Second Helping: May 12, 2026
Your weekly must-read list for all things related to hunger, food security, inequality, and the like.
One of my goals for this publication is to build up other voices advocating for an end to hunger in our communities and in our world.
Each week, this series, Second Helping, will serve as your extra nourishment — an effort to develop the advocacy ecosystem by highlighting the best work I can find. I’ve been scouring Substack for other publications in this critical niche and I’m eager to share the excellent writers and content I’ve come across. Please feel free to pass along any other publications!
Food As a Public Good
By Dayana Leyva and Michelle Gornicki
In this piece, Dayana Leyva and Michelle Gornicki explore the rise of city-owned grocery stores as a vital tool against food insecurity — a concept I’m admittedly unfamiliar with. Highlighting New York City’s new initiative to launch five municipal markets, the authors argue that treating food access as a public utility, like to water or electricity, can revitalize “food deserts” where private retailers have failed.
The article examines why some municipal stores thrive while others fold. While St. Paul, Kansas, has succeeded since 2008, others struggled due to the “Waterbed Effect” of the Robinson-Patman Act, which leaves small stores paying higher wholesale prices. To avoid this, NYC plans to use city-owned warehouses to gain purchasing leverage, proving that food access should no longer be left solely to market whims.
Check this out if you’re like me and could use a good primer on public grocery options and the challenges they face.
Food Banks as Harm Reduction
By Meghan Nicholls
In this, the role of emergency food aid is redefined through the lens of harm reduction. The piece argues that while food banks are often mistaken for providers of “food security,” they actually function to minimize the devastating health and social impacts of poverty. True food security, Meghan Nicholls argues, only exists when individuals have the autonomous income to buy what they need, rather than relying on the unpredictability of charity.
By adopting this framework, the “deserving poor” narrative and historical barriers to aid are challenged. Food insecurity is emphasized as an income problem, not a food problem. Until systemic policy levers address root causes, food banks serve as a vital, non-judgmental stopgap, ensuring neighbors support neighbors so that the sting of poverty hurts just a little less.
Going Hungry Is No Joke: Down In The Weeds With SNAP And EBT ... As Local Families Struggle With Food Insecurity
By Frank Pierson
I’ve written a lot about how getting on SNAP is a nightmare for hungry people. I’ve not spent nearly as much time evaluating what it takes for business owners to be able to accept EBT payments.
In this post, Frank Pierson examines the impact of tightening SNAP and EBT regulations in Oracle, Arizona through the lens of a local business. It highlights how bureaucratic “frameworks” often stifle small businesses and vulnerable families. Despite being a vital resource in a “food desert,” the Patio Cafe spent eight years navigating rigid federal rules before finally being allowed to accept EBT.
Pierson notes that recent policy shifts have caused Arizona’s SNAP participation to plummet by 50 percent, a restructuring that experts warn will trigger a surge in food insecurity. The article serves as a sobering reminder that while politicians often champion small businesses, the reality is a “tooth and nail” fight for common sense. Ultimately, it’s the local residents who bear the brunt when federal safety nets are rendered inaccessible by design.
ICYMI
Diary of a novice advocate
By Michael Prunka for Enough
In the latest of my monthly essay for paid subscribers, I discussed my relative lack of experience with the same “boots on the ground” anti-hunger advocacy I write about. Writing is a strength of mine — something I went to school for and have now forged two careers around — so it makes up a significant amount of how I advocate for feeding everyone.
Now I’m working on actually getting out there and having the conversations that need to be had with leaders who wield the power to, for example, protect SNAP in my home state of North Carolina.
Thank you for reading. If this piece resonated with you, the best way to support my work is by sharing it. Every share helps grow this community of advocates committed to ending hunger and food insecurity in our communities.