Dear Reader,
Today is day ten of my hunger strike. Ten days without solid food, and every day the support grows. More neighbors are joining this email chain, more residents are calling the Township, and more people are demanding that Valley Township step into the reality of 2025. Thank you. Please continue.
I want today’s update to address something township officials refuse to acknowledge:
Food accessibility is directly tied to crime and community safety.
This is not opinion.
This is not emotional exaggeration.
This is the reality documented by decades of public-health and criminology research — and it is deeply relevant to a community like ours.
🍎
When People Cannot Access Food, Crime Increases
Every study shows the same pattern:
When food insecurity rises, property crime rises.
When families cannot afford groceries, theft increases.
When children experience hunger, behavioral incidents skyrocket.
When neighborhoods lose access to nutritious food, aggression and conflict rise.
These are predictable outcomes, not moral failures.
When people are hungry — or when they worry about being hungry — the body goes into survival mode. Crime becomes more likely because people are trying to meet basic needs.
Removing residents’ ability to produce eggs or grow food directly increases food insecurity — and therefore, increases crime risk.
🧠
Food Insecurity Damages Mental Health and Impulse Control
Hunger impacts the brain.
Nutritional instability impacts behavior.
Food-insecure households experience higher rates of:
irritability
aggression
anxiety
depression
impaired decision-making
sleep disruption
emotional dysregulation
Children in food-insecure households:
have more behavioral incidents
are suspended at higher rates
enter juvenile justice systems more often
Adults experiencing food scarcity:
show increased impulsivity
experience higher tension in the home
are more likely to be involved in conflict
Food is not just fuel.
It is regulation.
It is stability.
When Valley Township removes small-scale food sources, it removes stability — from families, from kids, from entire neighborhoods.
🌱
Backyard Food Systems Reduce Crime
Communities with:
backyard hens
gardens
compost systems
food sharing
neighbor-to-neighbor support
…consistently see:
lower crime
lower vandalism
lower theft
better community cohesion
stronger neighborhood trust
Why?
Because when people can feed themselves, they feel secure.
When neighbors share eggs and produce, they build relationships.
When stress is reduced, conflict is reduced.
When food is abundant, crime is not a survival strategy.
The seven families cited in Valley Township donate over 2,600 dozen eggs a year — nearly 32,000 eggs — to neighbors, single parents, elderly residents, and families in need.
Eliminating that resource is harmful.
It strips the community of a stabilizing force.
It removes free, local food in an area that only recently escaped food-desert status.
🚨
Outdated Laws Create the Conditions for Crime
Valley Township’s decision to cite families for feeding their community is not “code enforcement.”
It is:
increasing food insecurity
increasing desperation
increasing instability
increasing pressure on families already stretched by rising costs
and increasing the exact conditions that make crime more likely
A Township’s job is to promote safety, not create conditions that undermine it.
My hunger strike continues because this issue is not about hens — it’s about human rights, community resilience, and public safety.
✊
Please Keep Speaking Up
Your voices are making a difference.
Every call.
Every email.
Every share.
Every signature.
Petition:
👉 https://www.change.org/p/valley-township-needs-new-chicken-laws
Township Contacts
(Main line: 610-384-5751)
Janis A. Rambo – Township Manager/Secretary – jrambo@valleytownship.org
Code Enforcement Department – Codesofficer@valleytownship.org
Kyle Bendler – 302-266-9057
Joy Hurst – 610-384-5751 ext. 401
Dave Porter – 610-356-9550 x217
Solicitors
Andrew D.H. Rau, Esq. – arau@utbf.com
Amanda J. Sundquist, Esq. – asundquist@utbf.com
Supervisors
Linda Baugher – lbaugher@valleytownship.org
Casey Max Leidy – cleidy@valleytownship.org
Kris Lenhart – klenhart@valleytownship.org
LeRoy Goldsmith – lgoldsmith@valleytownship.org
Sharon Yates – syates@valleytownship.org
Thank you for standing with me on Day 10.
Thank you for fighting for a community grounded in dignity, safety, and food security.
And thank you for believing in the simple truth:
A community that can feed itself is a community that can protect itself.
Sincerely,
Stephanie N. Shermer