Episode 11 Pastor George is joined by Rita Hubbard-Robinson to address food insecurity and how it impacts our physical and mental health in the wake of the racially motivated attack on the supermarket in Buffalo, New York.

Many people say the Eastside of Buffalo is a "food desert" but deserts occur naturally. Food apartheid on the other hand is a manmade/human policy fueled by deep-rooted racism.

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Facts and data:

Tops Supermarket on Jefferson Avenue was the only grocery store in Buffalo's Black neighborhood. It has been closed since Saturday May 14th after the murder of 10 people by a self-proclaimed white supremacist.

80,000 children in WNY are food insecure. Many rely on free meals available at school and go without when school is closed.

56,000 residents of Western New Yorkers lack access to a supermarket in their neighborhood.

Lack of access to nutritious food sets the stage for diabetes, hypertension, diabetes, obesity and other negative health outcomes.

Resources Mentioned:

Book: Salt Kills by Shantanu Reddy Neravetla and Surender Reddy Neravkeetla

www.BuffaloHealthEquity.org

What we can do to address this problem:

 Get our hands dirty! Putting our hands in the soil creating a positive relationship with the earth

 There is often a negative perception with Urban farming… the Crime (slavery/sharecropping) was committed at the soil but wasn’t the soil’s fault.

 Upcoming Agricultural projects at Lincoln, Cold Spring, Upper Room and Agape

 We fix the issue by equipping the community. Address Social Determinants of Health with policy changes.

 Significant investment in healthy corner stores, farmer's markets and education on eating to live.

 Feed OURSELVES as a tool of resistance and liberation

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About the Guest

Rita Hubbard-Robinson, the CEO of NeuWater & Associates, LLC, has been committed to the improvement of health and social determinants of health for over 30 years. As a lead member of the African American Health Equity Taskforce, Rita is building infrastructure for the community-based Buffalo Center for Health Equity.

She is also one of four Associate Directors of the recently launched UB Community Health Equity Research Institute. She is a pioneer in efforts to bring health equity strategies to the City of Buffalo through several important partnerships and collaborations with healthcare, national and local foundations, and government. She is a lead planner of the Healthy Corner Store Initiative, and visionary and developer of Project Rainfall, a food system social enterprise. 

An advocate for both communities and youth, Rita Hubbard-Robinson of NeuWater &

Associates, LLC earned her juris doctor from UB School of Law and Jurisprudence and attended the University at Binghamton as an undergraduate. She is also the wife of 30+ years to Mark E. Robinson, the mother of two, and grandmother of two.

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