ABSTRACT
The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines food security as “access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life.” The food justice movement is oriented around community-based solutions to food security issues. Through an empirical examination, this chapter studies how public librarians in a rural county in the U.S. state of North Carolina work with community partners to change food systems and address food justice as a matter of social justice. Based on an in-depth case study, featuring interviews with multiple stakeholders in this county, this chapter explores some of the themes that characterize public library involvement in food justice movements, particularly in rural America. A major finding is that librarians transform their communities by working with others. They weave together local resources with external resources and customize useful ideas from the outside to the particularities of the local environment. Through this, sustainability is achieved. The chapter concludes with a discussion of some of the implications of these findings, including the critical importance of building and sustaining cross-sector coalitions that encompass both local communities and national efforts.
