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Community Corner

Reverends Robert and DeVanie Jackson Honored for Food Justice Work

But much work remains

The Reverends Robert and DeVanie Jackson were honored last Wednesday, September 21, at Brooklyn Bounty, a fundraiser at the Brooklyn Historical Society, for their ongoing and remarkable efforts to bring healthy, fresh food to residents of Bedford-Stuyvesant.

Brooklyn Bounty was centered around the first-ever Brooklyn Food Recognition Awards which recognized leaders in the local, sustainable food movement.

Aside from the Jacksons,who founded the Brooklyn Rescue Mission and the Bed-Stuy Farm, other recognized leaders included  Bob Lewis, co-founder of the Greenmarket; Annie Hauck-Lawson, president of the Association for the Study of Food and society; Robert Hauck, a fisherman; Anas Moustapha, owner of Oriental Pastry and Grocery; Co-founder of the Park Slop Food Coop Joe Holtz; and Shineka Williams, a young farmer at bk farmyards, a farm in Crown Heights.

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Each award recipient told a story of how food had become central in his or her life.

However, the whole story and struggle isn't always told when you're celebrating the successful end. The day after the event, the Jacksons explained that they felt very frustrated about food inequality in Brooklyn and shared more details about their history with the food movement here.

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The couple started the Brooklyn Rescue Misson in 2002 with a pantry that offered non-perishable foods, donated by food banks, to locals who were struggling financially and at risk of hunger. Later they expanded to include a clothing drive and giveaway.

But the food they were giving out was subpar in their opinion, and none of it was fresh. The Jacksons decided to start their own farm, which they dubbed the Bed-Stuy Farm, on the site of a neighborhood garbage dump. Mr. Jackson had grown up on a farm so he had a basic knowledge of how to cultivate land for growing vegetables.

Around 2004, neighbors approached the Jacksons after watching them grow produce on Decatur Avenue. Though many of these people weren’t destitute, said Mrs. Jackson, they complained that they couldn’t find fresh food in the neighborhood.  

These interactions sparked a conversation within the community about quality food or the lack of it in their neighborhood. The Jacksons took it upon themselves to educate their neighbors about the importance of eating local, organic produce.

“Our work started out focusing on hunger, but then it became an educational project,” said Mrs. Jackson.

“There’s not a lot of people of color that are driving this,” said Mrs. Jackson of the local food movement in Brooklyn. “They’re in it, but they’re not driving the conversations.” 

The Jacksons are always asking themselves why people of color cannot get the support they need to run their community programs, and why they are less involved in conversations around food.

Bob Lewis, who co-founded the New York City Greenmarket in 1976, said that it is not easy to get a farmer's market into every neighborhood in the City. Farmers have to be confident that they will make a profit there.

That is how Greenmarket stays in operation, he explained. Lewis said that Greenmarket is always looking for ways to expand to neighborhoods that lack fresh produce, and that this was their original goal when they opened their first markets in Harlem and Downtown Brooklyn in the 1970s.

Mr. Jackson said that farmers don’t think they can make enough money in communities like Bed-Stuy. However, he said, he and his wife have seen that this is not the case. In fact, it’s the opposite: People actually want to buy fresh produce.

“Why are people in this community so hungry?” asked Mrs. Jackson. “Who decides that?”

The Brooklyn Bounty event was an enjoyable occasion for the pair of activists and a chance for them to meet other leaders of the local food movement in the borough, said the Jacksons.

They look forward to seeing more cooperation among concerned Brooklynites so that all can have access to food that is locally-made, healthy, and tasty. 

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