Stories From the Edge

Please send us your story of living democracy to include in Stories from the Edge; photos with captions and credits are appreciated. More stories may be found here: 1,600 solutions news stories from the American News Service (1995-2000), of which Frances Moore Lappé was cofounder and editor.


The City that Ended Hunger

by Frances Moore Lappé

“To search for solutions to hunger means to act within the principle that the status of a citizen surpasses that of a mere consumer.” -City of Belo Horizonte, Brazil

In writing Diet for a Small Planet, I learned one simple truth: Hunger is not caused by a scarcity of food but a scarcity of democracy. But that realization was only the beginning, for then I had to ask: What does a democracy look like that enables citizens to have a real voice in securing life’s essentials? Does it exist anywhere? Is it possible or a pipe dream? With hunger on the rise here in the United States—one in 10 of us is now turning to food stamps—these questions take on new urgency.

To begin to conceive of the possibility of a culture of empowered citizens making democracy work for them, real-life stories help—not models to adopt wholesale, but examples that capture key lessons. For me, the story of Brazil’s fourth largest city, Belo Horizonte, is a rich trove of such lessons. Belo, a city of 2.5 million people, once had 11 percent of its population living in absolute poverty, and almost 20 percent of its children going hungry. Then in 1993, a newly elected administration declared food a right of citizenship. The officials said, in effect: If you are too poor to buy food in the market—you are no less a citizen. I am still accountable to you.
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Community Is No Cliché:

It Works...the Burlington Way

by Yiota Ahladas and Ben Sachs-Hamilton*

Imagine this familiar scene from an American city: three young people, aged 15 to 24, get caught vandalizing downtown buildings with graffiti. The police department takes charge of removing the graffiti and fines the perpetrators. Nothing else is done until it happens again, which it almost certainly will. Many times.

Now, instead, imagine this: A team of local volunteers removes the graffiti, and those responsible meet with a panel of other volunteers. Together, they decide how to address the harm crime does to their community.

As a result, the youth involved end up working with an AmeriCorps*VISTA volunteer to create a “Community Art Space.” There they can legally display graffiti art, engage other youth in restorative practices and community development such as tree planting or block clean-ups, and at the same time build neighborhood pride and beautify the city. A property owner agrees to donate her fence, which has continually been ‘tagged’ by unwanted graffiti, to the project. Several youth agencies, churches, businesses and community members contributed labor and materials to execute the project.

This is a true story from Burlington, Vermont. It’s one outcome of the city’s Center for Community and Neighborhoods (CCAN), which is quietly co-revolutionizing the way government, businesses and citizens work together. CCAN is a comprehensive city program whose unique spectrum of initiatives inspire and support community participation, citizen action, and responsive municipal government.
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For more stories of possibility, visit YES! Magazine

More solutions from Policy Watch of the World Future Council