Healthy debate about our food system

Where will you be getting your next meal? The local grocery store? The drive-through window? The food bank?

The Spokane Regional Health District and the Food Access Coalition will host a meeting Tuesday to jump-start a local discussion about Spokane’s food system. They’ll be looking at the whole structure from farm to processor to table and beyond.

The idea is to start bringing the same kind of planning and resources to creating an equitable, healthy and sustainable food system that communities traditionally spend on other issues, such as public safety, transportation and development, organizers say.

Presenters will release information that the Food Access Coalition has gathered about the food system in Spokane and how it is tied to health in the community. They want to get people thinking about the complicated web and talk about what is working and what needs attention.

“The ultimate goal of this meeting is to turn that question over to the participants,” says Natalie Tauzin, a nutrition and health program specialist with the Spokane Regional Health District. “We want to know, what do people see as barriers to getting healthy foods to people in our community and what are our assets?”

Tauzin says local physician Dave Johnson will talk about food and health, presenting local research on the link between obesity and health-care costs.

Another speaker, Viki Sonntag, will cover local food as an economic engine. She’ll discuss how spending on local food can create jobs and more economic diversity in the community.

Health department officials will present local statistics on obesity and diabetes. They’ll report on food security, an alarming issue in our community; one in five young people in Spokane report they’ve had to skip a meal because there wasn’t enough food to eat, Tauzin says.

The group also has been hard at work mapping all of the community’s food resources, from convenience stores and drive-through restaurants to grocery stores and farmers markets. That information will be presented at Tuesday’s meeting.

The Food Access Coalition is a group of representatives from food-related groups around the Spokane community. It has been meeting since 2008 to talk about healthy food access issues. The coalition hopes this meeting will help identify and prioritize critical areas of need.

The discussion kicks off with an appearance by local chef David Blaine’s Pop-Up Restaurant. Dinner tickets are $6 and must be purchased by Saturday from Brown Paper Tickets ( www.brownpaper tickets.com/event/169154).

Missoula author Jeremy Smith, who wrote “Growing a Garden City,” will get the discussion rolling at 6 p.m. by talking about how his Montana community is transforming itself through local agriculture.

To register, or for more information, contact Nancy Hawley at the Spokane Regional Health District by calling (509) 324-1530 or by email at nhawley@spokane county.org.