What If We Gave Families the Power to Feed Themselves?

Every year, millions of dollars flow into programs designed to address food

insecurity in communities like ours here in Peoria. Warehouses full of donated

food. Distribution events. Canned goods and shelf-stable boxes were handed out

with genuine care and good intentions. And while we are deeply grateful for the

compassion behind those efforts, we have to ask ourselves an honest question: is

this actually moving the needle? Is this truly what our families need?

What if we reimagined the whole thing? What if, instead of building more

resources around hunger, we gave families the purchasing power to feed

themselves?

People don't just need food. They need agency. The power to

choose what goes on their own table.

Who Is Carrying the Burden

Food insecurity in America is not a fringe issue. According to the U.S.

Department of Agriculture, 13.7 percent of U.S. households experienced food

insecurity at some point in 2024. That is more than 18 million families who did

not know, at some moment during the year, whether they would have enough to

eat.

18.3M U.S. households experienced food insecurity in 2024

(USDA, 2024)

But the numbers alone do not tell the full story. The communities carrying the

heaviest burden are the same communities that have historically faced the

greatest barriers to opportunity. Black non-Hispanic households experience food

insecurity at more than twice the national average. Hispanic households face

rates nearly 65 percent higher. And nearly half of the people facing hunger in

America do not qualify for SNAP benefits, meaning they depend entirely on

emergency food systems and community programs to get by.

2x+ Black non-Hispanic households face food insecurity at more than

twice the national average (HHS Healthy People 2030)

These are not random statistics. They are the result of decades of disinvestment

and a food system that was never fully designed to serve everyone equally.

This Is a Health Crisis Too

What we are witnessing in food-insecure communities is not just a hunger

problem. It is a health emergency. Research consistently links food insecurity to

higher rates of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and

depression. The communities hit hardest by food insecurity are the same ones

experiencing the steepest health disparities.

20.9% Food-insecure households experience diabetes at rates exceeding

20%, compared to around 9% in food-secure households (NIH, 2024)

When families cannot reliably access fresh, nutritious food, they are pushed

toward whatever is cheapest and most readily available, which is often highly

processed, low-nutritional-value food. This drives a cycle of poor diet quality,

chronic stress, and diet-related illness that is extraordinarily difficult to break.

For children, the stakes are even higher. Food insecurity in early childhood is

associated with long-term developmental challenges, lower academic

achievement, and increased risk of chronic illness well into adulthood. The cost of

inaction is a moral one. It is an enormous and growing burden on our healthcare

system and on the future of our community.

Food Is Culture, Identity, and Memory

There is something that gets lost in conversations about food access that we at

Peoria Grown think about constantly. Food is not just nutrition. It is culture. It is

memory. It is identity. It is how a grandmother passes down who she is to her

grandchildren. It is how a family honors where they came from, even as they

build something new here.

When a family from a Mexican background cannot find the right chiles or masa.

When an East African family has no access to injera or lentils. When a Southeast

Asian household cannot find the herbs and aromatics that make a dish feel like

home. When a family raised on Southern cooking searches in vain for ingredients

that their people have prepared for generations. The loss is not just culinary. It is

a quiet erosion of belonging.

A family’s food is an expression of who they are. A food system

that ignores culture is a food system that ignores people.

Research consistently shows that culturally appropriate food matters for both

physical and mental health. Families are more likely to prepare and eat food that

is familiar and meaningful to them, which means they are more likely to consume

adequate nutrition when they have real choices. Cultural food access is not a

luxury. It is central to what food security actually means.

What the Evidence Tells Us

We have enormous respect for the organizations and volunteers who show up

every day to feed our neighbors. Food pantries, community gardens, and

cooperative grocery models all represent genuine investments in community

wellbeing, and they have sustained real people through real hardship. That work

matters and deserves to be honored.

At the same time, the research is pointing us toward something important.

Studies consistently find that when people are given a choice in what they receive,

rather than a pre-assembled package, outcomes improve across the board. A

2024 systematic review found that choice-based food aid models were among the

most effective approaches for improving both food security and diet quality.

When families have agency in what they receive, dignity follows naturally, and so

does better nutrition.

