The Just Food Initiative of the Fox Valley

06/09/2026

HIDDEN HUNGER: AMERICA'S INVISIBLE FOOD CRISIS

Most people think hunger means an empty stomach.

It doesn't.

Across the United States, millions of people consume enough calories every day, yet remain deficient in essential vitamins, minerals, and nutrients needed for good health.

This condition is known as Hidden Hunger.

A child can appear well-fed and still lack the nutrients needed to grow, learn, and thrive.

An adult can consume thousands of calories each day and still be deficient in nutrients that support energy, immunity, mental focus, and long-term health.

Most Americans do not consume the recommended daily amounts of fruits and vegetables. At the same time, diet-related diseases remain among the leading causes of preventable illness and death in our nation.

This is not simply a health issue.

It is a food justice issue.

Every family deserves access to food that is fresh, nutrient-dense, affordable and produced in ways that support both human health and the health of our planet.

Millions of people are eating enough to survive, yet not enough to truly thrive.

At The Just Food Initiative of the Fox Valley, we believe the solution begins with healthy soil, local farmers, community gardens, food education, and stronger connections between growers and eaters.
Food should do more than fill our stomachs.

Food should nourish our bodies.

Strengthen our communities.

Support future generations.

JOIN THE MOVEMENT.
*Support local farmers.
*Visit a farmer's market.
*Grow something.
*Volunteer.
*Learn where your food comes from.
*Teach others.
*Share this message.

Together, we can help end Hidden Hunger and build a food system that helps people thrive, not merely survive.

05/29/2026

A woman was picking through the frozen chickens at the local supermarket, but couldn't find one large enough to feed the extended family coming for the weekend.

In frustration, she looked up and spotted the stock man.

"Do these chickens get any bigger?" she asked.

"No, ma'am," he replied. "They're dead."

So, too, is just about every other item in a corporate supermarket.

DEAD.

It has to be. It has to sit for weeks or months in a warehouse after being processed. If it is "out of season," for example, tomatoes or asparagus or watermelon in November, it has to be flown in or shipped, then trucked across the globe to the Fox Valley. Then it has to sit around in the warehouse. Then in the supermarket until you or I come in to buy it.

It has to be dead. Otherwise it would spoil.

The only way to make food dead is to process it. Some things can be frozen. Some can be canned.
In almost all cases, it needs to have PRESERVATIVES added to it. Usually lots of table salt. Hard on a human's blood pressure.

When we think "food is expensive," we need to remember -- it's not the food that's expensive. It's what's done TO it or ADDED to it. A chicken costs no more to exist today that it did in 1855 or in 1942. It's the processing and the additives that makes it expensive.

And dead.

Who wants to eat DEAD stuff?

Most Americans.

05/24/2026

05/21/2026

So you've decided to eat gluten-free?

For most persons, such a decision is following a fad. It has nothing to do with eating healthy.

First of all, "gluten-free" flours for bakery can be made out of some strange or non-healthy ingredients. The first is often "potato starch." This ingredient is high-glycemic and therefore problematic for persons who already have diabetes (or are pre-diabetic and may not even know it!)

In addition, many potatoes, especially if they follow the McDonald's potato protocol practiced by Bill Gates
-- the "fony farmer," all russets are grown with very dangerous pesticides. Who wants to eat that?

Further, all the potatoes grown in the US (unless the labels claim otherwise) are GMOd. None of these GMOd products have been tested for health. We do know, however, that GMOd plants contain hidden risks, still being discovered.

The other common "flour" ingredient is "cornstarch." All the corn grown in the US is GMOd. Same as above.

Other common junk ingredients are carrageenan - a ingredient connected with cancer onset -- and guar gum or xanthan gum. All problematic.

Finally, "gluten-free" products are often loaded with various kinds of sugars and / or with unhealthy oils.

So why buy gluten free?

Someone who already HAS celiac disease has no choice. They need to eat gluten free or probably die.

But when such persons shop, they should be looking for flours like almond, coconut, or chickpea, not starches from potatoes and corn ... for oils like butter, olive, coconut, or avocado, not canola, corn, vegetable, soybean ... for no chemical sweeteners like Splenda, or any chemical substances found in the cute little blue, pink, or yellow packets on their restaurant table.

So, in the final analysis, something labeled "gluten free" is probably simply a marketing ploy, NOT a statement of healthy food. Marketing takes advantage of those of us Eaters who don't understand what's going on, and are only following one of the latest marketing fads usually because they're uninformed.

