Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Apr 3:1-13.
doi: 10.1007/s10460-023-10428-4. Online ahead of print.

Social solidarity, social infrastructure, and community food access

Katie Kerstetter  1 , Drew Bonner  1 , Kristopher Cleland  1 , Mia De Jesús-Martin  2 , Rachelle Quintanilla  2 , Amy L Best  1 , Dominique Hazzard  3 , Jordan Carter  4
Affiliations

Social solidarity, social infrastructure, and community food access

Katie Kerstetter et al. Agric Human Values. .

Abstract

This study examines the case of community resource mobilization within the context of a farmers market incentive program in Washington D.C., USA to illustrate the ways in which providing opportunities for people impacted by food inequities to develop and lead programming can help to promote food access. Through an analysis of interviews with 36 participants in the Produce Plus program, some of whom also served as paid staff and volunteers with the program, this study examines the ways that group-level social interactions among program participants helped to ensure the program was accessible and accountable to the primarily Black communities that it serves. Specifically, we explore a particular set of social interactions, which we collectively term social solidarity, as a community-level form of social infrastructure that program volunteers and participants mobilized to support access to fresh, local food in their communities. We also examine the elements of the Produce Plus program that contributed to the flow of social solidarity within the program, providing insight into the ways in which the structure of food access programs can serve as a social conduit to facilitate or hinder the mobilization of community cultural resources like social solidarity.

Keywords: Farmers market; Food justice; Incentive program; Mutual aid; Social infrastructure; Social solidarity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flow of social solidarity
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Andress L. Using a social ecological model to explore upstream and downstream solutions to rural food access for the elderly. Cogent Medicine. 2017 doi: 10.1080/2331205x.2017.1393849. - DOI
    1. Aune D, Giovannucci E, Boffetta P, Fadnes LT, Keum N, Norat T, Greenwood DC, Riboli E, Vatten LJ, Tonstad S. Fruit and vegetables intake and the risk of cardiovascular disease, total cancer and all-cause mortality—a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of prospective studies. International Journal of Epidemiology. 2017;46(3):1029–1056. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyw319. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Barker RL, editor. The social work dictionary. 4. Washington, DC: NASW Press; 1999.
    1. Best A, Johnson JL. Alternate food markets, NGOs, and health policy: Improving food access and food security, trust bonds, and social network ties. World Medical and Health Policy. 2016;8(2):157–178. doi: 10.1002/wmh3.190. - DOI
    1. Biddle WW, Biddle LJ. The community development process: The rediscovery of local initiative. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston; 1965.

LinkOut - more resources