1 in 6 Americans received help from charitable food distribution in 2022,

yet food insecurity rates remain largely unchanged (Feeding America, 2023)

This is not a criticism of the people doing this work. It is an invitation, grounded

in evidence, to ask what a more complete approach could look like. One where

every model, from emergency pantries to community markets to nutrition

education, works together with the family at the center of every decision.

Reimagining Where the Investment Goes

The spending is already happening. Billions of dollars flow through federal

programs, private foundations, and nonprofit budgets every year to address

hunger. The question is not whether we have the resources. The question is

whether those resources are being deployed in a way that produces the most

meaningful, lasting change for families.

Imagine if, instead of building systems that give families what is available, we

built systems that let families choose what they need. Fresh produce that their

children will actually eat. Proteins and staples that fit their cooking traditions.

Food that is genuinely nourishing and genuinely wanted. Not a predetermined

box. A real market, run by and for the community it serves.

When a family can make their own choices, they are not charity

recipients. They are community members with agency, dignity,

and a voice in how their neighborhood feeds itself.

Food Security Is an Economic Investment

When city leaders talk about economic development, about building a Peoria

where every resident can contribute and every neighborhood can thrive, food

security has to be part of that conversation. It cannot be an afterthought.

A person who is managing diet-related illness, navigating an emergency food

system week after week, or spending their energy simply trying to feed their

children is not in a position to fully participate in the economic and civic life of

this city. Food insecurity does not exist alongside poverty and health inequality.

It actively produces them. And the neighborhoods where residents most rely on

food assistance are often the same neighborhoods the city is trying to revitalize.

You cannot build a vibrant city on a foundation that leaves those residents

behind.

This means that funding decisions matter enormously. When the same

organizations receive support year after year regardless of outcomes, and when

innovative, community-rooted programs struggle to access the resources they

need, the city is not just missing an opportunity. It is making a choice about

whose neighborhoods flourish. Investing in dignified, choice-based food access in

the communities that need it most is not charity spending. It is infrastructure. It

is the same logic as investing in schools, transit, or economic development

programs. A community where families are healthy, fed with dignity, and

empowered to make decisions for themselves is one where people can show up

fully for their families, their neighbors, and their city.

You cannot build a vibrant city while leaving behind the

neighborhoods that need the most investment. Food security is

not a side issue. It is the foundation.

The Proof Is Already Here

At Market 309, we have been building this vision in Peoria. Our community

market runs on a simple but deeply intentional premise: fresh, nutritious food for

one to three dollars, at prices shaped by what community members themselves

told us affordability means to them.

We do not use paid staff. We are not dependent on a single grant cycle. Our

Advisory Board is composed of long-term community members who guide how

we operate, and we are actively working toward the day when Market 309 is

wholly community-owned and community-run. Not because it sounds good, but

because that is what genuine food sovereignty looks like.

What we have learned through this work is something the research affirms: when

people have a real choice, something shifts. They show up differently. They

engage differently. They do not feel like they are receiving charity. They feel like

they belong to something they helped create. And when food access is paired with

nutrition education grounded in the foods families already love, that knowledge

takes root in a way it simply cannot when someone else has decided what ends up

on the table.

Come See It for Yourself

If you want to see this vision in practice, we invite you to visit Market 309. Join

us on Sundays at Trewyn Park, or Fridays at Bradley University during the school

year. Bring a neighbor. Bring your family. See what it means when a community

decides to feed itself on its own terms, with its own voice, and with the full dignity

that every family deserves, because this is not just about food. It is about who gets to decide.

— Julie Eliathamby, Founder, Peoria Grown

Sources

USDA Economic Research Service. Household Food Security in the United States in 2024. March 2026.

HHS Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Food Insecurity. Healthy People 2030.

NIH / PMC. Trends and disparities in prevalence of cardiometabolic diseases by food security status in the United States.

2024.

Feeding America. Map the Meal Gap 2024 Executive Summary. May 2024.

PMC / Food Science & Nutrition. The impact of food aid interventions on food insecurity, diet quality and mental health in

households with children. 2024.

ScienceDirect / Social Science & Medicine. The role of dignity in food assistance: Participant experiences with a free meal

kit program. 2025.