City of Dallas: Sustainable Hunger Solutions through Food Distribution and Education
George pays a visit to the West Dallas Multipurpose Center where he tours the grounds, meets with Center Manager Ashley Hutto, and learns how the city of Dallas is addressing the issues of food access and insecurity.
In a part of the city where access to grocery stores and fresh produce is limited, the Center offers emergency food assistance, bilingual SNAP application support, a teaching kitchen, a Neighbors' Community Garden, and more. Follow along as George and Ashley explore the importance of seeking out sustainable and long-term solutions to hunger that arise from the community and maintain the dignity and independence of its members.
This episode is the third in the new series “More than Food for Thought: Community-Based Solutions to Hunger in South Dallas.”
Watch the video, here.
George (00:37):
Welcome to Good God, conversations that Matter about Faith and Public Life. I'm your host, George Mason, and we're here with Ashley Hutto, who is the center manager for the West Dallas Multipurpose Center. And we'll talk more about that. But first of all, welcome Ashley. Thank you
Ashley (00:54):
So much. I appreciate it.
George (00:56):
Well, this is a continuing conversation, uh, that we've been calling More Than Food for Thought because thoughts and prayers are great in terms of helping, uh, people get consciousness about need in a community. But as we've been working together with partners, uh, in, in the city, uh, the city itself, city government, but also especially non-profit, uh, entities around the idea of food access in South Dallas, you have been a tremendous contributor to help us organize ourselves, know who should be at the table, uh, because you've been up to this work, uh, IT for a while now. West Dallas Multipurpose Center, let's just start there. Okay. And say what happens here because this is one of two multipurpose centers that the city owns and operates Correct. In areas of need in underprivileged, underserved areas of Dallas. What happens here? And maybe similarly at the Martin Luther King Center, which is in the South Dallas neighborhood. Sure.
Ashley (02:09):
So we have worked really hard on both food access mm-hmm. <affirmative> and food insecurity. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and sort of where those two things meet. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So the city has two multipurpose centers that are operated by the Office of Community Care mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so we have a little more of a social service tone mm-hmm. <affirmative> to the work that we do than say a recreation center or a library. Right. Um, that being said, what we have done here is we've worked really hard with a variety of partners around the city to come to the community to be able to provide programs and services to people that may be food insecure or may, um, lack access. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, for example, one day a week I have a North Texas Food Bank Navigator. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> who comes and helps people fill out SNAP applications. People have no idea how difficult the SNAP application is.
George (03:07):
And let's stop and say Sure. What SNAP is.
Ashley (03:09):
Oh sure. Sorry. So it's supplemental nutritious Nutrition Assistance Program. It was formerly known as food stamp, food stamps, food stamps, stamp. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, it is a, um, it's considered one of the best poverty fighters that we have available. It's considered one of the best resources for people who are food insecure. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, the challenge is, in my opinion, is it's not a huge amount of money and you only get it your allotment once a month. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so once you run out of money mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you're outta money. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, it also, um, people who are eligible for snap, uh, SNAP is not designed to be, um, a total replacement of funds for food. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, it's really what it says supplemental. It says it's supplemental. Right. Um, and so it supplements what you already have mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, and the idea is that it helps get you out of that insecure space mm-hmm.
Ashley (04:16):
<affirmative> so that you know where your next meal is coming from. Um, so the application is particularly long and so we're very excited that we have a navigator on campus that here in West Dallas is bilingual, so she is able to help people complete the application in both English or Spanish mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, so that's one of the programs we offer. The other thing we offer is emergency food assistance. I don't have space on my campus to be a client choice pantry, which is considered the gold standard in food pantries. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, we want people to maintain their dignity and their independence and people know what their family's going to eat. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So having a client choice pantry where you can choose what kind of pantry items you want is really the optimal in a food bank. I don't have space for that. Right.
Ashley (05:10):
But we see a lot of people who show up here at the community center needing food resources or, or requesting access to food. Um, you know, because they've either run out of their SNAP benefits or you know, they just need something to bridge the gap. We partner with another local nonprofit here in West Dallas. Brother Bill's Helping Hands, which is right around the corner from us that does have a Client Choice Pantry. Um, but we provide an emergency food box for a family that'll get them through two to three or four days of shelf stable items, um, until they can get to Brother Bills and access that Client Choice Pantry.
George (05:52):
And we should say that Brother Bills also supplies the South Dallas community market.
Ashley (05:57):
They do.
George (05:57):
So, uh , we just, uh, took some film out here Yes. Of, uh, the North Texas Food Bank Yes. Providing produce. So tell us what's happening, how often that happens, where does the food come from, who gets it, that sort of thing.
