(Editor’s Note: The author is a native of New York, is an Army veteran, and who completed graduate level speech pathology at Saint Louis University. He has worked as a speech pathologist for over 20 years, and lives in Duluth.)
By Otis Enoch
DULUTH, Ga. | Dear Active Citizens, Voters and Friends:
Thank you for your service in building a stronger Georgia! I am writing today to ask for your consideration to address an issue we’re hearing a lot about lately, food insecurity!
I’m a constituent working in education providing speech therapy services. My role includes helping our students become industrious and independent to graduate. Currently, graduation requirements focus on preparing them to become responsible citizens who are capable of employability and/or higher education.
Many, including myself during my younger years, faced food insecurity. This term is another name for lacking resources to acquire something nutritious to meet a basic need we all share. It’s also another name for an unfulfilled area of preparing students with a prerequisite before entering society.
Personal food production is a life skill and responsibility. I’m sure some would argue that this function is not a priority in many homes today.
To help our communities institute practices necessary to reduce food insecurity, a new standard must be instituted in education immediately. This is not to be confused with another workload on teachers. They are already trying to meet current academic demands while under-resourced in most cases.
However, one option is a community service modeled program allowing schools to focus on current areas of concern while getting support fulfilling this need from the community of cultivators – farmers, horticulturists, landscapers, botanists, agribusinesses, gardeners or hydroponic specialists.
We’ll find it doesn’t require losing tradition or banishing an uncomfortable legacy. There are so many issues dividing everyday people in or outside education. One issue that’s extremely overlooked is something basic that matters to everyone: “Can our graduating students produce something to eat?” This should be a priority over the list of unresolved contentious issues in public education. Although some other issues have merit or are important matters to address, the survival needs of people are dire.
A proactive measure must require our students of Georgia to demonstrate growing something to eat – vegetable, herb or fruit, as a condition for graduation. Be it a small plant or something larger such as a garden plot, students will improve themselves and gain independence once they gain this ability. Urban and community gardens reduced some of these needs. The next iteration helps fulfill America’s promise to her young generation.
Please help us all by exploring how proactive legislation can address this important area of need. I’m prayerful the next president of our nation should also see this as a priority. I’d agree something was lost as we modernized and advanced with mass production from farm to local grocery or market.
With the gains, the outlier presented now is how to identify and receive a return on investment in personal food production – it needs to be explored. Agri-business is an important industry in
Georgia’s, nationally and internationally. By identifying processes and value-added inputs to support personal food production, Georgia will continue to lead the nation in the foreseeable future.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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