Fox23
TULSA, Okla. — Food on the Move Founder Taylor Hanson, from the band Hanson, hosted a Lunch and Learn event during the annual Hanson Weekend to talk about how Food on the Move is fighting food insecurity in Oklahoma.
“Today we are inviting many of the people that have followed my band around the world to see the progress of Food on the Move’s Food Home project,” said Hanson. “They’ve seen every year the band celebrates their anniversary and people come from around the world and we’ve given them little looks into the project. Many have volunteered when they’ve come through in May to help support Food on the Move, but I think it’s really special that many of them who were early supporters of what we’re doing from afar, they’re going to get to see how this project has come to life.”
Food Home is a program created by Food on the Move to bring healthy, high quality food to those in need in the Tulsa area.
The first step to the program is the completion of FOTM’s urban farm, which is still currently under construction.
“What you’re standing inside of is a project that particularly I’m proud of the fact that it’s as much of a classroom as it is a farm that’s producing food and putting food into the community because those two things together are going to be happening every day. You’re going to be teaching new farmers that are going to learn how to run their own businesses, become urban farms, help Tulsans and Oklahomans get better food in the future.”
The project will eventually create food markets to support communities residing in food deserts.
“Food deserts are areas without grocery stores and if you think about a grocery store, it’s sort of the canary in the mine. It’s an indication that a community has declined. Grocery stores have tiny margins…What we’re doing here, getting at the heart of ending food food deserts, is really creating a new model for grocery stores.”
Hanson explained how the model will provide higher quality food at cheaper prices.
“We’re not mad at the big box stores. They’ve did what they’ve done. They’ve got their own model and their model is about getting a lot of stuff for as cheap as possible and selling volume, but that doesn’t really serve a lot of communities that frankly have highs and lows. So the model here is, any food deserts we believe come down to making better food more accessible and more affordable and what that means is we’ve got to get it closer. So you grow it closer, that means transportation costs are lower. You create partnerships with distribution companies regionally that allow for you to pass on value to a smaller grocer with the food hub, which we’ve built where we’re hubbing and helping to create buying power and passing that on to smaller future businesses and small grocery stores.”
Hanson said the project also aims to help everyone in the community access higher quality food, even people who aren’t in food deserts.
“Ultimately, we’re having a conversation about better food. Most people don’t even realize how far their food is traveling and how non-fresh the ‘fresh food’ is and when it comes down to it, it’s everybody regardless of whether you’re in a food desert. We’re all affected by the low quality of food that comes into our community. We should all be eating food like my grandparents got that was only going 20 miles, not 1,000 miles.”
To learn more about Food on the Move’s Food Home program, click here.
To learn more about FOTM in general or how to volunteer, you can visit their website at foodonthemoveok.com.
