[Community food supplies are one area of potential vulnerability from both energy and climate uncertainty, as they are reliant on the status quo of agriculture and distribution, which relies in turn on large amounts of inexpensive fossil fuels. Food banks are an example of a stopgap response to hunger that does not necessarily create any more resilience in the local food system; this article argues that a community-based food system is an important step toward food security. Also on Post Carbon Cities: an analysis of Vancouver, B.C.'s food needs and production. -Ed.]

From Food Bank center looks to end need for help, by Stephanie Innes

Officials at Tucson's Community Food Bank say not enough donors are "aware of its long-term goal — eliminating the need for emergency food boxes."
"The food bank is giving out more than 15,000 emergency food boxes a month, a 25 percent jump over this time last year. A food box is designed to feed a family of four for three or four days."

"While higher gas prices and a weaker economy are bolstering demand at the food bank, one problem is that not enough people understand the concept of 'food security,' said Kitty Ufford-Chase, faith-communities coordinator for the food bank and a member of its food-security team.

"A community is 'food secure' when all people at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient food to meet their dietary needs for a productive and healthy life."

David Andrews, former executive director of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference and a board member of Heifer Project International, "said the need for soup kitchens, emergency food boxes and other such Band-Aid remedies to hunger can be reduced by having a community-based food system with community gardens, shared kitchens, and education about such food-preservation techniques as canning and freezing.

"'The new era we're entering is a more ecological approach to food, so it's more a theme of sustainability in light of climate change and peak oil and the economic realities that those things are driving,' said Andrews."

Photo credit: feministjulie