Ashley (06:13):
Sure. So we just distribute Fresh Produce in West Dallas twice a month. We do the second and fourth Friday because Brother Bill's does the same thing in the neighborhood on the first and third. Alright. So we planned for people to be able to have access to fresh produce four weeks out of the month here in West Dallas. Great. Because access is a huge issue for us. Yes. As it is in South Dallas.
George (06:38):
And, and let's just say what access is. Yes. There's no grocery store, there's no grocery store in a reasonable distance for people to be able to go and to find fresh produce.
Ashley (06:47):
Correct. Um, so according to the u SS d A, it's within a mile mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and not only is that an indicator, but we also look at transportation mm-hmm. <affirmative> because maybe the grocery store's two miles mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but because we lack both grocery stores and transportation mm-hmm. <affirmative> in West Dallas and in South Dallas, it's kind of a double whammy for folks.
George (07:10):
Do people pay for this? No. So what do they get?
Ashley (07:14):
We provide, uh, fresh produce and we also augment that with canned goods. Um, we give you, we give each family five to seven canned goods. We use the low sodium 'cause we collaborate with the American Heart Association. And so we provide low sodium canned goods and we provide fresh produce two weeks out of the month. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, we also do, when, um, Thanksgiving comes around, we collaborate with the National Council of Jewish Women and they provide turkeys for our families and we give out 300 turkeys, plus we give out all the produce and we give out some of the spices to go with how to prepare your meal. And we give you some recipes and some tips. This is our teaching kitchen. When we renovated the building, um, we renovated this wing. We actually renovated three of the four wings, but one of the big things that I felt like was a priority was if we were really going to address cooking and nutrition and food access and food insecurity, we needed a demonstration space.
Ashley (08:21):
So in this space, um, we have two ovens. We have a nice new refrigerator. We have, um, the only commercial piece we have in the space is the three bin sink because we teach food handlers class. Oh. Um, we also have a state-of-the-art AV system in here, and so you can project record or stream in here. Oh, terrific. And so we offer a variety of cooking and nutrition classes. We do a lot with Ag Texas, AgriLife. Um, we do a lot in collaboration with the American Heart Association. And we just recently hosted Brother Bill's youths baking class.
George (09:04):
So Ashley, we're here in the community garden that you have at the West Dallas Multipurpose Center. Yes. And, uh, what are we looking at?
Ashley (09:13):
Okay. Well, you're looking at some scorched summer plants, <laugh>, but, uh, what we have growing right now is we have some okra mm-hmm. <affirmative> and we have some kale mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And we have some, uh, melons over there, uh, interspersed, you'll see this right here. This plant over here is a Texas, uh, native hibiscus plant. And so we've planted a variety of pollinator plants in between to attract bees and butterflies. Good.
George (09:44):
Ashley, when you have a community garden Yes. Who comes and receives food from it. Sure.
Ashley (09:52):
So our garden is not necessarily a production garden because we don't produce enough of anything to really have a substantial impact in distribution. Um, but our neighbors come, actually the name of our garden is the neighbor's garden. And people who live around us will come and they'll pick a handful of okra or take a cabbage or take some kale, uh, home with them for their meals. And so we have found it, um, really nice to be able to serve our neighbors like that. Um, we have had a couple of items. We grew cucumbers last year and we had cucumbers for days, so everybody got a cucumber. Um, but for the most part, it's a small production where people can come and learn how to grow things, um, that they may take home and do in their backyard.
George (10:47):
So I think the takeaway from looking at this and talking with you about food distribution and education is that it's not one thing. Correct. It's a lot of small things that add up to a sense of neighborliness, a feeling of, of agency that, that, that the neighbors have because they get to make choices and decisions. And then also ways that they themselves then could reproduce this in their own communities.
Ashley (11:17):
Absolutely. Absolutely. Great. We want people to feel welcome.
George (11:21):
Just on a basic level. Yes. The reason that this sort of work is necessary has everything to do with poverty. Absolutely. I mean, people would prefer to have the resources to be able to pay their rent Absolutely. To, to buy their own groceries in a grocery store that would be in their community because the average income of that community would sustain a grocery store. Absolutely. And the safety and the transportation and all those things. That is true in everywhere in North Dallas. Absolutely. But in the southern part and western part of Dallas, these are food or infrastructure deserts. Absolutely. Which the city of Dallas has taken note of a recent SS m u study on infrastructure deserts. We use the phrase food deserts all the time, but infrastructure deserts goes even more into the matter of transportation as well, ly and other things. So, absolutely.
