Disparities in healthy food access persist in many urban areas. Thus, food justice advocates across the nation are working diligently to bring affordable, healthy, locally-grown food to their communities.
Some food justice advocates are exploring ways to take their message viral- like a group of young rappers, reppin’ Appetite For Change, a North Minneapolis nonprofit that uses food as a tool to build health, wealth, and social change. Appetite for Change teamed up with the Beats and Rhymes crew, the same rap group that created the snack song, Hot Cheetos and Takis, a couple of years ago that reached YouTube fame, with over 14 million views. This time they flipped the script from rapping about unhealthy junk foods to spitting rhymes about community gardening and healthy eating, with lines like, “Screaming Hot Cheetos and Takis, but you better eat your broccoli.”
Here’s another catchy verse that highlights the healthy food access issue: “See in my hood there ain’t really much to eat, Popeyes on the corner, McDonalds right across the street, all this talk about guns and the drugs, pretty serious, but look at what they feeding y’all, that’s what’s really killing us. Please change.”
Even First Lady Michelle Obama’s efforts to reduce childhood obesity get a shout out in the kid’s song, “Eating healthy school lunch and that’s word to Mrs. Obama”
Enjoy.
Dr. Tony G. Reames 