There is hope in breaking the cycle of food insecurity
Many organizations in Arizona are attempting to tackle the crisis of food insecurity, but one non-profit stands out. The non-profit organization, “Tucson Family food project,” is taking the lead in the fight against food insecurity.
Many organizations are coming up with short term solutions to the problem of food insecurity. While giving hot meals is definitely a first step for this cause, it does not address the magnitude of the problem. In order to take steps into ending the issue of food insecurity we need to broaden our perspective and look into the root of the issue.
Steven Cota-Robles, CEO and executive director of The Tucson Family food project, tackles the problem head on. The project was established in 2021, and began preparing food in 2022. The Program is using out of the box thinking, and has achieved great success.
“The first step in fixing any problem is recognizing that there is one,” said Cota-Robles.
Their mission statement is “To provide meals for children struggling with hunger, while teaching them a critical life skill, to help them break the cycle of food insecurity.”
Cota-Roble’s catalyst for founding this project was the COVID-19 pandemic and witnessing the devastating effects it had on the community. Before the pandemic, Robles worked at Whole Foods and “…kind of had an epiphany that [he] wanted to help his community,” Cota-Robles said.
In his efforts to help the community, he has managed to reach three different schools around Tucson with plans to expand a fourth, Safford Elementary.
The project aims to teach students how to access healthy food and how to cook food. Cota-Robles has a Youtube channel where he teaches people how to cook full meals with food that is accessible to them through his program. With his Youtube videos Cota-Robles teaches people to cook nutritious food on their own. This teaches viewers, many of them children, how to develop independence in the food world. This channel teaches kids how to provide a healthy meal for themselves and their entire family.
Cota-Robles and his team hand out boxes of food that cost only 4$, and can feed a family of four for a week. Donations of $20 per month cover the expense of one child. The food they provide is donated from many nonprofit organizations in Tucson. They work with local farmers, grocery stores and restaurants to find homes for their produce, saving it from the landfill.
The Tucson Family food project has a hopeful outlook on what food insecurity looks like down the line. ”I think we all have this idea that there’s just always going to be hungry kids, and it’s not true, this is a problem that we can fix,” Cota-Robles said. When we look at the reality of food insecurity in a person’s life, we should not only see the need for a short-term fix. We should also see the urgency for lessons on how to cook food and how to prepare a meal independently to feed an entire family.
