Written by Yemi Belachew
The socio-economic position of Black/New Afrikan/African people in the Bay Area directly affects our ability to access healthy produce. Redlining and lack of investment in predominantly low-income Black/New Afrikan/African communities have made acquiring healthy food nearly impossible. Without access to nutritious food, our communities will continue suffering from preventative health conditions and loss of control over our humanity.
In February 2023, the California Food Assistance Program, or CalFresh, which supports over 5 million Californians, was severely reduced due to federal COVID funding cuts; leaving millions to figure out how to afford ever-increasing food costs. The state apparatus continues to reinforce its commitment to bailing out the ruthless capitalist class, while the masses are forced to decide between buying chicken or eggs at the grocery store. However, the issue of food insecurity in our communities pre-dates the pandemic. Feeding America, a nonprofit food bank network, defines food insecurity as “limited or uncertain access to adequate food.” The organization’s 2018 annual report found that over 10 million people in California were classified as food insecure. The key word here is access, not supply, but access. As CalFresh resources disappear, who will feed the people? Where is the People’s bailout?
There isn’t a shortage of food, but the burden of rising inflation costs is on the backs of poor people while the capitalist class continues to grow its profit margins through wars and bank bailouts from the government. Under the Democratic Biden administration, the u.s. imperial project has allocated over $112 billion dollars to the Ukraine conflict– and in March 2023, gave a $175 billion-dollar bailout to Silicon Valley Bank while cutting emergency COVID assistance programs by $500 million dollars. The masses in amerikkka are starving, while politicians and corporations continue to accumulate more wealth. Now more than ever, we need to build sustainable autonomous alternatives from the state for our communities — programs for liberation and independence!
As we actively engage in class struggle, the process of addressing class contradictions through revolutionary propaganda and grassroots organizing with the goal of developing class and national unity, it’s important to clearly understand the role of the welfare state. The welfare state is part of the capitalist system that creates welfare programs like CalFresh and MediCal as “compromises” with the working class so they will not revolt against the capitalist system. The people are constantly at the whim of the state’s profit motive.
The realities of the rising cost of living in the u.s., bring to the forefront the condition of the masses suffering from violent class oppression in amerikkka, which utilizes band-aid solutions like welfare (food stamps) to give the illusion of alleviating the harsh material conditions our people are living in. Without denying the need for food assistance programs, we can examine why welfare programs truly fail the masses by creating dependency on a system guided by profit, not humanity. Reforms, like food stamp programs, maintain class stratification by reaffirming that access to food is tied to the ability to pay for it. Food, like water, is a human right, not a commodity.
The People can no longer depend on the failing state that chooses when or if human life is valuable!
Why in the richest state (California) is anyone going hungry or waiting in food bank lines to receive food? Why are there only 2, hardly accessible grocery stores in West Oakland, but 2–3 liquor stores on every corner? The People must see this as deliberate warfare! The current neoliberal government (seemingly “progressive”/”Democratic” leaders who use tools such as “representation” politics while still enforcing capitalist interests on the People) use the welfare state to ensure the masses who are in living in poverty, have just enough to remain docile, but when it comes down to it, remain dependent on the capital-driven system which equates to never-ending suffering.
As we can see, the state can and will increase/decrease funds for these programs, not based on the People’s needs, but to maintain control over the masses. Pre-pandemic food assistance programs were barely meeting people’s needs and conditions haven’t changed for the majority of New Afrikan/Black people. The measurements of success for a government shouldn’t be okay with any percentage of food insecurity when we know there are more than enough resources (land & food) to feed everyone.
Access and quality are tied together when understanding how control of food is an age-old tool of racist class oppression in the u.s. Opening free grocery stores and grocery programs is important but the quality of food must also be addressed. Consuming locally grown organic food is proven to decrease many diet-related health issues. Therefore — food must be seen as medicine. Sugar-loaded packaged food that is predominantly sold at liquor stores contributes directly to preventable health issues (like diabetes and hypertension) that are pervasive in the New Afrikan/ Black community. Since buying a bag of chips is cheaper and easier than a head of lettuce, there is no coincidence that the rate of diabetes and other diet-related health issues is higher in our communities.
When addressing food insecurity in low-income New Afrikan/Black communities, it is imperative that we understand the contradictions of the global food system that again prioritizes exploitation and profit over human life. Food sovereignty provides an analysis of the food system as a whole. It prioritizes farmers, localization of food systems, and maintaining a symbiotic relationship with the land in order to provide high-quality produce directly to local communities- eliminating the current profit-based system in place. This framework comes alive through the development of decolonization programs, which call for revolutionary New Afrikan organizations to build programs that meet the material needs of our people without depending on the exploitative capitalist state. At their core, decolonization programs build the infrastructure for self-determination and unity for New Afrikans. In the People’s Programs Food Sovereignty Initiative, our Free Grocery Program, and Community Farm work together to combat the capitalist food system as a whole. By growing our own organic produce and putting that produce directly into our grocery boxes, we are able to control the quality of produce provided to our families at no cost. In October 2022, we surveyed the families in our grocery program, 91% said they were eating healthier because of the produce provided to them. Our grocery program participants are predominantly low-income New Afrikan/Black families. Many of them have shared struggles with health issues like diabetes and high blood pressure.
Anecdotally, they have also shared that getting fresh groceries has allowed them to control sugar intake and overall encouraged them to pursue healthier lifestyles. In order to continue to positively impact the quality of life of New Afrikan/Black people, we must deepen our commitment to building decolonization programs that empower our people to take control of their humanity.
As we go into the third year of our free grocery program, it’s essential to reflect on why and how our grocery program was founded. At the height of the pandemic, our grocery program was supporting Black rebels who were getting arrested during the 2020 uprising to help them re-establish themselves as the so-called progressive city of Oakland continued to dehumanize them for their rebellion. As we continued to develop our program, we started to ask folks around our community garden in West Oakland if they would be interested in receiving free produce and other groceries. Many families shared the pressure and anxiety of how rising costs and unemployment were forcing them to decide between affording food and rent. The pandemic exacerbated issues for our families that predated COVID. Issues like access to healthy food plagued our people way before COVID-19 existed. For our community, “the state of emergency” did not begin or end with the pandemic. As we continue to develop our program, we see providing food as a tool for developing the institutions in our community that are committed to fully uplifting and empowering our people to take back control of our humanity.
Now 2 years later our free grocery program has distributed over 3,000 boxes to 90+ families in the Acorn, Campbell, and Kirkham communities (projects); this is a bi-weekly program with an ever-expanding waitlist.
In pointing out the contradictions, it’s also our responsibility and duty in this stage of developing the revolution (class struggle), to produce programs that meet the needs of the People and highlight the blatant disregard for human life by the state. Programs for the People, by the People! Decolonization Programs highlight the contradictions of a state governed by capitalists and prove to the People our capacity to provide for ourselves. If a cadre guided by revolutionary nationalism and scientific socialism can currently feed hundreds of people every month (for multiple years), we can begin to remove dependence on the state and build true self-reliance. We can no longer wait for a bailout, WE MUST BAIL OURSELVES OUT! And the only way we do that is by becoming our own liberators!