NEWS & OBSERVER
BY ABBIE BENNETT - abennett@newsobserver.com
RALEIGH
For many people, access to healthy food is never an issue. It’s there in the grocery store down the street, and it’s within a family’s budget.
But that’s not true for everyone. Some neighborhoods lack stores with healthy options, and some people struggle to afford anything but cheap, processed foods.
Meredith Brown, a 17-year-old junior at Broughton High School, wants to change that.
“I wasn’t really aware of the issues in these communities ... I grew up in this bubble where everyone around me was fine – the issues were in other places,” Brown said last week. “But there are problems right here, and you can change it in your own community.”
Brown is part of the Food Ark nonprofit chapter at Broughton, which works to fight food insecurity in the community. The group works with Inter-faith Food Shuttle, a hunger-relief organization that serves seven counties in and around the Triangle. The food shuttle creates sources of healthy food in low-income neighborhoods and helps people provide for themselves by learning job skills or growing their own food in local gardens.
Inspired by the work of the Food Shuttle, Brown has organized a 5K run/walk almost entirely on her own.
The race will benefit the Camden Street Learning Garden, one of the gardens where Brown regularly volunteers to provide resources to families living in a food desert.