroit’s African American residents...

When First Lady Michelle Obama announced, in February of 2010, the launch of the Let's Move! Campaign to end childhood obesity, she said that eliminating the 6,500 food deserts that exist in the U.S. would be a central objective of her campaign. However, in the weeks following the campaign’s launch, it quickly became clear that, rather than supporting grassroots community initiatives and small independent grocers, the Let’s Move! Campaign was going to align itself with the nation’s largest corporate food retailers, including Walmart, SuperValu, and Walgreens.

At The People’s Grocery, we were very disappointed by this news, partly because it meant that our own efforts to establish and scale community-based solutions wouldn’t likely be getting much support from the Let’s Move! Campaign. But the real source of our disappointment was that the First Lady had chosen, in partnering with large corporate food retailers, to take an approach that, in all likelihood, probably wouldn’t result in a lasting and resilient solution to the eradication of food deserts.

Supermarket chains face particular problems in developing and operating stores in lower-income urban areas. The real estate barriers in such areas can be high and entail costly and complex development, often preventing a...

The government has a responsibility to help create a healthier and more equitable food system. This is mostly because many of the inequities of the food system were either created by or have been aided and abetted by government policies—and with disastrous results. This is particularly striking in the case of the first food, breast milk, where the government remains an active participant in promoting unhealthy food practices for its most vulnerable citizens.

The government holds much sway over the nation’s infant feeding practices, particularly since the federal Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) continues to distribute more than half the infant formula sold in the U.S. each year.  WIC helps feed 2.14 million women and 2.17 million infants a year, roughly half of all U.S. infants. As the largest purchaser of infant formula in the country, accounting for about 70% of all formula purchases, the government is actively dumping manufactured infant food into the mouths of infants from the most vulnerable, low-income communities across the country. Thus begin the inequities of our food system, just days after birth.

Infant formula, which is provided to WIC at a deep discount, cost taxpayers an estimated $627 million in 2008, but is a booming cash cow for those who manufacture it. Meanwhile, the habits and brand...