Our Vision

The vision of Cleveland Food Stories is to help grow the movement for an equitable, healthy and ecologically sustainable food system in Cleveland and Northeast Ohio through story-telling, community networking events, and shared learning.

Despite the turn-around of the economy since the 2008 recession, hunger and food insecurity are still a growing problem for urban and rural residents alike in Northeast Ohio. The average life expectancy of residents living in many Cleveland neighborhoods is a decade lower than that of the surrounding suburbs. And many people facing food insecurity are under-employed, unemployed, or even working full time, but unable to meet all needs for their families.

Cleveland Food Stories wrestles with two fundamental questions: why is this happening and what is being done about it?

To answer these questions, our team conducted forty-one oral history interviews spanning perspectives from teenagers to seniors, institutional practitioners to grassroots leaders, entrepreneurs to foundations.

Many of the individuals that we interviewed overcame their own health crises through changes in diet and lifestyle and have gone on to start organizations or businesses to help others start that journey. Others stretch the boundaries of their professional specialties to address the neighborhood conditions that contribute to poor health.

Cleveland Food Stories draws on these oral histories to create three episodes: The Challenge of Food Security, All Is Not Equal, and Regenerating the Rust Belt. We begin by understanding the challenges that many individuals face accessing the foods needed for a healthy diet in their own communities. We look next at how health isn’t just the result of individual choices, but a measurement of the vitality and connectedness of a community. Finally, we look at how the very effort to improve access to healthy foods is spawning a new generation of social enterprises creating new jobs and economic opportunities in rural and urban communities.

Cleveland Food Stories builds on our 2016 project, Cleveland Growing Strong, which uses oral histories to understand the community gardening and urban farming movement that has transformed neighborhoods across Cleveland.