Episode 103: Healing Ourselves Makes Us Whole and Empowers Others
About the Podcast
This episode is something special. Harmon Lim shares their personal experience with food insecurity. And now, as an Analyst at the Michigan Department of Education, Office of Health and Nutrition Services, they work to resolve this issue statewide. Harmon and Clancy dig into how a the simple act of lifting others voices brings new, groundbreaking ideas to to light.
About Harmon Lim
Harmon Lim is an Analyst at the Michigan Department of Education, Office of Health and Nutrition Services. Their work and trajectory focus on addressing communities' basic needs through policy, with a recent shift towards nutrition policy. As a recent college graduate, mixed-race and non-binary identifying person, and survivor of abuse, they look towards centering a trauma-informed and intersectional lens in the future policy decisions shaping our food system.
Discussion Takeaways
- Harmon currently works with the Michigan Department of Education on their school meal programs. They reimburse schools for sourcing local produce and empower institutions to start Farm to School programming which includes sourcing local agricultural goods for elementary and high school foodservice, encouraging nutrition and agricultural education within school, and supporting schools to establish their own gardens.
- Their team works with Team Nutrition and other US Department of Agriculture grants looking at providing nutrition education for foodservice professionals, improving the quality of the school meals, and building in local food economy into school meal programs.
- In their personal life, Harmon uses food to ground themself, find joy, and heal from past trauma.
- Growing up, mental illness made Harmon’s family act like strangers. This kind of atmosphere also caused them to be food insecure. They stated, “It’s a weird feeling knowing that no one wants to know if you’ve had dinner or is making sure you were well fed as a child.”
- Food insecurity damaged Harmon’s relationship with food. They would hoard and steal food because of the scarcity in their house.
- The definition of trauma has become so broad. Does that mean the word loses power for those who have truly undergone trauma? Still, there is power in labeling something as “traumatic” because of the acknowledgement of the healing that needs to be done.
- Fighting poverty takes advocacy and solidarity with experts in other sectors.
- There is secondary trauma and burnout from hearing the stories of and working with poverty-stricken people. How are we addressing this as professionals?
- When people are placed in a subordinate position throughout all of life - whether their a homeless person, a student, an employee working at the bottom of the totem pole – they build up a lot of thoughts. When they’re given a platform, listeners need to be ready to accept all that’s going to be thrown their way. It can be a lot.
- Harmon is half white and half Milesian Chinese. They carry both these cultures within them and believe that being multiracial is a unique experience.
- If you’re trying to make a culturally appropriate dish, go talk to the community you are trying to serve. See what they want and like. Work with them throughout the entire recipe creation process. If you want to make a meal healthy, discuss the changes with your advisor and see how they would do it. If you want to adjust the recipe with alternative ingredients, touch base. Don’t typecast the recipe.
- The “Dignity” in “Food Dignity®” means that you can heal the damage that’s been done.
- We should strive to learn from the people in the community we are working with, so we can all be better at our jobs.
#1 tip to improve access to healthy food
- Absolutely everyone should be able to heal their relationship with food. If people actually took time to heal themselves, less judgement and shame would be projected onto others.
Each week on the Food Dignity® Podcast, the Food Dignity® Movement's Clancy Harrison hosts a wide variety of hunger experts and other people making changes on the frontlines. Join us as we dive deep into conversations that will change the way you think about food insecurity.
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