Shalom Magazine

 A prescription for broccoli:
JALSA helps to advance food initiatives in the city
By Susie Davidson
Shalom Magazine Copy Editor
 You’re not feeling up to par. Or, you live in a low-income area with limited access to  healthful, nourishing fare. In either case, your doctor writes you a prescription - for broccoli, strawberries and avocados. And on your way out, you receive coupons that can be redeemed at local farmers’ markets. You, and your community, are on the way to better diets and better health.
This could soon be the scenario in the Boston area. The Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action, which is currently celebrating its 10th year, is seeking to expand the Double Value Coupon Program, or “Double Vouchers,” which doubles the value of food stamps at farmers markets or for healthy fare (DVCP), and the Fruit and Vegetable Prescription (FVRx), two pilot programs of Connecticut-based Wholesome Wave, an organization founded by former U.S. Undersecretary of Agriculture and former Agricultural Commissioner for Massachusetts Gus Schumacher. JALSA is also promoting similar programs, such as Bounty Bucks at Codman Square Health Center.
“JALSA believes that access to fresh, healthy food is an issue of preventative healthcare,” said Executive Director Sheila Decter. She cited Old Testament guidance on food justice: “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest… but you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger; I the Eternal am your God.” (Leviticus 19:9-20).
Yet the reality is that fresh and wholesome food simply costs more than Doritos and fast food. Vouchers can help bridge the income and geography gap.
On Oct. 18 at the Leventhal-Sidman JCC, Ned Porter, Director of National and Regional Policy for Wholesome Wave, met with over 30 people who included Ali Kaufman and Bernice Behar from Jewish Family and Children’s Services, Maura Schorr Beaufait from the Bowdoin Street Health Center, Karen Weber from the Foundation for a Green Future, and JCC and community members.
The noontime talk, sponsored by JALSA and entitled “Sustaining Healthy Communities on Sukkot: Food Access,” coincided with the Oct. 24 Food Day, instituted by the D.C.-based Center for Science in the Public Interest. But it was Jewishly opportune as well. What better time than Sukkot to focus upon fruits and vegetables? And when is it ever not a good time to assist low-income residents and local farmers?
“JALSA sought to hear ideas from Porter on how to make healthful food accessible to our poorest neighbors, while supporting farmers who grow their crops sustainably,” said JALSA organizer Annie Fox, who is also active in the Moishe Kavod House. The talk was part of JALSA’s campaign, “Sharing the Harvest – A Jewish Call for Food Access.” JALSA is also pushing Prevention Trust, is a state bill that would provide a sustainable state fund for such prevention programs, as well as bike lanes and anti-asthma statues that would be allotted in grants to municipalities. “It asks insurers to pay into the trust, to help lower disease rates and therefore, the costs of private insurers.
Decter spoke about JALSA’s efforts to obtain new insurance coverage for preventive health efforts, such as gym memberships, potentially increasing coverage of such nutritional programs and its support of the Prevention Trust, an effort to have public health programs and wellness programs part of the new health care legislation being crafted currently on Beacon Hill. JALSA is currently trying to get local health insurance companies to try pilot programs with specific at-risk populations.
On Oct. 16, Fox was interviewed on National Public Radio regarding the sukkah at Occupy Boston that she and other JALSA members and partner groups helped build. For information on these and other JALSA initiatives and programs, please write jalsaoffice@gmail.com.  Follow Wholesome Wave on Twitter at @wholesomewave.