2023 Nova Media Fellow
Lela Nargi is a veteran journalist covering the intersection of water poverty and food insecurity in several communities across the country. Formerly, she was an editor at Working Mother magazine, a journalism instructor at Kingsborough Community College, and a reporter for national outlets such as People, Life, and Entertainment Weekly. Lela’s work has been recognized by The Aspen Institute and the Society for Environmental Journalists, and reprinted widely. She’s also a regular radio guest. She’s also the author of 20+ books for children on topics such as bees, birds, space, volcanoes, dinosaurs, ecosystems, and biodiversity. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. You can find her at lelanargi.com.
Media Fellowship Project
Covering the intersecting crises of water poverty and food insecurity in the United States
Water poverty, which currently affects an estimated 60 million U.S. residents, is at the core of food and nutrition insecurity and only expected to increase over time under the continued effects of climate change. Water poverty in its many forms — via lead, nitrate, or sewage contamination; inadequate infrastructure leading to loss of delivery; taps shut off due to non-payment of water bills; aquifers running dry — greatly exacerbates food and nutrition insecurity. Simply put, a person without water cannot prepare food. Even someone who only believes their tap water is undrinkable is more likely to drink sugar sweetened beverages, a risk factor for diabetes and other diet-related diseases.
Lela will spend the next year visiting and reporting on a few of the under-resourced communities that are experiencing various and distinct varieties of water insecurity that hamper the ability to prepare and eat healthy food. These communities may include McDowell County, West Virginia, a former coal mining region that’s long contented with water scarcity; Navajo Nation, where 30 percent of homes have no running water and drinking water is often contaminated by uranium; New Orleans, where low-income nursing mothers may be subject to frequent water shutoffs due to storm surge and also experience high rates of food insecurity; the Southside of Chicago, where BIPOC communities have historically been subjected to industrial pollution that renders drinking water unsafe; Detroit, with its high poverty rates and risk of children being removed from their families if a family’s water is shut off; and prison systems like those in Illinois, where lead-contaminated water can inhibit hydration as well as inmates’ ability to stave off hunger by preparing food from the commissary.
Education and Training
- BA, French Literature, Bennington College, Bennington, VT
Selected Honors
- 2023 Vermont Law and Graduate School Media Fellow
- 2021 Northeastern Indiana Local Food Forum & Expo keynote speaker
- 2019 Fromson Journalism Fellow
- presenter at Solutions Journalism Network, Yale Law School, and CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute
Selected Publications
- Why America’s Food-Security Crisis is a Water-Security Crisis, Too. (Food & Environment Reporting Network)
- A New Approach to Keep Former Foster Youth from Facing Food Insecurity. (Civil Eats)
- Poor Food in Prison and Jails Can Cause or Worsen Eating and Health Problems. And the Effects Can Linger Long After Release. (The Counter)
