From the War on Poverty to new farmers' markets, a food expert tackles America's dangerous dietary split

Limp lettuce. Rotting apples. Dusty cans of spinach, corn, and peas under glaring fluorescent lights. Such a setting does not appeal to the modern shopper, who much prefers softly lit stores stocked with fresh produce and healthy prepared meals, or even open-air markets. But for many impoverished Americans, as Mark Winne explains, such pleasant shopping experiences are simply not an option.

Closing the Food Gap tells the story of how we get our food: from poor people at food pantries or bodegas and convenience stores to the more comfortable classes, who increasingly seek out organic and local products. Winne's exploration starts in the 1960s, when domestic poverty was "rediscovered," and shows how communities since that time have responded to malnutrition with a slew of strategies and methods. But the story is also about doing that work against a backdrop of ever-growing American food affluence and gastronomical expectations.

Calling largely on his own experience in this field, mixing in surprisingly witty observations on our evolving relationships with food, Winne ultimately envisions realistic partnerships in which family farms and impoverished communities come together to address their continuing struggles.

"Closing the Food Gap reveals the chasm between the two food systems of America—the one for the poor and the one for everyone else. Speaking from his decades of political activism, Mark Winne offers compelling solutions for making local, organic, and highly nutritious food available to everyone. It's heartening to find a book that successfully blends a passion for sustainable living with compassion for the poor."

—Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, Founder—the Jane Goodall Institute and UN Messenger of Peace

"An engaging, candid, and sometimes funny look at how ordinary people—and extraordinary ones like the author—have struggled over three plus decades to create a fair food system, in the absence of public sector compassion. Winne has done it all—food coops, emergency feeding, farmers' markets, community gardening, Community Supported Agriculture, public policy. He tells us why and how, weaving into his own experiences stories from other cities across the country to create an essential picture of how people like him are struggling to reset the country's table for everyone."

—Joan Dye Gussow, author of This Organic Life: Confessions of a Suburban Homesteader

"By combining stories of his deep personal experience as an activist with keen insight into strategies for addressing food injustice, Winne himself fills a gap in the growing literature on good food, why it matters, and how to ensure everyone everywhere has access to it. Plus, the book is a fun read. Winne's stories made me want to meet him down at the local farmer's market, and then join him afterward for a cold beer."

—Anna Lappé, co-founder of the Small Planet Institute and author of Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen

"Closing the Food Gap is a deeply moving account of Mark Winne's long career as an advocate for policies that will ensure adequate nutrition for the poor. Reading this book should make everyone want to advocate for food systems that will feed the hungry, support local farmers, and promote community democracy—all at the same time. I want all my students to read this beautifully written and important book."

—Marion Nestle, Paulette Goddard professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University, and author of Food Politics and What to Eat

"Mark Winne tackles the world of food deserts, hunger relief and the disparities of the 'haves' and 'have-nots' from both a personal and professional viewpoint that at once educates on and illuminates these very complicated issues. Winne makes these issues and their interrelationships not only understandable but also compelling for all those who care about social justice in our country."

—Chef Ann Cooper, author of Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children

"Closing the Food Gap is fearless, intelligent and surprisingly funny."

—Gwyneth Doland, Santa Fe Reporter