George (12:24):
Uh, so the city of Dallas is trying its best now to reorient its city services in all departments toward a more equitable distribution of services. And in fact, to allocate things on a, a, a basis that would shift attention to, uh, the, the less well-served areas. But yes, it's still needed. So you're doing it and we're doing it also at M L K and in South Dallas, which is the focus of our attention right now. Right. But I think it would be interesting for people to hear that just handing out produce doesn't necessarily mean that it's received or eaten there. There's a particular information gap or education challenge. Tell us some stories about that, that I know, uh, has been part of your experience and part of your charge. Sure,
Ashley (13:21):
Sure. So one of, um, one of the M L K stories that I really like is when we first started the food bank, um, or the produce distribution over at M L K, um, we handed out turnips and people looked at the turnip and they didn't know what it was. And so we said, ah, it's a turnip. And so, you know, everybody was like, ah, okay. <laugh>. Well, they didn't, they, they didn't buy this whole turnip thing 'cause it had this ball thing at the bottom of it, <laugh>. So they knew what to do with turnip greens. Greens, but they had no idea why it had a ball on the bottom <laugh>. And so had we harvested the part that they knew and were familiar with, they would've been familiar with this vegetable. But since they were getting the whole shebang, they didn't know what to do with the turnip at the bottom.
Ashley (14:19):
Right. So we handed out some recipes and that helped a little bit mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, but there was still a gap because the recipe called for sauteing mm-hmm. <affirmative>, the turnip green mm-hmm. <affirmative> or the turnip part. And that was a new word for a lot of people. Sure. They didn't know saute. And so we had to create, we worked really hard with Texas AgriLife to create, um, some videos that used SNAP eligible items. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> in their recipes. We tried to focus on five items or less mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so we created recipes for families and included knife skills and sauteing and Wow. What is blanching and what is stir fry? And we really tried to just not assume people knew any of those techniques around cooking. Right.
George (15:10):
And it's really important that they not only get the food, but that they actually prepare it and eat it and have the skills to be able to change their diets. Absolutely. And for the families to, uh, if we're, if we're after the whole goal of healthy, sustainable communities ly then this is is part of that you worked at Baylor? I did. And worked at the Juanita Craft Center. I did in this, because that was also about healthy eating and about healthy lifestyle altogether. What did you learn from that experience that carries over to this?
Ashley (15:47):
Well, I, you know, and I, I shared a story with you several years ago. The North Texas Food Bank during the holiday season got this wonderful donation of asparagus pallets and pallets and pallets of asparagus. And so they tried to push the asparagus out into the community and almost categorically from food pantry to food pantry, people were declining the asparagus. No thank you. And so they started talking to people to figure out what was going on. And what they found out was people didn't wanna waste this resource. They didn't know what to do with it. They didn't know if their family would eat it. And so they didn't want to take this away from someone else that might have a use for it. So we took that very seriously over it when I was at Juanita Craft. And we worked really hard to develop recipes that were appropriate for the neighborhood.
Ashley (16:46):
Um, and that took into account what skills they had, what information they had. For example, I mean, I almost made the dietician's head explode one year because I was charged with running our teen camp. Well, our teens, what do you eat? They eat ramen. They eat lots and lots of ramen. 'cause a lot of them are home alone. Right. And so it's easy. It's easy. It comes from the food bank. A lot of households had ramen. So I went to our dietician team and I said, I need you to figure out how to make ramen recipes healthy. And of course they looked at me like I had grown some antenna. And they're like, well, ramen's not healthy. And I'm like, well take the sodium packet out and add some vegetables or something, you know? Mm-hmm. <affirmative> make ramen healthy <laugh>. And they're like, okay.
Ashley (17:38):
And so they came back to me with 10 recipes Wow. Of how to modify, you know, throwing out the sodium packet, but modifying ramen to add vegetables or to add some meats to it, um, to make different recipes mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so we tried it out on our teens. And of those ten, six survived <laugh>. Um, which I thought was pretty good. Um, but you know, it's things like that you have to be thoughtful and you have to be creative and you have to meet people where they are. Right. And I think that's the most important thing that I've learned in working in the food access and food insecurity space, is I don't have the answer and I'm not gonna solve your problem and I'm not gonna solve hunger for Dallas, but I can make a difference in my corner of the world. And so that's what, that's what I strive to do, is to really understand where people are and what people need. And it's not the same from neighborhood to neighborhood necessarily. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But it's also not the same from family to family. Right. And so you have to be very thoughtful and, and my grandmother used to say that, um, God gave us two ears in one mouth, so we would listen better.
George (18:55):
Ashley, thank you for all you're doing. You're very welcome. And for helping us to organize, uh, this effort that is trying to pay attention to what's happening in neighborhoods. Not so that we can impose solutions from at the outside, but so that those solutions can arise from within the communities. That will be long-term and sustainable. Absolutely. And you have been working in this area for a good while. You could be doing other things, but this is a calling for you.
Ashley (19:28):
It is.
George (19:29):
And, uh, we thank you. Thank you for helping us do this work together. Thank
Ashley (19:33):
You so much. I appreciate it.