Program
How do you prioritize your children’s learning when you have to put food on the table? How do you craft healthy meals when you live in a rural food desert? What do you do with the many cans, boxes, and mysterious items in the produce section when you can’t read the language, and everything is unfamiliar?
Food insecurity is tied to uncertainty in people’s lives, impacting their health, how they learn, and their work. In the US, 41 million people are living with food insecurity. What’s a library to do?
Hear from three libraries of different means and sizes – Spokane County Library District (WA), Columbus Public Library (WI), and the Southern Adirondack Library System (NY) -- about how working on literacy issues led to a realization that libraries couldn’t address literacy without addressing food insecurity first. By meeting people’s basic physiological needs – feeding them and connecting them with resources – each library was able to build deep, long-lasting relationships that led to profound changes not only in the lives of individuals, but communities. Learn how libraries taught children, began a farm-to-library initiative, and welcomed New Americans by bridging cultural gaps using the common language of food to build, sustain, and celebrate community.
ALA Unit/Subunit: PLA
Meeting Type: Program
Cost: Included with full conference registration.
Open/Closed: Open
Cindy Fesemyer
Adult and Community Services Consultant
Wisconsin State Library
Erica Freudenberger
Outreach and Engagement Consultant
Southern Adirondack Library System