Across Northeast Pennsylvania, we’ve grown used to measuring success in pounds — pounds of food distributed, pounds collected, pounds donated. But what if the real measure of success isn’t in pounds at all? What if it’s in power — the power of people to decide how, when, and where they access food with dignity?

This week, I attended the Hungry in NEPA Community Forum event hosted by the Food Dignity Movement, a space that asked us to stop thinking about hunger as a symptom and start seeing it as a systemic design flaw. Hunger is not inevitable — it is the result of decisions, policies, and funding structures that concentrate power in a few hands while leaving local communities dependent and voiceless.

For decades, our social norms around food access have followed an old script: long line

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