TAKE A BITE OUT OF OUR VEGAN FOOD PROGRAM

From our founding, EHS has seen the pursuit of food justice as central to our work in Spanish Harlem. The obesity epidemic, diabetes, and other attendant ills of poor diet have long haunted this part of the city, and with Covid, this disparity has been recently marked by a disproportionate number of untimely deaths. For years we at EHS have seen good food as a cornerstone of health and a necessity for educational growth. Toward that end, for nearly three decades we have provided plant-based meals prepared on site for our students, and for over a decade we have made sure that our food is organic, and whenever possible, seasonal, and locally sourced.

In East Harlem, the childhood obesity rate is 26%, and the adult obesity rate is 31%.  Children who are obese are more likely to remain obese as adults. Obesity increases the risk of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, dyslipidemia, cardiovascular disease, stroke, sleep apnea, gallbladder disease, hyperuricemia and gout, osteoarthritis, cancer - and now death from Covid-19.  The EHS food program, combined with our daily fitness program, has been a local model for combating these health issues that plague the poor on an individual level and that cost the nation over $150 billion in health care and lost productivity.

The impact of food insecurity and nutritional disparities strongly contribute to the achievement gap between wealthy students and low-income students. But our commitment at EHS to the physical health of our students has allowed them to have academic success and create healthy patterns that will allow them the possibility of long  lives of joy, productivity, and service. Not incidentally, over our beautiful meals - for students and adults -  social bonds are deepened, palates broadened, and informal intellectual exploration is launched, sometimes with as much impact and reach as the classroom. 

In 2019, New York State’s Child Nutrition Program, which had provided an annual grant of  $100,0000 for our food program, insisted that, going forward, we had to purchase the cheapest option for each food product we purchased. Bending to this policy would have virtually eliminated the local or organic option for fruits and vegetables - and it would have devastated our plant-based approach to individual and community health.  Instead of bowing to bloodless bureaucracy, EHS chose to walk away from funding that would have corrupted our long struggle for educational and food justice. So we emerged with our integrity intact, but with a debilitating $100,000 deficit in our food budget.