Who wants to get sick because they are ignorant of the facts?

Be aware and beware.

05/09/2026

2027. The first full week of March. The fifth annual Illinois Soils Health Week. Just Food will celebrate with a Valley-wide Soil Conference.

Watch for details.

Let us know if you would like to be on our mailing list -- paper newsletter, via USPS.

Let us know if you would like to receive a monthly E mail update -- "Que Tal" -- via your computer or other device.

When founder of Just Food was in the fifth grade in Chicago -- 1945 -- students were being taught
about "nitrogen-fixing bacteria" … "terracing" … "contour farming"...

We practiced "regenerative farming." "Chop and drop" right in the garden. Then, all the scraps from every day's table (except meat) went straight into the backyard garden for "free compost." And highly productive food gardens.

We owned no rototiller. Nobody sold any! We simply planted.

What do they say about there being nothing new under the sun?

Permaculture? No-till? Composting?

Glad we food gardeners are finally re-discovering what REALLY works.

It's SUSTAINABLE!

05/06/2026

Europeans brought to America a very harmful food growing practice -- tilling.

The plow was then perfected -- slippery steel rather than compacting iron -- by John Deere of Grand Detour, Illinois (just south of Dixon, where there is a superb farm-museum complex … go see it!)

Europeans assumed all soil should be plowed before planting. So John Deere invented more -- giant, heavy tractors -- and now they're sold from the John Deere factory in Moline.

Bad news.

Those plows and tractors, spreading from Moline to all over the globe, have been ruining farm land everywhere!

The result? The need for constantly MORE tilling and plowing. The need for herbicides to kill the weeds that had dormant seeds in the soil and, if left alone, would never have sprouted. The need for insecticides to kill off the insects -- called "pests" -- that emerged from the digging and that would have, if farmed wisely, been taken care of by nature with "beneficial insects" doing the work FOR the farmer. The need for MORE and MORE chemical fertilizer, because improperly educated farmers are constantly disrupting the soil structure and wearing it out.

The result? Our soils have been ruined instead of regenerated. Our foods have been filled with herbicides and pesticides. Our bodies have been overrun with these harmful "inputs." Industrial-style farmers are spending lots of their gross income on these harmful "inputs." Our lives are being ruined by chronic (constant) diseases, like arthritis, diabetes, heart conditions … and deadly diseases, like cancers.

And we consider all this "normal." And "efficient."

Today's younger farmers -- not brought up on old-fashioned European methods and practices -- are turning to NO TILL farming, and learning to use beneficial insects, terracing, and ancient farming practice instead.

So wise.

John Deere is definitely not a dear. Just an interesting part of a sad American food production history. As well as counting "farmer?" Bill Gates as its largest corporate shareholder!

Let's grow.

Away from tilling.

05/04/2026

Many people think buying food at a farmers' market is expensive.

Occasionally it is. But not usually. You get FRESH and REAL food, not junk filled with additives and preservatives, hormones and anti-biotics, which, in the long run, cost far more in later medical costs than anything the food would have cost. Food can heal. Fake food can sicken.

Yet, we have neighbors among us who are hurting financially. These are neighbors most susceptible to chronic health problems. They may CHOOSE to eat REAL food, but often can't afford ANY food.

Seniors living alone. Students away from home, living on ramen noodles. Veterans returning from duty, drained emotionally, spiritually, physically, financially. Parents who each work two and three low-paying jobs, who therefore rarely see their own children, much less have the energy to locate better food for them.

We invite these persons to The Just Food Initiative of the Fox Valley Family Fest Fresh Market. We offer them GOLD SOVEREIGNS -- spendable only on food, only at JFI's Market in Aurora.

Any individual in need who comes to our Welcome Booth and makes a request can receive vouchers of GOLD SOVEREIGNS for up to $25.00 per person, no questions asked, no government programs involved.

From where do those GOLD SOVEREIGNS coupons come?

Neighbors like YOU.

Donate $25.00 … $50.00 … $100.00 … whatever your wallet can afford. $200.00 feeds eight needy neighbors -- with REAL food, not junk from a collection of BPA-filled cans bought at a corporate supermarket or big-box store. Just Food is the only "middleman" for Gold Sovereigns. No government.
No bureaucracy.

Send checks to: JFI -- Gold Sovereigns, 1911 West Wilson, PMB 299, Batavia IL 60510.

In the name of the grateful recipients, we say THANK YOU for caring! And for saving neighbors' health!