Recommended Reading List: Food Insecurity

by Jeff Gottesfeld 

A kid’s biography of John van Hengel who founded the first food bank in 1967 and went on to create a network of food banks through Feeding America. 

by Katie Smith Milway 

Children’s Nonfiction book - Eleven-year-old Maria Luz and her family have a small farm in Honduras, but may not have enough food to sustain them for the year, so Maria's father must leave home to find work, leaving her in charge of the garden. em

by Lois Brandt 

A kid’s picture book that raises awareness about poverty and hunger, exploring the friendship of Maddi and Sophia. 

by Diane O’Neill 

A kid’s book about Molly and her mom, who visit their local food pantry when they do not have enough food; and helping a classmatet Caitlin they see there realize that everyone needs help sometimes.

by Barbara Kingsolver 

Follows the author's family's efforts to live on locally- and home-grown foods, an endeavor through which they learned lighthearted truths about food production and the connection between health and diet. 

by Tamar Haspel 

Journalist and self-proclaimed ‘crappy gardener’ Tamar Haspel is on a mission: to show us that raising or gathering our own food is not as hard as it’s often made out to be. 

by Psyche A. Williams-Forson Williams-Forson offers her knowledge and experience to illuminate how anti-Black racism operates in the practice and culture of eating. She shows how mass media, nutrition science, economics, and public policy drive entrenched opinions among both Black and non-Black Americans about what is healthful and right to eat. Distorted views of how and what Black people eat are pervasive, bolstering the belief that they must be corrected and regulated. 

by Alan Bergo 

Minnesota-based chef, Alan Bergo, takes a holistic approach to cooking with all parts of the plants from all stages of growth. He shares his knowledge in this book to help home cooks use every part of an ingredient and cut down on food waste. 

by Priya Fielding-Singh 

Inequality in America manifests in many ways, but perhaps nowhere more than in how we eat. From her years of field research, sociologist and ethnographer Priya Fielding-Singh brings us into the kitchens of dozens of families from varied educational, economic, and ethnoracial backgrounds to explore how--and why--we eat the way we do.

by Paco Underhill 

An entertaining and timely exploration of how our food - from where it's grown to how we buy it - is in the midst of a transformation, showing how this is our chance to do better, for us, for our children, and for our planet, from a global expert on consumer behavior 

By Maggie Anderson 

On January 1, 2009, Maggie and John Anderson, a successful African American couple raising two daughters in a Chicago suburb, engaged in a social experiment to reinvest in the Black community and buy from only Black-owned businesses for a year. Throughout that time the Andersons combed Chicago in search of a Black-owned supermarket, dry cleaner, gas station, pharmacy, and clothing store. Our Black Year is the story of what they learned. 

by Matt Siegel 

Exploring cultural, scientific, sexual, and culinary substructures, this essential read for all foodies, at turns both funny and fascinating, looks at the little-known history surrounding food. 

by Larissa Zimberoff 

Ultra-processed and secretly produced foods are cheered by consumers and investors because they are plant-based--often vegan--and help address societal issues. An investigative reporter pokes holes in the mania behind today's changing food landscape and clearly shows the trade-offs of replacing real food with technology-driven approximations.

by Natalie Baszile 

In this impressive anthology, Natalie Baszile brings together essays, poems, photographs, quotes, conversations, and first-person stories to examine black people's connection to the American land from Emancipation to today. In the 1920s, there were over one million black farmers; today there are just 45,000. Baszile explores this crisis, through the farmers' personal experiences. 

by Natalie Baszile 

In this impressive anthology, Natalie Baszile brings together essays, poems, photographs, quotes, conversations, and first-person stories to examine black people's connection to the American land from Emancipation to today. In the 1920s, there were over one million black farmers; today there are just 45,000. Baszile explores this crisis, through the farmers' personal experiences. 

by Ken Meter 

Meter shows how grassroots food and farming leaders across the US are tackling these challenges by constructing civic networks. Overturning extractive economic structures, these inspired leaders are engaging low-income residents, farmers, and local organizations in their quest to build stronger communities. 

Evideo through Hoopla and Kanopy 

A powerful documentary tackling the hunger epidemic in America. 50 million Americans go to bed hungry every night. Hunger in America breaks down the clichéd ideas of who the hungry are today. Narrated by James Denton. 

DVD and e-video through Hoopla 

The next chapter on America's food crisis from the people that brought you FOOD, INC: 1 in 4 kids don't know where their next meal is coming from. Hunger is a growing epidemic in the US, and we can fix it. Jeff Bridges and Tom Colicchio star.

DVD and evideo through Kanopy 

Through the eyes of chef heroes like Anthony Bourdain, Dan Barber, Mario Batali, and more, audience will see how the world's most influential chefs make the most of every

kind of food, transforming what most people would consider scraps into incredible dishes that create a more secure food system. 

Ebook through Hoopla 

Food insecurity rates, which skyrocketed with the Great Recession, have yet to fall to pre-recession levels. Food pantries are stretched thin, and states are imposing new restrictions on programs like SNAP that are preventing people from getting crucial government assistance. At the same time, we see an increase in obesity that results from lack of access to healthy foods. The poor face a daily choice between paying bills and paying for food.

Great Courses video available on Hoopla