I’m a strong believer that community betterment is more successful when efforts are put towards grass root causes and directly working with the people that make up the community, rather than enforcing rules and regulations on them. Many downtrodden communities find themselves frustrated when they know their are problems to be fixed, but they become even more frustrated when they’re not given the opportunity to contribute to what exactly they want to focus on fixing and how they should go about fixing these problems. I chose to use South Madison as a case study because of it’s proximity to campus and because it’s a good example of a community facing this issue in our society.
My project began by looking at cultural, economic and health factors that led to poor conditions within South Madison. After going through the steps of the introductory assignment, I decided to take a more narrow approach and only focus on improving South Madison’s cultural environment.
So you may be wondering, how do you plan to improve the culture of South Madison? My plan looked for ways to literally bring people together over an interest or necessity of the larger group. What did I use to bring together? Food! Food is a common value across cultures that tends to bring people together. Food brings families together for discussion around a dinner table; people hold business luncheons and food is commonly used as the ultimate incentive. These are all examples of people coming together over food and positive associations with food. I investigated how I could use the positive associations linked with food to create positive links among the segmented cultural groups. Considered how food could be used to improve all of these factors and help to bring South Madison’s segmented groups together.
When I took a closer look at the community some of my initial assumptions were proved wrong. While South Madison does have crime issues and a lower socioeconomic status than the rest of Madison and Dane Country, tons of vibrant cultures certainly do exist in the area. And while many of these enclaves do tend to only stay among themselves, recently a number of associations and individuals on the UW-Madison campus have taken steps towards integrating these segmented groups more. For example a group called Slow Foods-UW. Slow Foods is a group of UW students who are interested in where our food comes from, geographically and culturally. Started in 2007, Slow Food UW is part of a global movement that appreciates the stories behind the meals we eat. The group has been working to engage the youth in South Madison to teach them how to cook and eventually spread their newfound knowledge to their families.
Another recent example of trying to bring the entire area of South Madison together is the Celebrate South Madison Festival that was held for the second time earlier this fall The event represents South Madison’s acknowledgement of their need to work on the disconnected culture and proves that the area has much potential to bring these groups together to be one cohesive community. The event also provides a solid idea of all the different ethnic groups in the area and the unique events they have and that many are enthusiastic about.
The festival celebrates the diversity, culture, and beauty of South Madison. The festival brings art, music, dance, film and poetry together, with gardening, cooking and eating to create an inclusive and uniquely South Madison experience a sense of our place.
Here is a YouTube video with several interviews of people attending the festival: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKdFhFcSjio
After considering efforts that have already been taken I decided to create a hypothetical event that would bring together all South Madison residents, food related organizations and any organizations working on projects in South Madison.
I would like to hold the event at South Madison Farmers Market. South Madison Farmers Market provides a common-grounds venue to bring different groups together, it creates a greater sense of community and it revolves around food. Additionally, SM Farmer’s Market is a perfect venue because there are currently only a couple dedicated vendors and they would most likely use this as an opportunity to grow their event.
I would invite other pre-established groups to the event in hopes that they would encourage all of their followers to participate. There are several types of groups I would seek to get involved. Each type of group serves a different purpose. Micro-local groups consist of organizations and groups in South Madison, many of which represent individual enclaves. Nonprofit organizations would serve as neutral parties who would be involved because they care about community betterment or food, local South Madison restaurants and potential business partners.
As of the last count in early 2011, there are 35 South Park Street Organizations, which are community groups and initiatives interested in positive change for the area! These groups represent the micro-level organizations that we want to intertwine. Some examples are:
- Neighborhood Associations – Burr Oaks, Bay Creek &
- Catholic Multicultural Center
- Boys and Girls Club of Dane County
- Centro Guadalupe
Then there are the non-profit organizations that would serve as neutral parties and could help bring the segmented micro-level organizations together. Slow Foods is an example of this. Growing Power is another example. They have a chapter in the Madison area. They are a nonprofit organization that supports people from diverse backgrounds and the environment in which they live, by helping to provide access to healthy, high-quality and affordable food.
South Madison restaurants are diverse in ethnicity options and notably delicious! This would give people the chance to try new foods and potentially help establishments increase their patronage. I would ask restaurants to attend the event and either have a booth where they could sell samples of their best dishes. For an extra dose of fun, they could decorate their table or booth to better represent their restaurant and heritage. Just like all the food carts near State Street!
Madison Fresh Market is currently in the planning stages to create a new mobile grocery store. He plans on bringing his mobile grocery store, the freshmobile, to lower income areas that tend to be less healthy areas of Madison, one of which will be the South Park Street area in South Madison. The freshmobile could be at the event to gain visibility and awareness. Additionally, it would appropriately fit in with the food focus of the event.
Overall, the event would bring together different ethnic enclaves and neutral parties that could help connect these enclaves, all through the focus of food. The end goal is to bridge the separated enclaves and help them merge into one cohesive South Madison system. This is one small step towards making the world a better place.