The state of hunger in America is a symptom of two ills: a system of poverty care impacting Black and brown communities the most and a disease care model that perpetuates the management of disease versus well-being. Both models affect the care, health, and thrival of low income communities of Color the most who report the highest rates of preventable chronic illness. Healthful nutrition that includes access to a healthy diet and care services in childhood through adulthood can intercept these rates; however, poverty, financial insecurity, and a host of intersecting factors impact nutritional and health equity.
The Ujamaa Cafe community refrigerators are a move for health. A move for nutritional equity. And a move for the dignified treatment of families and individuals residing in food and exercise apartheid communities requiring financial, political, and social reinvestment, advocacy, and justice due to being intentionally forgotten and marginalized.