Since 2007, veteran journalist Pamela K. Johnson has worked as an editor at the health-oriented publication, ABILITY Magazine. In 2009, she initiated a friendship with Binghamton (NY) Councilwoman Lea Webb, after she read an article about Webb, who was featured in O Magazine for her efforts to bring a grocery store to her upstate NY community, which has been a food desert for 20 years. Johnson’s interest in the relationship between food and health was the subject of her California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowship a few years back. Last year, Johnson, who is based in Los Angeles, continued to work—across the miles—with Webb, Binghamton University faculty and students, and the Binghamton Regional Sustainability Coalition on a project called Half A Loaf (HAL). With a modest grant, the HAL team is creating a data base of community food resources, and shooting a series of Public Service Announcements in March 2014.

Articles

Fruits of their labor

Fruits of their labor

<p>Millions of people around the country face obstacles to finding fresh food. What they eat instead often lead to obesity, diet-related illnesses and premature death.&nbsp; <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p>

The Backstory

<p>Following breadcrumbs of curiosity, I found a number of articles and reports on food-access issues in Chicago, Detroit, Cincinnati, Nashville, Louisville, Philadelphia, Binghamton, New York, and beyond.</p>

Sowing New Seeds

<p>In late 2009, I read an article in O magazine about a Binghamton, New York, community that’s gone without a neighborhood supermarket for more than 15 years. That sparked my interest in communities, fresh food and what happens to people’s health when they eat what is merely convenient and/or affordable.</p>