www.StarkFresh.org
330-479-3958

About

Our organization has been around, playing a variety of community development roles, since 1983.

We took the name StarkFresh in 2013, and over the past decade, our efforts to fight hunger have been rooted in six key observations.

First Observation:

Hunger is a major problem in Stark County.

Stark County has large groups of individuals without continuous access to nutritious, affordable meals.

One of the results of this is rampant food insecurity, where individuals are unsure when or if they will be having their next meal.

In Stark County, OH, roughly 15% (53,880) of all residents and 21% of all children (17,190) fall into this category.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), being food insecure means lacking reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food.

The USDA defines food insecurity as a state in which “consistent access to adequate food is limited by a lack of money and other resources at times during the year.”

Studies have proven that a lack of adequate nutrition affects physical and mental health, life expectancy, the ability to maintain employment, and the capacity for learning in school.

 

 

Second Observation:

Barriers prevent access to affordable, nutritious food.

Many people in Canton and throughout Stark County have little-to-no access to establishments offering affordable, nutrient-dense foods for sale, which has had terrible health consequences in our communities.

In Stark County, 12.9% of all adults aged 20 and above have been diagnosed with diabetes.

Many of the affected live in an area best described as a Food Apartheid (a more accurate term for what some call ‘food deserts), or near a Food Swamp.

The USDA defines a food desert as a location where an individual lives more than one mile away from a grocery store that offers healthy food.

Food Apartheid better describes this phenomenon because these are not desolate, empty neighborhoods; they are neighborhoods whose overwhelming majority of residents are persons of color. It is no accident that this is true; residents of these communities have been deemed unworthy of the right to access nutritious food and whole communities are being geographically and economically isolated from healthy food options.

Food Swamps are geographic areas with a high density of establishments that sell high-calorie fast food (or junk food).

Instead of having access to supermarkets or grocery stores for their food needs, many members of our community have no food access or are served only by fast-food restaurants and convenience stores that offer few healthy, affordable food options.

This lack of access to healthy food contributes to a poor diet and higher levels of obesity and other diet-related conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease.

 

 

Third Observation:

Many of us lack the skills needed to feed ourselves well.

There are notable (and unfortunate) differences between today’s meals and those that our ancestors ate.

Most people today do not know how to grow their own food, and many do not understand how the food they consume is produced.

To compound the problem, the number of people who are recipe or cookbook literate (someone who can decipher and follow recipes) keeps falling every year, creating another barrier to consuming the nutrient-dense foods that we should all be able to prepare for ourselves.

In short, if a recipe uses terminology or techniques unfamiliar to the reader, it is useless to them, preventing them from experiencing the joy (and positive health outcomes) that can come from cooking and eating your own food.

There are now generations of individuals who have never learned how to read and understand a recipe. Tackling the persistent and widespread problems of food insecurity and poor nutrition means helping people learn the skills that our ancestors knew very well—how to create “made from scratch” meals at home.

 

 

Fourth Observation:

We can all learn to feed ourselves with the tools we have.

A person can learn the fundamentals of cooking and be cookbook literate but lack access to the tools and utensils that those recipes require to make a meal.

It is just not enough to provide people with ingredients and recipe cards; doing that is not going to fight hunger.

Instead, it is far more effective to teach people simple, straightforward ways to make meals using the items and cooking knowledge they already possess.

 

 

Fifth Observation:

Hunger is increasing despite all those organizations that fight it.

As the average income of people in need continues to decrease, poverty levels continue to rise.

Many area agencies claim to be “fighting hunger.”

Yet, as their budgets increase year-to-year, so do the number of people relying on their services.

On the surface, it appears that these area agencies are failing to address hunger’s root causes. However, a deeper look into the data outlines a more realistic picture of what is going on.

 Though Stark County’s poverty rates have decreased over the past several years—including cities like Canton—specific areas with high concentrations of poverty continue to worsen. For example, in Canton, 49.8% of the residents under 18 are living in poverty.

 

 

Sixth Observation:

Poverty leads to hunger and poor health.

The total number of people living at or below the poverty line is staggering throughout our region, especially in areas such as Canton, OH, where 31.8% (22,948) of residents fall into that category.

There is an undeniable connection between poverty, poor health, and issues of hunger.

Stark County’s data indicates that 13% of Canton’s population (8,579 residents) live in areas with the highest concentrations of food insecurity, poverty, and severe health problems. Among these residents, 69.4% earn less than $34,000 annually, and 56.5% of households earn less than $24,000 per year.

Although Canton is overwhelmingly white (65.9% of the population), its black and multiracial residents (29.8% of residents) are disproportionately affected by poverty.

Among Canton’s residents living in poverty: 

  • 45.45% are black or multiracial

  • 25.55% are white  

It is statistically evident that, for many, being born and growing up as a black or multiracial person means you are far more likely to live in poverty than your white peers. And poverty tends to be multi-generational, so being born into poverty often means experiencing poverty throughout the lifespan.

 

Our Mission

Tackling the causes of hunger by creating realistic pathways out of poverty.

Our Vision

We envision a Stark County where a culture of good nutrition creates a better quality of life as well as a community that is rejuvenated and empowered, free from the restraints of systematic poverty.

Core Values

  1. Strengthening our oppressed and forgotten neighbors through ACTION, rather than charity

  2. Educating ALL who seek truth about the causes of hunger

  3. Collaborating with any agent of meaningful change