SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Frank Buncom IV has a passion for farming, as he and his family are the stewards of S&S Friendly Ranch.
“There’s a lot of challenges to farming at a small scale, but there’s a lot of beauty to it as well,” Buncom said.
As he tills the land in the Tijuana River Valley, Buncom is thankful for grants and other support from fellow non-profits, which allows him to provide food grown on his farm to those in need.
Buncom told ABC 10News that it can be economically challenging for small-scale farmers to become involved in food insecurity.
“But [for] a lot of famers, it’s wildly difficult to create a business model here in San Diego to be able to support oneself and, like, live here in this very expensive city,” Buncom said. “But also offer the food that we want to offer to the communities that we want to reach at a cost that makes sense for them. It turns business models upside down.”
San Diego County hopes to tip the scales when addressing what it calls food justice.
On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved staff to create a regional community action planto improve access to healthy and locally grown food in disadvantaged communities.
“San Diego has been ready. And so we’re really excited about bringing everyone to the table and having the County prioritize food system work. So there’s a lot to build off; a lot of efforts to build off from years prior,” Consuelo Martinez, who’s the Advocacy & Leadership Director for San Diego Food System Alliance, said.
The plan is to bring stakeholders, from governments to local farmers to non-profits, together to get input and tailor the plan to the needs of communities.
“Community organizations and initiatives have driven work to expand food access for decades. It’s time to reimagine food systems that work for all people,” Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe said in a press release. “We must do all we can to ensure the health and well-being of our community, and supporting collaborative efforts with local organizations and government agencies is essential to realizing the vision of food justice for all residents.”
Chairwoman Nora Vargas and Supervisor Montgomery Steppe introduced the item together at the Board of Supervisors meeting.
“Healthy food is a fundamental human right, and we need to identify and address the historical barriers that have prevented underinvested communities from accessing healthy, locally grown food," Chairwoman Vargas said in a press release. “In our journey towards realizing the SD Food Vision 2030, we are presented with a profound opportunity to not only expand our horizons but also to embrace and implement the invaluable input from our diverse communities. Let us ensure that our path forward encompasses both dietary quality and cultural appropriateness, for it is in this integration that true nourishment will help us foster healthier communities.”
Other non-profits like Feeding San Diego say a unified front is needed for an ongoing issue where individual efforts may not have the same effect.
“You can’t have so many fractured approaches that it becomes impossible to implement,” Bob Kamensky, CEO of Feeding San Diego, said. “There has to be some level unity of effort that says, ‘The problem is…,’ and there are going to be multiple pursuits of solutions, but the end state has to be in common.”
Kamensky said this is getting people out of food insecurity. It is a sentiment Buncom won’t object to.
“I think it’ll be a lot of fun to get to all of these people in a room and work out the complexities. Food systems are complex,” Buncom said.
