Food Justice in the Public Library: Information, Resources, and Meals

Abstract

Access to healthy, nutritious, and affordable food—food justice—is foundational to a healthy community. Yet, hundreds of millions of people, including one in eight in the U.S., lack this access. This article examines how public libraries participate in the food justice movement. This emerging role is contextualized within the history of public food programs in the U.S. A literature review then finds four ways that public libraries increase access to food: distributing food; teaching and enabling community-based agriculture; teaching how to cook, prepare, and eat healthy foods; and supporting existing food justice programs. These tactics are reviewed within the context of the information and communication channels typically used by practicing public librarians. The article concludes with a discussion of future research and education initiatives needed to understand and support public libraries as contributors to food and health justice. In particular, the authors suggest that LIS scholars would do well to establish research collaborations across disciplinary boundaries to build on work currently being done in fields like public health and environmental studies on how public libraries and librarians contribute to food justice. Just as public libraries in certain places have found ways to form powerful community partnerships focused on contributing to food justice, we suggest that in higher education we could also start and join similar multi-disciplinary networks in our scholarship and teaching.

Agriculture-based community engagement in rural libraries

“…Two of these three initiatives, seed libraries and community gardens, were also found to be among some of the most prominent community-based agricultural initiatives in the United States by Lenstra and D’Arpa (2019), who also note a rise in public librarians in leadership roles in the larger seed exchange movement. Farmer’s markets, while not specifically listed as community-based agricultural initiatives, were also briefly noted by Lenstra and D’Arpa (2019) to be impactful activities and partnerships for public libraries and their communities. The purpose of sharing these exemplary initiatives is to motivate other rural librarians to implement similar programs in their own communities.…”

“…In their examination of public libraries involvement with the Food Justice Movement in the United States, Lenstra and D’Arpa (2019) explore the ways in which public libraries utilize their space and resources to address food insecurity in their community through initiatives such as participating in public food programs and creating community-based agricultural programs. Their examination highlights the numerous ways that public libraries and librarians have sought to address a need within their community by utilizing government partnerships as well as independent programs to provide both services and educational resources to their communities.…”

“…Their examination highlights the numerous ways that public libraries and librarians have sought to address a need within their community by utilizing government partnerships as well as independent programs to provide both services and educational resources to their communities. Lenstra and D’Arpa (2019) find that public libraries, given their status as both community and information centers, are “uniquely positioned” to work with their community to address issues that go beyond the traditional services offered by the library (p. 60).…”

Fulfilling information needs by classifying complex patron needs

“…As patrons' information needs continue to shift from simple research-based reference questions to more complex information needs, public librarians feel unprepared to address them (Wahler et al, 2020). For example, in one study about offering nutrition programs and information, librarians described that they "often felt unprepared to offer these services", which would result in librarians having to do more research and create relationships with outside organizations beyond their own library system to offer adequate information (Lenstra and D'Arpa, 2018). Librarians have developed collaborations with social workers, lawyers, law librarians and medical librarians to enable them to respond to these complex information needs (Petrin Lambert, 2020).…”

Health Equity and Small and Rural Public Libraries During COVID‐19

“…Small and rural public libraries, serving populations of 25,000 or less, comprise the majority of the estimated 17,000 U.S. public libraries (IMLS, 2021 ). Before the pandemic libraries worked to mitigate health disparities through health programs and services, often developed through community partnerships (Lenstra, 2017 ; Rubenstein, 2018 ; Whiteman et al, 2018 ), including community gardens; classes; checkouts of snowshoes and pedometers; and health screenings, among other services (Flaherty & Miller, 2016 ; Lenstra, 2018a , 2018b ; Lenstra & D'Arpa, 2019 ).…”