Convergence in Diversity: New York City School Food and the Future of the Food Movement

Abstract

In the context of a global food system that has given rise to widespread concerns for food security and sustainability, reformative efforts have emerged, expanded and multiplied worldwide. To enhance understanding of the multi-faceted nature of this food movement and its scope for convergence and consolidation, in this article we propose frame alignment and alliance-building as a theoretical and analytical framework. Using New York City as a case study, we explore how school food reform may act as a particularly powerful platform for coalescing the interests and goals of diverse food system actors. We conclude with a call to interrogate school food and other reform activities with specific attention to the opportunities they pose for finding ‘convergence in diversity’ — in other words, for aligning the diverse and often fragmented efforts of the ‘food movement’ around an integrated and shared agenda with heightened potential for impact.

Notes

Curiously, even those who refer to a broadly inclusive movement use different names to describe it (e.g. the ‘sustainable agri-food movement’ and the ‘alternative food movement’), and this too speaks to the fluidity and multiplicity that characterize the situation.

At the same time, of course, it might be argued that establishing a formalized organization such as Sustain or the Detroit Food Policy Council serves precisely the function of constructing a collective identity.

Online desk research was used to collect secondary data from the published websites and online documents of organizations participating in or advocating for school food reform in NYC; the data was then analysed according to the themes of frame alignment and alliance-building undertaken in this paper.