Ensuring food security in communities in central Jefferson City has been a challenge for decades.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced last week that it has selected Jefferson City as one of 13 participants in its Local Foods Program, Local Places, which supports community-led efforts to reinvest in neighborhoods by developing the local food economy.

“The idea is that everyone has enough going on now – there’s some sort of plan,” said Sarah Eber, program coordinator for human nutrition and health at Lincoln Cooperative Extension University. “But, it brings everyone’s vision together.”

Efforts have already been made to improve community health – through the work of organizations like the Missouri Foundation for Health, which funded the three-year Healthy Schools, Healthy Communities initiative – aimed at helping families (especially those with young children) to develop in better health. lifestyles.

The EPA has already included Jefferson City in its program.

In its inaugural year – 2015 – the EPA called on Jefferson City for its efforts to develop a downtown farmers market and spur the development of local restaurants downtown.

It was a popular effort, said Ken Luebbering, a Jefferson City-based writer and professor of English at the University of Lincoln.

Much of the focus was on the Lincoln University Farmers Market, which had temporarily (as of May 2014) operated downtown while its campus location was used for other purposes.

Stephanie Bell, then president of the Downtown Association, praised the decision to host the market downtown at the time.

And that led to a weekly downtown farmers market. This then turned into the Capital City Farmers Market, which was determined to find a permanent indoor home (near the city’s most needy communities) to keep it functioning in any weather.

The market was granted access to a building located at 130 E. Dunklin St. and began operating inside on May 5, 2018.

Now, it can be hard to find any signs of efforts to create healthy, sustainable food choices downtown.

The LU Farmers Market is pretty much the only option for healthy, fresh and nearby food choices for some near downtown.

The Capital City Farmers Market moved from its building in December 2018, following the death of Steve Smart. Smart had been a driving force for the market – pushing for construction and leading fundraising efforts.

The market eventually moved to the Orscheln Farm and Home parking lot, 2304 Missouri Blvd., where it operates on Saturdays.

Restaurants were enthusiastic about using locally grown food, Luebbering said. Some continue to use them, he added.

But, it quickly became apparent that the farmers in the market were not able to produce enough food for long enough periods of the year to help restaurants use their produce consistently, he said. .

“For three years, during the Downtown Dinner Dash, we had restaurants offering local dishes for their menus,” Luebbering said.

While there is essentially nothing left downtown from the 2015 grant, the community can learn from its successes and failures, he said.

“There was a lot of enthusiasm about the grant we had initially. I think our hopes have exceeded our success,” he said. “That’s the way it is. You don’t always have the success you expect for the first time.”

The latest Local Foods effort, Local Places is focused in a food desert in Jefferson City.

The US Department of Agriculture considers a location a food desert if it is a low-income census tract (at least 20 percent of residents are below the federal poverty line) or a substantial percentage of residents have limited access to a supermarket or grocery store.

The Jefferson City Food Desert is a triangle generally bordered to the west by US 54, to the east by US 50 and East Dunklin Street, and to the south by Ellis Boulevard, Chestnut Street, Leslie Boulevard and Moreau Drive .

In his application for the program, Eber focused on US Census Tract 105 (in the food desert) and pointed out that US Census Bureau data in 2018 showed it contained around 1,750 households (with a mix of properties rental and owners). The community is made up of 46% Blacks, 1% Hispanics and 48% Whites. And about 20 percent of the population is below the poverty line.

She pointed out that a significant portion of the area’s residents are employed in low-wage jobs, such as cleaning services, catering and the retail sector.

Stakeholders in the latest program keep an eye on the past as they work for the future of their community, Eber said.

“You take inventory of your resources,” she said. “Where do you want to go and what are your resources. What are your needs.”

There is a lot of buzz in agricultural corners about groups trying to build sustainable communities. This is due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she continued.

“What has happened with COVID is food insecurity. Even though grocery store shelves have food in it, everyone is afraid it will happen again,” Eber said. “All of a sudden you’ve run out of food on the shelf. How are you going to feed your family?

A partner in the program, Building Community Bridges, a local nonprofit community organization, has been collecting a list of resources available for the central Jefferson City community for several years, she said.

Lincoln University also has access to a number of resources through partnerships with Project Homeless Connect, several United Way of Central Missouri committees and other organizations, she added.

For example, Eber said, the people who run the Missouri Women, Infants and Children program recently gave a presentation at the university, showing a decline in WIC use, although they suspect the needs have increased. . They work together to find ways to get mothers to participate in the program.

“Until then, we have this spike in food insecurity, and we have all these other things going on,” she said. “It’s very interesting from a social perspective. It’s clear that COVID is the big piece of that. We still have these underserved communities, which remain underserved, but use less resources.”

Lincoln University has some work going on in the community where they have organized small community gardens to distribute in the area. BCB also tries to feed community members through a pantry it has set up in the neighborhood. He recently applied for and received a grant to provide free summer lunches for school-aged children. On Tuesday, the first day of free lunches, 48 ​​students participated.

BCB is providing food and doing everything possible to break the cycle of hunger, said Joshua Dunne, the association’s outreach coordinator.

Cities that have passed the Local Foods program, Local Places have developed local food systems, Eber said. Success requires a significant time commitment, she continued.

Many of the things that the initial EPA workshop for the program brought to other grants right away were things the Jefferson City community already appreciates, she said. Like a commercial kitchen; like a farmers market.

People can use a nearby commercial kitchen (at Lincoln University) to make “value-added products” like jams or jellies.

“We’ve already put it in place, and it’s aimed specifically at people with limited resources,” Eber said. “There are a lot of other pieces that we already have. Really, it was just about putting them together and seeing what the community wanted to move forward with.”