This is one of the most frequent questions that I get asked.  

It would be great to have a simple answer, but alas, there’s no way of knowing for sure.  But even though a concrete number isn’t available, there are some things that we do know…

• We know that one in three children attending Petaluma City Schools is now enrolled in the federal meal assistance program (which means that their families do not earn enough to put healthy food on the table on a daily basis.)
• We know that the number of students enrolled in the federal meal assistance program has increased by 50% in just the last four years (from 2004-2008). 
• We know that more and more elderly people in Petaluma are lining up at free food pantries each week, just to get enough food to make it through the week. 
• We know that it takes a family of four living in Sonoma County (two adults plus two school age children) a minimum of $52,000 a year to make ends meet in Sonoma County.*  (It actually takes even more that this in Petaluma.) 
• We know that 30% of families living in Petaluma earn less than $50,000 a year. 
• We know that the price of food generally has increased more than 15% in Sonoma County over the past five years, and that the price of healthy food has gone up even further.   This means that more and more families are forced to feed their children the least healthy food available (fast foods and foods high in “empty” calories, sugar, etc.)

These aren’t just opinions–these are facts. 

So, although we can’t roll out a nice neat number to quantify the folks living in Petaluma who are hungry, we know enough to know that its far too many (how many is too many, anyway?). 

*These figures have been establishd by the Insight Center for Community Economic Development (ICCED), a national research, consulting, and legal organization dedicated to building economic health in vulnerable communities.  To learn more, and for a brief explanation about the The Family Economic Self-Sufficiency Standard, and how it relates to the government’s federal poverty level, click here.

Give Body Care Products from School Garden Company this holiday season, and support Petaluma Bounty.   Purchase these aromatic, therapeutic body care products online and the School Garden Company will donate 40% of the order to Petaluma Bounty.  This is a limited time offer, expiring 12/31. 

Greenhouse Raising

On Saturday, November 15th, 27 volunteers came to the Bounty Farm to help build, perhaps the first community greenhouse in Petaluma. Led by master carpenter John Branscome, these volunteers helped raise the trusses and anchor them into place, build tables and windows and cover the greenhouse with a thick plastic film. Unfortunately, I had to give instructions from the side lines due to a sprained ankle that kept me from helping construct the greenhouse. Many of the regular farm volunteers commented how exciting it was to help construct the farm’s greenhouse; “This is way more fun and satisfying than prepping garden beds,” one volunteer exclaimed. I certainly felt great satisfaction at the end of the work day when a beautiful, 18 ft by 40 ft greenhouse stood erect on the northeastern edge of the farm. We thank the Exchange Bank for providing Petaluma Bounty the funds to build this community resource. In the spring of 2009, we will begin to start crops in our new greenhouse for the next season at the Bounty Farm.

No Bounty Farm Work Days in December or January

The winter months bring shorter days and cooler temperatures that allow the pace of growth at the Bounty Farm to slow down enough for farm manager, Amy Rice-Jones, to go on vacation. This has been a tremendously successful first year at the Bounty Farm and we cannot thank all of you volunteers enough for helping out at our monthly work days. We hope that you get rested in December and January and are ready to come back to the farm on Saturday, Feburary 14th, for our first work day of the new year.

Is food a universal human right or just the privilege of those who have the economic means to obtain it?  In the real world, the answer to both parts of that question is yes. Like the political right to free speech enshrined in our Bill of Rights, the right to food is, under international jurisprudence, considered a human birthright.  We are all born with the right to adequate food.  Yet we need not leave our beautiful city of Petaluma to find that this right is far from being realized for an increasing number of people. Demand for food continues to outpace supply at local emergency food providers; many food staples in Sonoma County and across the United States are experiencing double digit inflation - in some cases up 30% or more – while wages for most workers continue to decline.  Given the deteriorating economic climate and the likelihood of further hardships for a great many people in our community, it is high time to begin discussing just how we may go about achieving the right to food.  The UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization has described this as the human rights challenge of the twenty-first century.  It is inextricably intertwined with other fundamental rights to clean air, water, and shelter.  In an effort to stimulate a discussion about how we might begin to embody food as an inherent right here in Sonoma County, I present the following section of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 10, 1948:

“Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for

the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including

food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social

services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment,

sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of

livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.”

Article 25, Section 1

I welcome your comments and questions and thank Petaluma Bounty for providing the space for this discussion.