Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty

First paragraph: Mark Winne’s book Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty comes as a welcome contrast to the volumes by intellectuals about their quests to eat locally as part of their mission to expose the industrial food system. While equally personal and situated in the structural, Mark Winne describes and analyzes his efforts to close the food gap through providing healthy food for the urban poor. As personal as the foodquest books by Kingsolver and by Pollan, Winne shares his attempts to reduce poverty by increasing access to healthy food by people who are food-insecure. He takes us through his first efforts at gardening and organizing community gardens, reminding us that the most important word in that phrase is “community.” He illustrates his premise that the best programs link members of the community to each other as well as to programs that increase access to good food. He introduces us to teenagers, parents, farmers, and organizers who are part of the food- and social-justice movement. And he demonstrates the many barriers to healthy eating in the food deserts of inner cities and the various attempts — few of which have been successful — to make healthy food available to the food-insecure people who live there...