{"id":16858,"date":"2023-06-20T14:35:27","date_gmt":"2023-06-20T18:35:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/?p=16858"},"modified":"2023-07-05T09:23:40","modified_gmt":"2023-07-05T13:23:40","slug":"food-for-thought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/food-for-thought\/","title":{"rendered":"Food for Thought"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In September, Mark Dinglasan \u201903 was appointed director of the Office of the Food Security Advocate by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy\u2014the first role of its kind in the state and in the nation. His charge from the governor was broad but clear: Move the needle on food insecurity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dinglasan spoke to us about what he plans to do in this position, which will go well beyond funding food banks; the complicated links between childhood trauma, community, and food insecurity; and how he hopes his office can be a role model for the rest of the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We noticed your office has some fun d\u00e9cor, including images of Voltron. We know you\u2019re passionate about your work, but clearly, you have other passions. Before we get too deep into food insecurity, we have to ask about these pictures.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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I\u2019m a fan of antiquing, and I came across this limited-edition artwork from an artist who focuses on retro foil-type work. These Voltron images have been a great talking point with colleagues. This position is so new that it was a bit of a mystery to everyone around me. I think people were intimidated by me and (what) the role of this office was, so I thought, \u201cIf I bring a little bit of my personality to work, hopefully  it\u2019ll bring down the walls a little bit.\u201d So I brought half my collection, which thrilled my wife. As a result, I found the person in the Department of Agriculture who loves to collect history memorabilia. I also found the Star Wars <\/em>folk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There\u2019s always a Star Wars<\/em> person in the office. Always.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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I am<\/em> the Star Wars<\/em> person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Yoda aside, talk to us a bit about your career trajectory launching from Monmouth.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Monmouth was a huge growing experience for me. I had done the study abroad thing. I had done the honors program. I thought I was going to be a lawyer, but when I went to New York Law School for a semester, I realized I wanted to be doing more. So I told my dean that I wanted to become a Catholic missionary, building homes and social justice programs in the slums, especially in the Philippines. She said, \u201cIf you don\u2019t go, you will not succeed here. So go now and do that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I always thought I would go back to law school after my mission work, but I found my way to programming and event planning in the corporate sector of Chicago. I was three doors down from the corner office\u2014thinking I had made it\u2014when the economy crashed in \u201908. That crash was an opportunity for me to reframe and find myself again. So I dove headfirst into nonprofit work in Chicago while earning my MBA.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Five
Dinglasan (center) meeting with representatives\nfrom Monmouth County\u2013area food security organizations\nin March: (from left) Karyn Moskowitz\nfrom Interfaith Neighbors and Tracy Wilson, Linda\nKellner, and Dawn Dell\u2019Omo from Mercy Center.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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What did that nonprofit work look like?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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During that time, I worked for the first African American woman on the federal bench in Illinois, Judge Ann Williams. I was the fundraiser for her foundation, which supported youth programs that helped underserved kids get into college and law school and get clerkships. I learned everything about justice, equity, and diversity from Judge Williams and her colleagues. Later, I met another mentor, an attorney, who brought me into juvenile justice, advocating for kids who ended up in the system. It was that work that led me to where I am now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I\u2019m curious about the leap\u2014or link\u2014between juvenile justice and food insecurity.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Prior to me leaving Chicago in 2017, one in four homeless adults in the United States was a former youth in care, meaning they had spent time in the juvenile justice system. And a lot of kids we saw ended up in the system because of outcomes related to hunger, neglect, poor nutrition, and lack of safe, stable, humane housing. We used to say in juvenile justice that we\u2019re at least two years behind the eight ball by the time a kid gets assigned to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I spoke to a lot of people who work in trauma and community building, especially in Chicago. My \u201caha moment\u201d came when I realized I could combat issues we were seeing in juvenile justice by building food security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What\u2019s the difference between food emergency work and food security?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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There\u2019s a huge difference. Emergency work is just that\u2014combatting hunger in emergency situations. Food security is different and largely about ongoing access. It was defined in 2001 by the United Nations, and they\u2019re working on an expanded definition now, which I\u2019ll use here: True food security exists when all people at all times have economic, physical, and social access to safe, sufficient, nutritious food for an active and healthy lifestyle. Their definition also includes dietary and cultural preferences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is clearly a national issue, but this is a state-focused job. What does food insecurity look like in New Jersey?