Ending Hunger in America, 2014 Hunger Report Full Report | Page 153
CHAPTER 4
BOX 4.6
BUILDING WELCOMING COMMUNITIES
IN THE FIGHT AGAINST HUNGER
Church World Service
For newly arrived refugees, accessing an adequate supply of nutritious food in the United
States is not always easy. Like many immigrants, refugees often live in neighborhoods with
limited access to retail grocery stores, and have limited purchasing power and information
on healthy food choices. These factors, along with the influence of U.S. food practices, often
lead to increased fat and sugar consumption, increased utilization of processed foods, and
decreased consumption of fresh vegetables
and fruits among refugee families.
Limited access to nutritious food in the
United States can exacerbate health problems, particularly among refugees who have
suffered inadequate nutrition while living
in camps for extended periods of time. For
example, 63 percent of Bhutanese refugees
arriving from camps in rural Nepal—one
of the largest refugee groups that have
resettled to the United States in the past five
years—are vitamin B12 deficient.
As a faith-based humanitarian agency,
Church World Service (CWS) is addressing
these nutrition and food security needs through the involvement of local congregational
supporters and civic groups. In Greensboro, North Carolina, CWS has launched two community gardens, one with the support of a local Presbyterian church and the other in partnership
with a local agricultural extension cooperative.
These gardens provide newly arrived refugees an opportunity to grow fresh produce,
including both crops from their home countries and crops that are local to their new communities. “Through community gardens,” notes Sarah Ivory, Director of the CWS Immigration and
Refugee Program in Greensboro, “our clients have the opportunity not just to nourish their
families with fresh foods, but also to nourish their spirits through the land and the community
of the gardens. This project reminds us that when we work together in the fight against hunger,
we often succeed in impacting our communities in ways that are more far reaching than we
know.”
Courtesy Church World Service
The community gardens
in Greensboro, North
Carolina, not only
improve refugees’
access to nutritious
food, they also create a
space where newcomers
to the community can
meet one another.
Andrew Fuys, Sarah Ivory, Jennifer Smyers, Sarah Krause, Matthew Hackworth, and Erol Kekic of
Church World Service contributed to this article.
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