Food Justice in the Public Library: Information, Resources, and Meals

Access to healthy, nutritious, and affordable food—food justice—is foundational to a healthy community. Yet, hundreds of millions of people, including one in eight in the U.S., lack this access. This article examines how public libraries participate in the food justice movement. This emerging role is contextualized within the history of public food programs in the U.S. A literature review then finds four ways that public libraries increase access to food: distributing food; teaching and enabling community-based agriculture; teaching how to cook, prepare, and eat healthy foods; and supporting existing food justice programs. These tactics are reviewed within the context of the information and communication channels typically used by practicing public librarians. The article concludes with a discussion of future research and education initiatives needed to understand and support public libraries as contributors to food and health justice. In particular, the authors suggest that LIS scholars would do well to establish research collaborations across disciplinary boundaries to build on work currently being done in fields like public health and environmental studies on how public libraries and librarians contribute to food justice. Just as public libraries in certain places have found ways to form powerful community partnerships focused on contributing to food justice, we suggest that in higher education we could also start and join similar multi-disciplinary networks in our scholarship and teaching.