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The challenges in New Jersey are not novel or new. Many of these problems are problems that have existed for quite some time in our state and in the country. The pandemic in 2020 just burned away the curtain that diverted our focus from this area. According to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, one in 12 people in New Jersey is food insecure\u2014that means that one in 12 people have to decide between buying food or spending money on another need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, our costs are higher in New Jersey, so food simply costs more. And transportation is an issue here. Families need transportation to get the services they need. Those are just two of the issues that are specific to our state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One in 12 people in New Jersey is food insecure\u2014that means that one in 12 people have to decide between buying food or spending money on another need.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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This role is the first for the state, but it\u2019s also a first for the nation. What\u2019s expected of you in the position in New Jersey? And what are you trying to establish for the country as you and your team build this out?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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To be clear, there are a lot of other food security advocates from the other states. The difference with my office, and I think it\u2019s part of the reason that makes New Jersey unique in this food security work, is that I\u2019m the only state-level, executive-branch-level food security advocate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s expected of me? I asked Governor Murphy, one on one, \u201cWhat do you want me to do with this office?\u201d And he looked at me and said, \u201cMove the needle.\u201d As a nation, we have tremendous opportunity right now. This White House administration created the first hunger conference in 60 years, so there\u2019s this spotlight on food security work. As a nation, we are looking at this with greater intention. There\u2019s a lot of great research going on right now\u2014community-driven, participatory research and trauma-informed research. What that means is we\u2019re not treating people as numbers, but we\u2019re actually listening to communities. The pandemic supercharged us locally into where we were already headed with food security, and now we\u2019re supercharging where we\u2019re headed as a nation. If we\u2019re going to move the needle on food security\u2014if I\u2019m going to do what my boss has asked me to do\u2014we have to focus our collective impact on empowering communities. We have to look at three aspects of food security and empower our communities to reach them: economic, physical, and social access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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You approach your work from what\u2019s called a holistic, trauma-informed lens. What does that mean to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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A lot of my food security work is tied to adverse childhood experiences\u2014trauma like physical or sexual abuse, violence in the home or community, stress. To combat this kind of trauma, you have to build community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are six major aspects of food security: access, availability, utilization, stability, agency, and sustainability. So the connection is if you care about preventing trauma, then you have to care about community building. If you care about community building, you have to figure out how to do it. And I think the way we do it is through food security and breaking down access barriers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How do we go about accomplishing that? What does that mean in real terms?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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I am organizing my work into three buckets. First, informing policy. We have a tremendous policy window here in New Jersey where our state assembly, our state senate, and our governor\u2019s office are open to and creating these forward-thinking, nation-leading policies around food security. Now, somebody\u2019s going to say, \u201cOh, you\u2019re just saying that because you\u2019re part of the administration.\u201d The reality is, I\u2019m a nonprofit guy who has worked on the front lines and never in a million years thought I would be the first nationwide state-level food security advocate. So for as long as I am in this role, I can advocate for and be in meetings where I say, \u201cHey, do you know that food security is tied to trauma and adversity? Do you know that if we want to end hunger we have to focus on economic mobility? And by the way, here\u2019s research from New York, from Chicago, from Ohio that shows how it\u2019s being done in other states.\u201d I can share that knowledge and advocate for support from our partners in the legislature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, philanthropy. Donations and gifts across the nation used to fund food programs, but the pandemic taught us that that\u2019s not good enough. Where else should we be directing funds? I\u2019ll be working with multiple foundations to build consensus around what we should be supporting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lastly, I\u2019ll be working with local organizations\u2014food banks, food pantries, housing organizations\u2014so that we\u2019re all saying the same thing and agreeing on the same definitions. What is the definition of food security? What is the definition of hunger? What does it mean to be food insecure?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have to build common language and common understanding so that, collectively, we understand what helps and what hurts. And if we do that, then we can move the needle.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mark Dinglasan, the nation\u2019s first state-level food security advocate, explains why efforts to end hunger need to go beyond simply handing out food.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":16863,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"image_focus":"{\"x\":57,\"y\":36}","hide_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[93],"class_list":["post-16858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-alumni-donor-profiles"],"thumbnail":"\"\"","catString":"Features","issue":"Spring\/Summer 2023","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/60"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16858"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17322,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16858\/revisions\/17322"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}