What started out as a hyperlocal project on food access and insecurity in a few local communities has ballooned into a larger story about across North East Ohio.
Black Girl in the CLE is proud to team up with Edible Cleveland, and WOVU FM for The Real Cleveland Food Experience, made possible by The Cleveland Foundation
Read the original announcement about the project here
The original project
At the end of 2019, Black Girl in the CLE decided to partner with WOVU 95.9 FM and the magazine, Edible Cleveland to tell the story of food insecurity in the Glenville, Midtown, the Kinsman area, and the Central neighborhoods. The premise was that nationally and international Cleveland is known as a food destination or a food city yet many of the residents closest to our renowned restaurants live in food deserts.
Read: Cleveland Ranks Seventh Place in Time.com’s ‘Best Food Cities’ in America survey (2015)
Read: Why Cleveland’s Food Scene Is Low-Key One of the Country’s Best and Only Getting Better (2017)
We chose the neighborhoods based on recent news events involving grocery stores. The opening of the new East Side Market in 2019, and the opening of Dave’s in Midtown. Both of these stories received a lot of press due to the both positive and negative ripple effects that were created in the surrounding neighborhoods concerning food access.
Photos from the East Side Market’s Grand opening from February 2019
The project, called “The Real Cleveland Food Experience” was to consist of resources and community meals for residents in the target neighborhoods and a new podcast, which is called CLE Food Stories. After months of meeting and planning, we were all set to have our first community meal at Glenville High School but then….
Photos of school districts and restaurants plan to help local residents. Photos courtesy of Facebook
The project and coronavirus
As news began to spread about coronavirus the question of safety in bringing people together for a community meal began to circulate. When Governor Dewine began limiting gatherings and closed schools our meals had to be canceled.
At first it felt like the project was dead but then the question of food access began to become amplified with questions circulating on social media about school kids who might go hungry without their free and reduced lunch or breakfast.
Suddenly our story about a few neighborhoods in Cleveland spread across North East Ohio when school districts in the suburbs and rural areas began creating solutions to provide food for their students. We also saw restaurants that we making the decision to provide free food to people.
So what’s next
Over the next few months we will continue to share with you stories about residents and communities affected by food insecurity as well as people who are working hard to provide food.
We’re also going to look at the impact food insecurity has on other areas such as education, transportation and general health.
How can you support or be part of the project
First continue to read and share all of our stories on food insecurity. Also check out our podcast CLE Food Stories on Spotify, Apple Podcast or Google.
Also, we are collecting stories to help us all understand the the issue of food access. If you have a story to share or have gone through a time where affording or accessing fresh food has been tough let us know.
While I can’t speak to all of the partners on this project, my hope is that my collecting and spotlighting stories, one of the readers might be moved toward working on finding a new solution or want to take action to help our neighbors.